Heart Songs Pt. 1: Are You Listening?

In 1995 I started listening to the radio. The events that preceded this occurrence are slightly obscured in my own mind. Suffice it to say, I did not discover KKDS 1060 Radio AAHS on my own. Radio AAHS was a children's (kids) station on AM (radio). I could now go into what I did while the radio played, the significance of it to my 11 year old life, what the radio looked like, and the time I called the station to answer the daily moral question asked by my favorite daytime DJ (whose name is lost to history), and how my recorded conversation with said woman was broadcast throughout these united states. But the minutia of biography is sometimes overbearing (at least to one's self), so let's skip it. I got an old radio and started listening. All of this is to say my first favorite song was "As I Lay Me Down," by Sophie B. Hawkins. All of my early favorite songs were sung by women. All of my life I have loved women. I know now and can see now the preparation that was occurring in my heart for the future.

This is the first in a series about the songs I love. Not songs that rock, not songs that are good, great, or greatest, but songs I love. Songs that have an emotional connection to my life, whether in time, space, or event.

Songs are music and words together. Lyrics alone can never give the same effect as actually hearing a song, but for your enjoyment: "As I Lay Me Down," Sophie B. Hawkins

It felt like springtime on this February morning

In the courtyard birds were singing your praise
I'm still recalling things you said to make me feel alright
I carried them with me today, Now

(chorus)As I lay me down to sleep

This I pray
That you will hold me dear
Though I'm far away

I'll whisper your name into the sky

And I will wake up happy

I wonder why I feel so high

Though I am not above the sorrow
Heavy hearted
Till you call my name

And it sounds like church bells

Or the whistle of a train
On a summer evening
I'll run to meet you
Barefoot barely breathing

It's not too near for me

Like a flower I need the rain
Though it's not clear to me
Every season has its change
And I will see you
When the sun comes out again

For an incomplete picture of Radio AAHS see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_AAHS