Leaking Music from the Past

Why were moans leaking from audience?

The people swayed as though in the clutches of a romantic experience. For pete’s sake, these were folks speckled with gray hair and combed with wrinkles.

They said…it was actually the music that was doing all the leaking.

Leaking what? Most of the songs were “I-Know-ALL-the-Words-Familiar.” So when the beginning notes sprang from the Jersey Boys and echoed through the concert hall,  the crowd moaned with nostalgic emotion.  Smiles, tears, applause.  It was all there.

Why? I wondered….

Until…the following song drop-kicked me through several decades right back into Marilyn’s basement.  (Go ahead, push the button and play it while reading the rest of the post).

It was my first boy/girl party. Marilyn’s parents insisted the lights stay on.  Yeah, yeah. As soon as they’d leave with whatever excuse they’d drummed up to come downstairs and check on 16 kids making stilted conversation, Marilyn would smack the light off, except for the one at the top of the stairwell.

Do you need any more soda? And keep these lights on or I’ll sic the dogs on all of you.

For some reason words came more easily in the dark. Without the florescents glaring like it was a prison yard, the boys who’d never held a girl in their arms slipped to the dance area. And the girls didn’t care if a guy could dance or not. Just put your arms around someone and shuffle.

And with the first notes of that song…my secret hearthrob (A cool Senior…EEEEEE!) asked me to dance—a slow dance. I about had a heart attack. A titillating experience for  me, a farm girl whose idea of showing a guy she liked him was shoving him into the lockers as I passed.

I’d forgotten that moment until the song played at Jersey Boys. And with 3D clarity—I can see Jimmy’s face, half in shadows by the stairwell light. And my first kiss.

And that’s why the crowd moans.  It has little to do with the good music. It’s the knee-jerk reaction of vibrant memories. Teenage goosebumps. The future,  spreading out in all directions like a galaxy.

Our culture changes, but forty years from now, when Generation Y goes to an off-broadway play, and hears  We Are Young they’ll be moaning and swaying, too.

Because…what’s really leaking from the music is the emotion. Time keeps dancing forward, but what it leaves behind is the brief kiss of memories.

And that never changes.

What song echoes from your youth?  Feel free to find it in YouTube and post it below, so we can all “Leak the Music.”

If you liked this see: Maybe I Remember Pong, Who’s Asking?

Photos-UKStudentLife
Found in Mom’s Basement