It may have been just what I needed.
As you may have picked up by what I
wrote yesterday, I was heading through the afternoon yesterday with a
little gray cloud over my head. I mean, I wasn’t in a bad mood or
cranky or anything; I was just kind of stunned by everything that's
gone on the previous 24 hours. Then at 4:45 I answered the phone
after soliciting an Instant Request, and I heard this--
“Hi, can you play ‘Superstition’
by Stevie Wonder”?
My usual reaction when I get that
particular phone call is to imitate Homer Simpson when he drools over
a box of doughnuts, and I did again this time. I also threw in my
usual line about “Superstition” being one of the three greatest
songs ever recorded (which, of course, it is) and had the caller
agree with me, which is always a bonus. I then got the phone call
ready for air, played it, and started the song.
I don’t what it is. I don’t know
if it’s the drum beat, the bass line, the horns, or any combination
thereof, but the second the song starts something inside me moves.
My toe taps a little, my head starts to nod in time to the music, and
this feeling washes over me. Even on a day like yesterday, a day
when the world was turned all around, when I heard the first few
notes of “Superstition” a feeling that’s a combination of
happiness, contentment, and pure funk washed over me, cleansing my
psyche of whatever ill was infecting it and booting that little gray
cloud back from wherever it came.
The power of that song is amazing. It
really is.
The funny thing is that I don’t
believe any other piece of music has that exact power over me. There
are a couple of songs that I like better than “Superstition”;
there are also a couple of tunes that I know are probably “better”
than “Superstition”, as well. But there is no other song that
has the power over my mood and my state of mind that “Superstition”
has. I don’t know why; I probably couldn’t even explain it if I
did know why. All I know is that a song that is, what, 43 years old
this year can take even the worst day and make it seem all right.
I hope everyone has a song like that in
their life. I really do!
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