Music and Emotions. Occasioned by the death of Mary Travers

This morning the tears have flowed freely near Observatoriekullen in Stockholm.

I woke up in an unusual good mood, considering I still have a lot to fix in my flat before I can let anyone in.

The death of Mary Travers was bit of a shock. I haven't followed her carrier lately. In fact most of my memories relate to the 60's. For a kid entering puberty and teen hood Peter Paul and Mary meant a lot as an introduction to folk and protest music. I'd rate them along Joan Baez, Dylan and Buffy St Marie in that respect. Mary's voice was wonderful, not to mention that to a fifteen year old see looked like an angel come down to us mortals. As I've mentioned earlier we had difficulties finding the music in stores or hear it on the radio. And when some one had a record we'd play it till it was mostly scratches.

 I was saddened by Mary's death but the waterfall hadn't started yet. Many people have mentioned that they cried when hearing Puff the Magic Dragon. over at the blog Joe. My God there is a post about what music makes you cry. I was going to make a comment about my number one tear inducer: "Jag vill leva i Europa" by Jan Hammarlund. Every time I hear it the tears starts flowing. But I refrained from writing anything. How could I, in a short comment describe what the song is about and why it makes me cry?  So I tried to find an English version and ended up mailing Jan to ask if he had an English version. Then I made the mistake of looking it up on YouTube. And sure enough the tears started flowing. Then I headed over to blip.  At first i tried to find something in English by Jan and found a few. The tears had dried up when i blipped for Peter Paul and Mary. For those of you not familiar with blip they also show a video when available. A few seconds into Leaving on a Jet Plane I started to really cry. Not just a trickle of tears but a river and loud sobbing.

So what is it with certain songs that moves us so? In the case of Mary it's not so hard to explain. A sadness over a great artist that meant so much to so many passing  away combined with nostalgic feelings of when I listened to her way back when.

Ever since I started hormones I cry more easily. But when it comes to Jag vill leva i Europa I can't blame them. It has had me in tears for years. And I can't really explain why. It's some combination of Jan's voice, the theme of the song and the way he put the music and the words together.

Other songs that sometimes makes my eyes water are: The Fields of Athenrye, Mary and Me, Just an Ordinary Sunday and songs about martyrs in the class strugle like Sacco and Vanzetti or the heroes of the Spanish revolution.

But other songs that sometimes make me cry I don't even like. It can be a sentimental love song or something that evokes memories.

So what opens up my tear ducts is a combination of the music, the lyrics, the theme and my current mood. Today I think I'm susceptible to most everything.

What music makes your eyes water?

Until next time hugs and kisses from
Caisa