https://helenespinosa.wordpress.com/2016/10/01/song-lyric-sunday-theme-for-10216/
Have to thank Helen for this week’s theme. I LOVE it but I was awash with options and it wasn’t until Daily Musings post that I realized who I had to choose, and why.
During my high school years, I was introduced to Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, and the rest. I became a dedicated fan. While all my peers were listening to the Beatles, I immersed myself in folk music. I tried out for my school’s folk singing group, The Dozen Cuzins (I know, I know) and we travelled the South singing in competitions.
I’m telling you right now, Joan Baez may well have saved my life. I could pull myself out of any level of depression (and there were some deep, dark phases) by putting on a Baez album and cranking up the volume!
I followed her for years and have used her music in my therapy practice, assigning different songs to clients, as anthems to learn for their stage of healing. Seriously, if you’ve got a nasty boss or an abusive spouse, try singing along, loudly, with Joan to the song “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around!” Add your own words and you will FEEL the power!
My son is exactly the same age as Joan’s, so when I first heard the song she wrote to her son Gabriel, I was deeply moved. I can’t hear it now without tears and a quick phone call to my son.
So here’s my choice.
Lyrics
I taught myself to sing and play
And use a little trickery
On kids who never favored me
Those were years of crinoline slips
And cotton skirts and swinging hips
And dangerously painted lips
And stars of stage and screen
Pedal pushers, ankle socks
Padded bras and campus jocks
Who hid their vernal equinox
In pairs of faded jeans
And slept at home resentfully
Coveting their dreams
How the years and I survived
I had a mother who sang to me
An honest lullaby
Our Father bless us all tonight
I bowed my head at the football games
And closed the prayer in Jesus’ name
Lusting after football heroes
Tough Pachuco, little Neroes
Forfeiting my A’s for zeroes
Futures unforeseen
Spending all my energy
In keeping my virginity
And living in a fantasy
In love with Jimmy Dean
If you will be my king, Jimmy, Jimmy,
I will be your queen
How the years and I survived
I had a mother who sang to me
An honest lullaby
And knew more than the other girls
Of foreign languages and schools
Paris, Rome and Istanbul
But those things never worked for me
The town was much too small you see
And people have a way of being
Even smaller yet
But all the same though life is hard
And no one promised me a garden
Of roses, so I did okay
I took what I could get
And did the things that I might do
For those less fortunate
How the years and I survived
I had a mother who sang to me
An honest lullaby
A quarter of an inch a day
You’ve already lived near half the years
You’ll be when you go away
With your teddy bears and alligators
Enterprise communicators
All the tiny aviators head into the sky
And while the others play with you
I hope to find a way with you
And sometimes spend a day with you
I’ll catch you as you fly
Or if I’m worth a mother’s salt
I’ll wave as you go by
How the years and you’ll survive
Honey, you’ve got a mother who sings to you
Dances on the strings for you
Opens her heart and brings to you
An honest lullaby
Lyrics from Google Music
