Why Did You Like That?

Why do we like things that we like?  I often wonder about the answer to this question while at other times I can bring some of the answer into focus...

Photo by Arlee Bird

       
           We'd left at daybreak after a divine night's sleep at the Holiday Inn of Poplar Bluff, Missouri.  It had been quite some time since I'd stayed at a Holiday Inn and my wife and I were pleasantly surprised by the amenities of this location.  We had retired early after another wonderful day of our vacation which was now within a couple days of ending.  Our home beckoned, and though our trip had been nearly perfect in every way, we were now anxious to get back to our own bed.   Beautiful as it was, vacation was now over aside from the remaining days of intense driving.

        Could we have asked for a better morning than that last Saturday in July 2017?   Sure, but I don't know what improving a fine morning like that one would look like.  The temperature was in the mid-seventies at five in the morning, promising another hot day that we would mostly experience in the air conditioned comfort of our van.  A McDonald's near the Holiday Inn was already opened so that we could grab some breakfast at the drive through.  They didn't have have the coffee drink that I had wanted so I settled for a mocha frappe.  Adding a hash brown and a sausage biscuit made it a combo.

        As I negotiated my way to Highway 60, I nibbled on a hot greasy block of the potato substance they called hash browns.  After I'd found 60 I attempted to consume a rubbery sausage biscuit that apparently had been sitting around far too long.  I managed my way through half of the biscuit before stuffing in the bag my wife had saved for trash.  No matter though, since the quick breakfast was mostly a matter of keeping my blood sugar stable.  And the drive looked like it was going to be a good one.

         U.S. Highway 60 was a far nicer road than I had expected--a divided four lane highway with little traffic on this Saturday morning.  A perfect morning for driving, yes it was, and we were passing through the beautiful rolling hills of the Missouri Ozarks.  Like most of my days driving I started out by listening to the news on satellite radio.  After about an hour into the drive I decided to see what I could pick up on regular AM radio.  There were was a local trading post type show where people would call in to sell things.  Next came some sports show where I had no idea what the guys were talking about.  Then came the music that has been my fixation for the past two weeks.

        Like synchronicity, the song started right at the beginning and from that start I was captivated.  The instrumental ensemble had an orchestral sound though it was probably a septet.   It was my kind of music.  After a very short lead-in, a smooth female voice entered with the lyrics.  For  a moment I thought the song might be a Contemporary Christian song, but I soon decided it was not.  There was a jazziness to the music.   Through the static and radio distance--I'm guessing the station was coming from Springfield--the song sounded old--well, like certain music from the sixties.  The song was one that I had no recollection of ever having heard.

        As the song played on the radio, a vast panorama of scenic wonder surrounded us and the day was as beautiful as any best memory of childhood.  My thoughts turned to the extent that my life was blessed and all of the potential that might be still ahead.  My wife too seemed to be in a reverie.  I mentioned how beautiful I thought the song was with a side hope that someone would tell the artist and song title at the end.  I got the artist at least.

         I figured that if I still remembered the song when I got home I could look up the artist and figured that on YouTube I'd find the song even though I'd forgotten the lyrical content.  It didn't take me long to find it, but that's not the point of this post.  My point is to pose the question of why that song suddenly appealed to me so much that in that one listening it became a part of me.   Now that song is part of  my life soundtrack.   I will always associate the song with an amazing moment in the time that I've spent on this Earth.

         Certainly I was attracted to the type of song as well as the style of music.  The players were good and I really liked the singer.  But the song seemed to connect well with the sentiments of that particular morning--going home after an extraordinary vacation.  And there was the weather, the geography, road conditions, and good company.   It was just my wife and I driving through the Ozarks on our way home.  And now I have a song that plays behind that scene.

          What was the song? you might ask.

          Ah, that's what this is about.  In researching the song I found a surprise that might reflect how out of touch with more recent music I am.  Anyway, the song will be revealed in my upcoming Battle of the Bands post next Tuesday August 15th.  The surprise that I found in my research demanded that this song be my next Battle.  I'm so obsessed with it.

           What is a song that you became obsessed with for a period?   Do you still ever listen to AM radio?    Does listening to music through faint static or distortion affect your perception of what you are hearing?