Words and Musics: An Award From Mistress Maddie

So … Mistress Maddie, over there to A Day With The MistressBorghese, has seen fit to honor me with an award. It seems I am the “Queen of the Blogiverse”! I am the “Master Of The Internet”! I am the “Most Important Person Who Ever Liv—“

What? The Music and Words Award? Not The Queen of Something or Other??

Well … this is … nice … too.

So, let’s rip … when I’m asked if I play a musical instrument I always say “the radio” because, sadly, that’s the extent of my musical abilities, though I love music. I do, however, sing almost constantly — ask Carlos how I drive him crazy with my tunes. And, as I have said here on this blog thing before, I wake up singing, literally, every single day. And sometimes it’s a song I heard the day before, and other times it’s a song I haven’t heard since I was a child.

For example, this morning I woke up singing The Mills Brothers rendition of “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You.” I probably first heard this tune at my grandmother’s house when I was a child and stored it way in my head until this morning when it came out. I don’t know how it works, or why, but the idea of waking up singing is a good thing.

I listen to everything, even some country — though I am not a fan of rap — so there isn’t much I don’t like, and not much I haven’t bought, and not much I haven’t sung in the shower; showtunes, blues, jazz, pop, rock, folk, reggae, classical, opera … I love Billie Holiday, Sting, Adele, Sammy Davis Jr., Idina Menzel, Vivaldi, Betty Buckley, The BoDeans, REM, U2, UB40, Wynonna Judd, Kelly Clarkson, James Taylor, Judy Garland, Puccini, The Gershwin’s, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Sarah Vaughan, Aaron Tveit — whom I just recently discovered, kd lang and on and on I could go.

What does music mean to you? 

It means almost everything because music reminds me of where I was when … when anything happened. I can listen to music when I am sad or angry or depressed or happy or tired or just need a little something in the background.

And while I like the music, I am especially drawn to interesting lyrics that can tell a story or take me somewhere or make me think something I had never thought before.

A singer, and a song, that always gets to me … Lady Day.

What is your first music related memory? My father had reel-to-reel tapes of music he’d recorded, and boxes upon boxes of tapes filled with songs; the Boston Pops; Nancy Wilson; Sammy Davis Jr.; John Denver—side note, he went to high school with one of my aunts. My father played those tapes all the time; we had music at dinner almost every night and it was always something new; we good go from Arthur Fiedler to the soundtrack from Roots over a dinner, with everything in between. I remember a few years back I was in a store and there was that elevator-type music playing in the background and a lady in line ahead was squinting and thinking and wondering, and she finally said, aloud to no one in particular, “What song is this? Who used to sing this song?”

And I replied, “Vicki Carr. ‘It Must Be Him.’”

The lady told me I was too young to know that and asked how I knew. I said, because I’m a smart-ass, “I used to do my long program to this one.” Then I spread my arms and lifted a leg behind me as though ice-skating.

But I was right, because I’d heard that song when I was just a wee queerling.

What was the first album you ever purchased yourself?  To be honest — and why not? — I think it was a Diana Ross and the Supremes album. I am a huge Miss Ross fan.to.this.day. But then there was The Who; the Beatles; Simon and Garfunkel … and others to follow.

 What is the latest music you purchased? Adele’s latest was my last purchase. I don’t do “internet” music so I always buy an actual CD because, like a book, I like to hold it in my hand; I like the lyrics so I need to be able to read the songs as well as bust out singing ‘em.

What is the very last song you listened to before writing this post? Be honest!  Idina Menzel — you might know her as Adele Dazeem — singing a live version of “No Day But Today.”

Now, I am supposed to bestow this ward on some folks, but I’ve seen it all around the blog-dom, so I will just say that if you wanna share your music with us, take the questions and sing to us …

Now, before I go, this little award got me trolling YouTube and stumbling across some stuff … so I’m’a leave y’all with a little Sammy.

Davis Jr., that is.