Monday, March 21, 2016

Thank you for the music (Theme Reveal for A to Z April Challenge 2016)

Nothing can take you back to your childhood, your youth, your glory days, or so I’ve heard it said, as the songs you enjoyed listening to back then.

Those songs are the auditory markers to the landscapes of our happy past, and we navigate our times-gone-by on the strength of those songs.

Those times when we were innocent, naive, before cynicism settled on our hearts, before our shoulders began to stoop ever so slightly under the burdens of our cares.

Even today the faintest memory of those long-ago melodies wafts past my ears, and it is as if the intervening years never happened. It’s like an unexpected shower that washes the dust off everything it rains down on.

Today I can remember very few telephone numbers by heart, and I’d be hard pressed to recall just what I had for dinner last night, but even if you mention the names of one of these songs, I will remember every last word of these songs, and will be able to match the singers, word for word, cadence for cadence.

Many of these songs came to me through the medium of Saturday Date, a weekly one-hour show at 10 pm on Saturday nights which Dad used to listen to. 

Understandably, many of the songs were recorded even before I was born. They were my dad's favourites, and in time they became mine too.

I learned to keep my Saturday date, tuning in regularly at 10 pm every Saturday night. I remember how upset I used to get on the rare occasions when All India Radio (AIR) replaced my favourite show with something else.

Saturday Date was very popular with the English-music-listening-crowd back then, starved as we were for avenues where we could listen to English pop music. We used to request a song via the humble 15 paise postcard. 

It was the only time I used the postcard, and I had stacks of them for use for this express purpose. Since the postcard didn’t allow much writing space, I learned to squeeze in as much writing as I could, writing to AIR with my request, and following it up with the names of those to whom I had dedicated that number.

Ah! What joy I would feel when I heard my postcard being read over the airwaves. Simple joys indeed.


A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal 3-21-2016

And so today, through the medium of the A to Z April Challenge, I would like to look back with delight on those half-forgotten tunes. Some of them brought pleasure in themselves, while some taught me something, and still others inspired me to stand a little straighter, pushed me to grow. 

Sometimes truths are hidden in song.

Here it is, then, the sound track of the better part of my life, against whose background score I’ve done my growing up.


As ABBA, one of my favourites from the yesteryears, used to sing:

Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing. 
Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing. 
Who can live without it? I ask in all honesty, 
What would life be, without a song or a dance, what are we? So I say Thank You for the music, for giving it to me.

I hope I'll see you around, all through this Challenge. I also hope you'll be impressed to walk down your own memory lane.

Hasta la vista!



20 comments:

  1. Awww, ABBA! They quit before I was born, but I loved their music. I had a CD called the A-Teens, which were some youngsters setting ABBA to a little more of a beat. Loved those songs! I look forward to learning all about the songs that helped you grow up.

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  2. Such a nice theme! All the best. Also, do add your handle to your twitter account, it does not show, Only @sharethis is visible instead.
    And remove captcha - it deters commenters.

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  3. Hi Astrid, welcome to my blog. Some of the songs I'm going to talk about were before my time too, but they became a part of my life nevertheless. See you around

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  4. HI Inderpreet, I do not have word verification or comment moderation selected. Yet for some reason, the I'm-not-a-robot link persists. I have tried to remove it and failed.
    I find that if I ignore it, and continue to publish the comment, the problem is resolved.
    Thanks for bringing this to my notice.

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  5. Music. What a great idea. I have so many old song lyrics stuck in my memory. I rarely listen to music now, but have a huge collection of CDs. Still have my old vinyl albums, but gave away a couple hundred tapes. Looking forward to your posts.

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  6. Love the theme........ and who better that ABBA ..... thee all time favourites.....

    ABBA were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972. With members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.

    Abba "took a break" in 1982/ 1983.......

    ABBA were honoured at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, when their hit "Waterloo" was chosen as the best song in the competition's history. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 15 March 2010.

    The 4 members finally appeared together on stage for the first time in forever on January 20, 2016 at Tyrol in Stockholm for Mamma Mia! ............

    We can say thank you for the music.......

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  7. Actually, Denise, that's what led to my selection of music as a theme. I realised that I don't know any songs sung by singers today. On the other hand, I can sing along to anything released in the last century. Accurately too, particularly in the days before Google, I could be counted on to recite lyrics with precision.
    Thought that was worth capturing.

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  8. Thank you, Marjorie. Abba are my favourites too. In fact, as a four-year-old, I told my dad that there were only two music groups in the world. They were Boney M and Abba. I discovered in a short while that there were many more, and it was fun making that discovery.

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  9. Oh wow! What a unique, clever and creative theme! I look forward to seeing all of the great songs you post! See you in 10 days! ~Lori~

    Lori @ As the Fates Would Have It
    Lori @ Promptly Written

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  10. Blogging music is a great choice! Look forward to checking in again :)

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  11. I won't lie, if I tried to do this theme, there'd be a lot of Green Day songs. LOL
    Fun theme. =)

    ~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

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  12. Thank you, slfinnell1965, hope you find something that you enjoyed listening to in my list.

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  13. That's funny, Patricia, would love to see your list too some time.

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  14. I remember reading your posts last April and I so enjoyed your book-theme...I'm looking forward to this year's music!

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  15. Musical posts!! This would be a most interesting blog to visit. Stopping by via the Theme reveal list. Good luck!

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  16. Awesome! I love this theme! I'll be looking forward to hearing the sounds you have to play for us. Nostalgic radio is something I love, love, love.
    I'm almost doing a similar theme.

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  17. Musical blast from the past! Thumbs up to your theme. Best of luck for an enjoyable and successful challenge

    Nilanjana.
    Ninja Minion, A-Z 2016
    Madly-in-Verse

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  18. Ah, I can remember the days of radio. Kids today will never know what they've missed.
    Abba is such a legendary band. I always think of their songs as early morning, feel-good "radio tunes"...when you're still lying in bed and a certain song plays on the radio...such warm memories...
    See you around on the A to Z circuit!
    Writer In Transit

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  19. ABBA I remember their LP.
    Good to visit your site as a part of my A to Z visits. My theme Blog Promotion
    Welcome to A to Z April Blogging Challenge 2016 - Co-Participant - Nrao - NRao Blogs
    @knoltweet
    NRao Blogs - 2016 A to Z Challenge Blog Posts
    Management Theory Review

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