The Days the Music Died

Living gratefully today, I am savoring some of my favorite songs and the connections they give me to my younger days.

I grew up listening to the radio and to albums, 8-tracks, and cassettes. Music took me inside the emerging person I was. It also brought me outside myself when I needed a healthier outlet than my thinking and drinking. 

Last Tuesday it was both Helen Reddy and Mac Davis dying at age 78.  This Tuesday, it was Eddie Van Halen dying at 65 and Johnny Nash dying at 80. I was belting out "I Am Woman" and "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me" last week. 

Yesterday, it was some of my favorite Van Halen songs, several of which go back to their 1978 self-titled debut album.  Eddie Van Halen was the band's lead guitarist, but he was also quite a songwriter. I have always liked "Jamie's Crying" and "Running with the Devil" from that first album.

But the one song that most hits home with me in all of these passings is Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now." As a young child--the song came out in 1972 when I was 7--it really resonated with me. Inhibited and shy little Lisa must have heard the hope in it. It has remained a go-to listen ever since and is on my list of all-time favorites. 

It became one of my recovery anthems, with lines like this:

"I can see clearly now the rain is gone. I can see obstacles in my way. 

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind." 

Rest in peace Eddie Van Halen and Johnny Nash. Thank you for the music.