Singing for your soul (and health).... really!

Rarely do I find the mainstream culture reflecting what I believe, as I get a little out there sometimes.  Maybe not up to a Woo-Woo level, but when I am feeling particularly desperate I have been know to grab my beautiful rosary beads and put myself into a prayerful sort of chant.

Give me a  few glasses of wine at that point and I may also begin to sing torch songs, or old favorites like "What's it all about Alfie".   If someone puts on some boogie-woogie or R & B tracks, I catapult into a dancing mood, sing along with Marvin Gaye's soulful classics and end up in a sort of James Brown, 'I feel good' trance.

Along this vein, in case you have not noticed, Quincy Jones has been in the news lately.  He's written a memoir about his life, which from all credible reports is fascinating.  People-people like me seem to have an unending curiosity about others, so I'll share a bit.

Did you know Quincy started in the music business when he was 14 along with Ray Charles who was only 16 at the time?  He thinks Frank Sinatra is the best musician ever and his teenage prank while playing back up was to try to get Ella Fitzgerald (my lifelong idol) to move her bountiful booty to the beat.

Yes, I know it is supposed to be classier to talk about the weather and ideas, but I don't think there is anything wrong when one enjoys knowing who someone is on the inside.  (Covers can be so deceiving.)  Celebrities may have interesting stories, of course, but so does the common man, child or woman.  Humanity, in its entirety, fascinates me.

I love to sing one of Quincy's pieces titled, Everything Must Change.  I remember crying when I used to sing that piece, emotional mid-twenties girl I was at the time.  Why?  Because I was lonely for something/someone meaningful in my life and the lyrics are simple but powerful.  Quincy has a beautiful timbre to his voice and he sings it in such an emotionally moving way.

Then as now I was totally powerless over other people (had broken up with my actor/director/soap opera star boyfriend), my psychic disposition gave me heartache after heartache (genetic inheritance of being sweet but intense and emotional) and I had just learned that the world did not wait, moments could not be recaptured, and everything passes.  It was an awful lot to grasp at that age.

By the way, you can find the lyrics to that song and also buy it online at: http://music.yahoo.com/Quincy-Jones/Everything-Must-Change/lyrics/2016624

There are two stanzas that made me weep, and here they are:

Everything must change

Nothing stays the same

Everyone must change

No one goes unchanged

Winter turns to spring

A wounded heart will heal

But never much too soon

Yes, everything must change

There are not many things in life

You can be sure of

Except rain falls from the clouds

The sun lights up the sky

And hummingbirds do fly...

The final stanza is the one that always got to me:

Except rain falls from the clouds

The sun lights up the sky

And music, sweet music, makes me cry

Everything must change....

I don't sing professionally anymore but I love my karaoke machine.  When nobody is home I wail away on that thing and feel so uplifted when I finish, it is a spiritual experience.  My little 5-year-old granddaughter loves to sing on it too.  Ironically she wants the same 'see ya' space that I love and spurns an audience except on rare occasions.

I still adore an old 'Fat Joe Turner' blues piece, updated in the 1960's by Lennie Welch, in the 1990's by Michael Bolton (yeah I know, the ponytail was a bit much, but he does a good job) and is my all time favorite song to sing.  The song is called "Since I fell for you".  It takes a few musical gymnastics to do it right, but when I get into my "Ella" special place, I can hold my own.  (Or my family is humoring me.:)

So what is it with all this sloppy sentimentality today?  I've been scanning and labeling all the old pictures starting with great-great-grandparents onto the computer for our children (and future generations) and it has been a beautiful trip down memory lane.

Found a picture of myself when I was in acting classes, my 'Hollywood/Las Vegas' days when I fancied myself a singer/songwriter, old photos of me playing violin... and a giant stack of photos showing me kissing my husband.  I shared a few here.

Of course we eloped.  Why waste money on a big wedding when you can go to Lake Tahoe by yourselves and hole up in a wooden cabin on the lake?  I laugh now when I think how proud I was of my brilliant man and sent all those kissy-faced pictures to my parents.  I can only imagine now what my very New England parents thought, even though I had reassured them I was not pregnant.  I guess it was no surprise that we had the first grandchildren in the family.

Oddly, my husband and I rarely agree on anything exactly and our tastes are like a bowl of nuts.  We both love them but I only eat the almonds and hazelnuts and wouldn't eat a peanut to save myself.  He loves the peanuts and cashews and won't touch the ones I like.  The rest of our lives are just as complementary, but here's the one thing we both agree on.  This picture is our favorite of both of us.  As you can see... no one stays the same.

But back to singing and health, NPR just posted an article which quoted a study all about the wonderful health benefits of three things:  singing, dancing and camping?  I get the first two.:)  Anyway, here's the link on the NPR article:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97320958&sc=nl&cc=es-20081221

You know I love you all, so for your very best health, start singing that song in your head out loud.  You may make the family or the neighbors laugh, but that's good for them too.