.....Somebody.....

"I coulda been somebody.." laments Marlon Brando as 'Terry' in 'On The Waterfront'.
"I used to be somebody...now I'm somebody else" observes Jeff Bridges playing 'Bad Blake 'in 'Crazy Heart'.
Music is my memory-minder, my map meandering much of my (alot of mm's..mmmm?) life thus far. As I have my morning coffee gazing out over the Gulf of Mexico listening to my music on my cordless headset, each song seems to be an instant reflection/reminder/memory, of an event in my life, or, more realistically, one of my many lives. I agree: 'I used to be somebody..now I'm somebody else' and this is, and has been, a recurring evolution, not just for me, for anyone who cares to ponder their own life's adventures at any given time. (I nearly said: '...given point in time..' a favorite phrase when I programmed at the New York Stock Exchange (a memory provoked by David Houston's "Almost Persuaded").
Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" is Flushing N.Y., a tree bought at a lot on Horace Harding Blvd, and a usual gift of an Eveready flashlight I used as a railroad train on the floor; "Winter Wonderland" is MaryLou Simeone and Pomonok Golf Course, Donna Fargo's "Happiest Girl in the USA" is Vito and Pizza and blankets and "Silver Bells" is Jayne on a freezing winter night before Christmas Eve on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, "We're Not the Jet Set" (George & Tammy) is WHN and the LIRR CountryPolitan ride to Madison Square Garden,"Sh-Boom" (Crew Cuts) is 1954 and I'm mowing the lawn (and getting paid for it!) at the just built Queens Ward in Little Neck, "Hush-a-bye" (Mystics) is Gene as an infant in the little house in Granger, and also lying on my back in the hallway between the two bedrooms Sandi, Sharon & Diana were in on Darby Circle, and this song ended my usual 15 minutes of singing each evening, and the Eagles "Take It Easy" is a call from Michael in Arizona, The Seekers "Morningtown Ride" & "The Carnival Is Over" is LIRR Valley Stream/Boston Lynn, "Sea Cruise' (Frankie Ford) is Long Beach's West End, and a visit to Melissa and Pat in their apartment behind Chauncey's, and no one else but Mary & I wanted to go dance, so we went into a neighborhood bar (among about 20+ bars) on West Beech St, to be greeted by the bartender, who'd been there for years and years (Long Beach continuity) saying: "You must be one of the White girls", "C'Est Si Bon" (EarthaKitt) is a young maturing teen-age me reading "Battle Cry", Vivaldi's "Violin Concerto in A-minor" is the Third Street Music School Settlement and Town Hall and Cora Gordon and Miss Lucy Neidhardt and a box of fresh peanuts with a string tied around it from her local drug store on Lincoln Place in Brooklyn, "Each Cooing Dove" "We're All Going Calling On The Kaiser" is Dad and "I Had Such A Pretty Dream Mama" and "Holy City" are Mom.
In "Diner", Shrevie (Daniel Stern) says to his wife Beth (Ellen Barkin): 'When I listen to my records they take me back to certain points in my life'. Amen.
At 71 years of age, I can very honestly say I want to be younger again; obviously I know "Father Time won't change his mind and take me back that far" (from "Molly Ann" by Cal Smith 1977), yet, I can sing along with George Burns: "I wish I was eighteen again and going where I've never been. Now time turns the pages and oh, life goes so fast. the years turn the hair all grey'...
And yet, I like who I am, now... I liked who I was when I was somebody, and, also, somebody else, whoever that somebody was at that time, whatever time the music evokes .
"Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind..Sweetened through the ages just like wine....Quiet thoughts come floating down and settle softly to the ground..." (music by The Lettermen and also by Elvis...)
I'm Somebody who used to be Somebody Else.....And the adventure called life continues...
......