Thanks, Mom and Dad (…For Influencing My Taste In Music)

Parents, you are influencing your children in more ways than you know… like when you’re playing your music in their presence.

I am 100% certain that my parents were not aware of this fact.

Now, through no fault of my own, I know ALL the words to the following songs. And though I cannot carry a tune, for some reason I can sing these songs almost perfectly on key (…at least it sounds “on key” in my head).

Okay, so how many other 30-somethings can remember their parents’ old vinyl record albums… and know precisely what the album covers looked like… and (if it was a 45), know what song appeared on the flip-side???

I can.

Take a step back in time with me, won’t you?

I’m not proud of it, but these songs are firmly implanted in my musical repertoire:

 

Coat of Many Colors (Dolly Parton)

Back through the years
I go wonderin’ once again
Back to the seasons of my youth
I recall a box of rags that someone gave us
And how my momma put the rags to use

There were rags of many colors
Every piece was small
And I didn’t have a coat
And it was way down in the fall
Momma sewed the rags together
Sewin’ every piece with love
She made my coat of many colors
That I was so proud of

As she sewed, she told a story
From the bible, she had read
About a coat of many colors
Joseph wore and then she said

Perhaps this coat will bring you
Good luck and happiness
And I just couldn’t wait to wear it
And momma blessed it with a kiss

Chorus:
My coat of many colors
That my momma made for me
Made only from rags
But I wore it so proudly
Although we had no money
I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me

So with patches on my britches
Holes in both my shoes
In my coat of many colors
I hurried off to school
Just to find the others laughing
And making fun of me
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me

And oh I couldn’t understand it
For I felt I was rich
And I told them of the love
My momma sewed in every stitch
And I told ’em all the story
Momma told me while she sewed
And how my coat of many colors
Was worth more than all their clothes

But they didn’t understand it
And I tried to make them see
That one is only poor
Only if they choose to be
Now I know we had no money
But I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
Made just for me

 

Joy To The World (Three Dog Night)

Jeremiah was a bullfrog
Was a good friend of mine
I never understood a single word he said
But I helped him a-drink his wine
And he always had some mighty fine wine
Singin’…

Chorus:
Joy to the world
All the boys and girls now
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me

If I were the king of the world
Tell you what I’d do
I’d throw away the cars and the bars and the war
Make sweet love to you
Sing it now…

Chorus

You know I love the ladies
Love to have my fun
I’m a high life flyer and a rainbow rider
A straight shootin’ son-of-a-gun
I said a straight shootin’ son-of-a-gun

Chorus

 

Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel)

Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart
You’re shaking my confidence daily.
Oh Cecilia, I’m down on my knees,
I’m begging you please to come home.

Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart
You’re shaking my confidence daily.
Oh Cecilia, I’m down on my knees,
I’m begging you please to come home.
Come on home.

Making love in the afternoon with Cecilia
Up in my bedroom,
I got up to wash my face
When I come back to bed,
someone’s taken my place.

Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart
You’re shaking my confidence daily.
Oh Cecilia, I’m down on my knees,
I’m begging you please to come home.

Jubilation,
She loves me again,
I fall on the floor and I’m laughing,

 

Knock Three Times (Tony Orlando & Dawn)

hey girl whatcha doin down there
dancing alone every nite while I live rite above you
i can hear your music playin
i can feel your body swayin
one floor below me you don’t even know me
I love you

chorus:
Oh my darlin
knock three times on the ceiling if you want me
twice on the pipe if the answer is no
oh my sweetness
means you’ll meet me in the hallway
twice on the pipe means you ain’t gonna show

if you look out your window tonite
pulling the string with the note thats attached to my heart
read how many times i saw you
how in my silence i adored you
and only in my dreams did that wall between us come apart

chorus

oh i can hear the music playing
i can feel your body swayin
one floor below me you don’t even know me
i love you

 

Put Your Hand in the Hand (Ocean)

Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water
Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea
Take a look at yourself and-a you can look at others differently
By puttin’ your hand in the hand of the man from-a Gallilee.

Every time I look into the Holy Book I want to tremble (tremble)
When I read about the part where the carpenter cleared the temple (temple)
For the buyers and the sellers were no different fellas
Than what I profess to be
And it causes me shame to know we’re not the people we should be.

So put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water
Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea
Take a look at yourself and-a you can look at others differently
By putting your hand in the hand of the man from-a Gallilee.

My mama taught me how to pray before I reached the age of seven
She said, “There’ll come a time when there’ll probably be room in heaven”
But I’m feeling kinda of guilty ’bout the number of times
To do what we must do
Oh we forget what he said when we figured that he’d still make room (So, you gotta)

Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water
Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea
Take a look at yourself and-a you can look at others differently
By puttin’ your hand in the hand of the man from Gallilee (everybody come along)

 
What’s It All Mean?
So what brought this to my attention recently?

Well, I was radio surfing on the way home from work the other day, and I heard a Dolly Parton song. I kept surfin’ but all of a sudden I found myself humming “Coat of Many Colors” the entire rest of the way home.

In trying to get to the bottom of my unique ability to recite all of the words to so many really bad ’70s tunes, I realized where this amazing skill came from.

It’s not my fault. My parents blasted these corny songs all during my impressionable childhood years. And now… it’s the price I pay.

Yep, I can amaze the crowd in a round of 70’s Karaoke!