What’s On Your Playlist?

It’s been 52 years since the Class of 1970 flipped their tassels. Crawfordsville High School graduates from that year are finally going to celebrate their 50th reunion, postponed twice because of the mutating pest named COVID. There is even the threat of the newest and more rapidly spreading strain, but our reunion committee made it clear if we don’t meet this year, we’ll have to wait until another milestone. So, we are forging ahead on Saturday to relive better days (maybe) and create new memories with old friends.

One of the highlights of our gathering will be the music. The reunion committee has commissioned The Leadsmen to play. If you were around Crawfordsville and surrounding areas in the 1960s, chances are you attended one of their gigs. A garage band that practiced in family rooms, Dan Wills, Marc Tucker, Ray Kirtley and Dave Will played at “sock hops” school dances, pool parties and the Battle of the Bands at the Armory. Kenn Clark joined the band in high school and added another dimension with a trumpet and keyboard. I once sang “These Boots are Made for Walking” with them at a junior high dance. I thought I was pretty cool until a girl confronted me in the restroom and said, “You might be good if you practiced.” My “girl singer with the band” days were short-lived. Fast forward 40 years and the group reunited, minus two of the original members, Marc and Dave; but with the addition of John Ford, they have been performing around west-central Indiana since the early 2000s. The “Old Guys Rock” band is guaranteed to play songs that set the soundtrack to our adolescence. Not all crowds dance at their shows, but I expect to see a group of ladies (Sue Ann, Jamie, Jan, Kris, Sheri) doing their best frug, swim and hitch-hiker!

I don’t know anything that evokes stronger memories and accompanying emotions than music. Further research into the subject of music, memory and emotions increased my awareness into how invaluable music is in our lives. The world-renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks states in the 2014 documentary, Alive Inside:

“Music is inseparable from emotions. It’s not just a physical stimulus. It’s the back door to the mind. Music has more ability to activate more parts of the brain – auditory, visual, emotional, physical coordination – than any other stimulus. If it works at all, it pulls together many emotions and memories from many parts of a person’s life. People re-acquire their identity; they re-connect with themselves.”

His work in the area of music as referenced in his 2009 book Musicophilia Tales of Music and the Brain, Sacks states “music and emotion are the last parts of the brain touched by Alzheimers.” When given headphones and an iPod with person-specific music downloaded, elderly dementia patient suddenly come alive. If you watch the documentary, you will be amazed at how lucid some of the folks become when the connection is made between those rusty synapses. It is astounding to see the non-responsive, nearly catatonic “golden-agers” start moving limbs and bobbing heads that had been stilled far too long.

I felt brave last Wednesday night, snapped on a K95 and headed to the local AMC to watch “Elvis” on the big screen. I cried within the first five minutes and then again near the end when Austin Butler / Elvis sang, “If I Can Dream” from his 1968 comeback special which aired on national television. That song induced a flood of memories of an era rife with universal tragedy and personal growing pains. (Even if you were not an Elvis fan, I highly recommend the movie. It is a good one.) In the movie, the deaths of JFK, Martin and Bobby impacted Elvis greatly and this song was a way of providing tribute to three very influential men in that decade of life.

Seriously, who doesn’t feel like crying when you hear “Abraham, Martin and John” by Dion, especially when he sings the last line about Bobby “walkin’ up over the hill?”

So I think about my personal playlist and what I want to download in the event I need to be ushered back into the world from a fugue state. (Shane, Beth and Leslie, take note!)

* Dan Fogelberg – his music will bring back all my loves and losses

* The early Beatles – what red-blooded American girl from the 1960s wouldn’t have them on their playlist?

* “Memories” by Elvis to remember the first love of my life

* “China Grove” by The Doobie Brothers so I can rock out

* “Home” by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap to remind me how thankful I was no one I loved lost their life in Vietnam.

* “The Dance” by Garth Brooks for all the times I took chances and didn’t miss the pain.

* “Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac” so the staff at the nursing home can see me keep a beat!

* “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto so I can remember dancing around the room with all seven of my grandchildren.

* “You’ve Got a Friend” by James Taylor so I can envision the pack of dogs, cats and horses I’ve saved and loved over my lifetime.

* “Miracles” by Jefferson Starship (I’m keeping that one a secret)

* “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young because Dan sent it to me one night as he was thinking of me.

I could go on, but you get the idea, right? One final thought, though; don’t wait until someone else has to plug you into the music. Listen to the songs that evoke the memories and make the playlist of your life.

Gwynn Wills is a former speech therapist, certified Amherst Writers and Artists workshop Affiliate and Leader and founder of The Calliope Writers Group. After growing up in Crawfordsville, her and her husband returned several years ago.