08/28/2024
Songs Bring Out Strong Feelings
I first started playing music as a young kid at about 13 years of age. My brother Kevin wanted to play a musical instrument and decided to learn to play Rock and Roll organ. He bought himself a Hammond M-3 and found a music teacher who was an organist for a local rock band. Kevin showed me how to turn the organ on and explained it was a two step process. He showed me that you hold the one toggle switch up, you had to hold it up while you count to five and it doesn’t need to stay up. When you let go of this switch it drops down on its own. Once the motor gets the generator to speed, after the count of five seconds, you then push up the second switch which was the run switch. If you did it correctly the organ was on and is ready to be played. This was Kevin’s big mistake because now I knew how to turn it on. Since the organ was in the house, I started to learn to play it also. I wasn’t in the room during Kevin’s lesson so a lot of what I learned was self taught to some level. I’d sit in the front room of the house and listen without seeing what was happening as Kevin’s teacher taught him his lessons in the living room. After a while I had gotten pretty good but Kevin didn’t know I was practicing while he wasn’t home. One day he came home from work for lunch unexpectedly and heard me playing. He was very surprised to hear anyone playing the organ and when he saw it was me, he couldn’t believe it. Kevin decided to buy me a guitar for my next birthday, my 14th I believe. So, I switched over to guitar but after a while I went back to organ but I again went back to guitar because it was portable, I stuck with it after that.
Over the years since, I have learned to play many songs. I mostly learned songs that were very popular or they were songs that I thought were fun to play and sing. After a time I became involved with the church Folk Group and that meant I had to learn to play songs that were appropriate in Church, especially those that were more solemn for special Masses like Lent, Easter, Christmas and eventually friend’s Weddings and the occasional Funeral. As I went I started to feel that music affected me more and more. I found that some songs that were Patriotic stirred me a certain way and I'd feel proud of America, songs about Love and Faith would lift my Spirit. As I've gotten older I have found that many songs that I’ve sung previously have become emotionally difficult for me to sing. They affect me to where my eyes well up with tears and sometimes I may not be able to sing the whole song without a hitch in my voice. A lot of them are songs that were sung with friends in the Folk Group because they hold a lot of memories for me of Community, Camaraderie, and Fellowship. When the lyrics of some songs are sung to the melodies they are written to, I find it difficult to get through a song. I particularly have a difficult time singing songs that were written by friends of mine who have passed and are no longer with us. I pull them out now and then and as I sing them I remember good times I spent in their company when they were still alive. When they were still alive we’d sing their songs at Sunday Mass and sometimes we’d sing their songs just because we were together for no particular reason. It became difficult to sing their songs at Mass after their passing, we would still sing them, they just took on a bit of a sting without them with us any longer. Some songs that I sing that are written by known songwriters who are no longer with us affect me. I’m affected mostly because I felt they were very good songwriters and were my heroes or icons in the music business but are no longer with us. What would they have written if they had not left so early in their lives. They are the likes of Harry Chapin, John Denver and Jim Croce just to name a few.
It’s not always a cry fest, there are still many songs I play that will make me laugh. I sandwich the ones that I know will make me sad between a bunch that are fun or are songs that have no affect on me. I’ve been told to suck it up and not think of the meaning of the song I’m singing so I don’t become an emotional wreck while doing it. For me though, that is not the correct way to convey a song, Songs are personal to the person who wrote it and I feel as the singer we should try to understand what a song’s meaning or subject is about. I have watched many YouTube Channels and seen many covers of songs done by amateurs and professionals and I feel I’m in good company when I see the “Professionals” start to cry during a song. You can tell that they are listening to themselves and the meaning of the song hits them. Maybe it wasn’t apparent to them until that moment or they just couldn’t hold their emotion back any longer, either way it is not necessarily a bad thing to happen. It shows as a true human moment of feeling. Sometimes I think they are like me and during the song, like me I feel the loss that the person is no longer with us. That’s usually my reason I break down. So, if you ever hear me singing and you see me start to tear up,… please, just let me do it. I may drop a word or two of the lyrics but I’ll do my best to continue and if you happen to know the song I’m singing, jump on in and sing along with me and help me through it. There is strength in numbers and we could all make a beautiful chorus together.
Thanks for reading this far, God Bless all of you and please,
Think Positive
Keith O’Brien
