Alone Once Again, Naturally

Not long ago I posted an entry about a favorite song from the summer and fall of 1972, “Summer Breeze” by Seals and Crofts.

There were four other songs that last year of college that have stayed with me all the decades since.

Let me preface the following  musical reminiscence with this fact:  I was no “wild and crazy” guy my four years of undergraduate college.  In fact, as I look back, I was a decades -younger version of myself today 50 years later.  I was quiet, extremely studious, kept to myself for the most part, gregarious when necessary, brooding, anxious and inhibited.  College was deadly serious for me.  I spent a nearly non-existent amount of time  in exactly two bars in four years, once and only once in each.  I didn’t socialize much, except for knowing some good people and times briefly in the dorm.  Not your typical college student.

Old age has considerably smoothed out a lot of the wrinkles, and I’m not nearly so anxious because there’s nothing left at which to fail, no more agonizing job searches, no more slings, arrows, and darts along my own personal “long and winding road.”

So the songs featured in this essay were never “cool,” or hard rocky, hippie fantasies or anything like that in the fall and spring of my senior year, 1972-1973.  This was a momentous time in rock and folk music history, largely bypassed by me, sort of clueless, but I was was I was.

If the four songs sound like an odd assortment, they were, but each, I realize now, was like a little anthem of the times for me, enjoyable to listen to, very catchy, and with the types of melodies and lyrics that can grab hold of your semi, and other types of consciousness, and loop around and around in your head.

I did a little research on the songs to discover more about their meaning and themes from what I had gleaned initially, which wasn’t much because I mostly loved the music and the feelings engendered by the songs, never mind the lyrics.   But it’s a funny thing, these days when I’m much older I care more about the lyrics.  I still remain, as I always, primarily interested in instrumental music to relax, think and meditate with.

However, I discovered the perfect Web site that nicely explains the songs and their meanings and provides fascinating background facts.  The site is called  “Lyrics Layers.”

https://www.lyricslayers.com

Now to begin. I have always been powerfully drawn to the following songs.   Not necessarily on merit, but because each one evokes powerful memories, as only certain songs can do.

“Alone Again Naturally” by Gilbert O’Sullivan.

This poignant and sad song has always resonated with me, but I didn’t understand the depth of feeling and despair in it when I was in college.   Now I have a greater desire to look into why this song was so popular:  the universality of its themes and story.   

I think the title by itself drew me in because how often in my life could I say those words with much feeling and sadness of my own?

Yesterday, I was thinking about this song and why it resonated with me so much, and again, my memories suddenly  took me back to the summer of 1972.   It was just after I had finished my summer job as a deckhand on a fireboat on the Mississippi River across from downtown New Orleans.  I was employed as part of a special program for youth by the Port of New Orleans.

A few weeks before the start of my senior year of college, I decided to go on my first ever solo day trip.  I had never traveled anywhere on my own before, and decided to take my little yellow Volkswagen convertible across Lake Pontchartrain  to be tiny village of Mandeville, located right on the shores of this huge, shallow briny lake, across which was built what is still the world’s longest continuous bridge over water at 24 miles in length.   

From there my destination was the beautiful Fontainebleau State Park, also on the shores of the lake, and filled with very old and tall pine trees, something we almost never saw in New Orleans.  It was a different world over there, cooler, drier and more hospitable than the low lying, humid and swampy terrain of South Louisiana below Lake  Pontchartrain.  As I was driving to the state park, I had my car radio on and “Alone Again Naturally” was playing, and I recall being immediately captivated by the song.

On the way back home,the drive across the endless over-the-water causeway didn’t seem quite so lonely and forbidding.  Imagine you and a few other cars reaching the point about midway across the lake and not seeing any land ahead of or behind you.  It was for a time like sailing quickly across some vast ocean, a seemingly endless drive into the empty horizon.  One certainly didn’t want to have car trouble crossing that bridge.  It was an experience I’ll never forget, one among a number of firsts that Saturday in August when I felt like a lone adventurer for the first time, venturing north of the huge metropolitan area of New Orleans and seeing places I’d never seen before.  One song, “Alone Again, Naturally,” enables me to tap into memories of 50 years ago and the beginning of that most auspicious and excitedly anticipated senior year of college.

https://youtu.be/D_P-v1BVQn8?si=ZCFcEAt0P91zdd-x

Meaning of ALONE AGAIN, NATURALLY (O’Sullivan Gilbert)

“My Love,” by Paul McCartney

It’s not that I could relate to the tenderness and meaning  of this love song because I certainly couldn’t.   But I heard this song at a very particular time in my life, and while at a special place at the end of four years of undergraduate college. My memories, triggered by that one song,  bring me back in time to golden youth every time I listen to it.  I’ve also come to respect and admire much more with the passage of time, Paul McCartney — his intelligence, and his sheer genius for melodies and lyrics.

I can picture myself clearly lying in the sun in early May of 1973 near the grassy embankment of a canal that ran alongside the campus of the University of New Orleans.  On a small radio I brought with me, I could hear “My Love” gently playing.

In just a couple of weeks I would be graduating. My faithful red Royce Union ten-speed bike lay on the ground beside me.  I closed my eyes and basked in the golden glow and warmth of the sun, happy, beyond words to describe, that four years of college study, exams, finals  and papers would soon be behind me, and I would be walking on stage during commencement to receive my diploma.  I simply could not believe it.

Whenever I turned on the radio, the song seemed to be playing.  So that rather uncomplicated ballad symbolized the fresh new start in my life’s journey, post-college, when I would pack up some meagre belongings, load up my Volkswagen with the ten-speed bike strapped on the back, and head off to my future in South Carolina,whatever it held.  Life was really just beginning for me, and I was excited.  I had a feeling I was going to have great adventures, meet and make lifelong friends, and savor the independence of life on my own.  And so it happened, exactly as I had hoped.

https://youtu.be/A5g9ZwxFKdg?si=7jCdENRC8sBYSOnD

Meaning of MY LOVE (FEAT. WINGS) (Paul McCartney)

“Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree”by Tony Orlando and Dawn

The top song of 1973 was “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree” by Tony Orlando and Dawn. It topped the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles for that year on April 21, 1973. It remained at the number one position for four weeks.

According to “Lyrics Layers,” the song is “a poignant tale of hope, redemption, and the longing for acceptance. The lyrics tell the story of a man who has served his time, presumably in prison, and is now returning home. He is filled with uncertainty and anxiety about whether he will be welcomed back by his loved one. The yellow ribbon becomes a powerful symbol in this narrative, representing forgiveness and the possibility of a fresh start.  A willingness to move forward together.”

I loved this song because it was hopeful, and the vocals were rendered with great purity and perfection by Tony Orlando.  I think perhaps most people have forgotten him and his great backup singers, Dawn, as the years have gone by, but the song holds up well.  Confident, poised and a great singer, Orlando made the memorable melodies  of this song, and other hits,  come alive.  There they remain in the precious vaults of our memories of times in our youths that were so beloved and so memorable.  For me 1972 and 1973 were  certainly years of poignant, happy and  unforgettable memories.

https://youtu.be/Z8fhciUojQ0?si=o2DXmlwJQ_0Ue1FB

Meaning of TIE A YELLOW RIBBON (Tony Orlando)

Stuck in the middle with you

“Lyrics Layers” calls  ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ by Stealers Wheel, a classic rock track that encapsulates the feeling of being overwhelmed and indecisive in a chaotic environment. The lyrics convey a sense of confusion and frustration, as the narrator finds himself in an uncomfortable situation, unsure of why he’s there or what he should do next. The repeated line ‘Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right!’ suggests that he is surrounded by people he cannot take seriously, adding to his sense of being trapped in the middle of absurdity.”

I like this  explanation, but must confess the song would have been completely forgotten had not certain associations, and, ironically, what many years later seems a very insignificant occurrence, not happened the first time I heard the song.

It was in the Spring of 1973, right after I and a small group of English major acquaintances had finished our last final exams and were finally free, free to savor the completion of our years of hard work in college.  Graduation was coming up soon.  The four of us were in a small student cafeteria getting lunch and that song was playing.  I remember looking up to request something to put on my tray and saw one of the most beautiful looking people I had ever seen looking at me as I was handed a muffin.  I had only been truly gobsmacked with infatuation a few times before, but this was the real thing, instantaneously.  I never before had quite such an experience, and I always associate it with that song by Stealers Wheel, which was playing in the background.”

Was the song trying to tell me something? Was I one of the jokers in the song?  Who’s to ever know?  It was almost like love at first sight, kind of stupid when you recall it decades later, perhaps foolish and silly.  I could not possibly ever know someone that beautiful and attractive, could I?  Unfortunately, no.  And of course, I knew immediately why I felt the way I did at that exact moment.  Life is full of incidents like that, but only certain ones linger so long in memory.

All of these songs converge in my memory to create unusual, but also golden associations of a time in life when all he world is yours to explore and experience, enjoy and celebrate.  Why?  Because you’re young and will never have such unfiltered, almost pure, new experiences like that again.   The people you meet in your twenties will astonish and amaze you.  Some of them will become lifelong friends.

The gates were opened, and in college and immediately afterward, I began truly living and learning about life for the first time.  Certain songs certainly held us remember those days, for many unique and different reasons.

https://youtu.be/ln7Vn_WKkWU?si=3khqru0_1urYUBLO

Meaning of MY LOVE (FEAT. WINGS) (Paul McCartney)