Strangers in the Night

I had slipped into something a little more 'comfortable, turning out the lights having only a few candles lit around my bedroom and I poured myself some merlot.  The humidity was thick as the warm breeze blew through the open window, curtains blowing as if to draw me in to the heat of the night, begging me to lie there naked and exposed.  I heard a sound as he slowly entered the room and surrounded me.  Softly, he spoke, saying all the things I wanted to hear with his melodic tone... music to my ears after all the others.  His whispers penetrated me, going deep into my soul... transporting me to another time and place... right to my core... raw.  The images in my mind and smells that were conjured overtook me.  I was helpless, under his control, as I unbuttoned my blouse.  Teasing me.  Playing me.  Giving me chills.  Making me want him.  Suddenly, I fell prey to the beautiful song he was singing to me and I called out his name... "Barry... you do write the songs that make the young girls cry", as I, myself, slowly wept... clutching my pillow, wishing it was him.  If only I could meet Mr. Manilow.  He touched me every day, if not physically, then through his music and I loved him so and he, me, and only me (despite this Mandy girl that he so often sang about).

Music has the incredible ability to invoke so many feelings, emotions, memories and reactions from us.  It can make us remember a certain instance or memorable occasion or person... even down to a certain smell.  It can make us laugh and make us cry with only a few notes.  When I hear Stuck On You, I still remember my high school girlfriend and laying in the park on a blanket in the warm summer's sun.  When I hear Sing, I think of my Mom and me singing in the house while we cleaned and a faint smell of Lemon Pledge is conjured.   Eye of the Tiger transports me to Myrtle Beach in 1983 carrying my boom-box down the beach, even recalling what I was wearing. 

I grew up with Big Band music from my parents.  I've always had a love of music, particularly the piano and I took lessons when I was younger and sang in the choir in high school.  I developed a love of classical music early on through a series of tapes called Hooked on Classics, where they took the classical pieces from great composers and added a beat to them, somewhat modernizing them.  From my Italian heritage, I have also liked foreign music, especially Italian and French.  Some of Marlene Dietrich's or Edith Piaf's songs take me back to my trip to Paris, leisurely walking about Montmartre, browsing the many artists painting on their easels with pastry in-hand.  Lounge music from the late 50's and early 60's has always been a favorite of mine as well, with it's bongos and odd instruments, you almost want to light a cigarette and sip a martini.  And I wouldn't be gay if I didn't love a show tune or 300, and the passion behind opera is amazing in that you don't have to understand a word of it to be able to feel the angst.  Even some of the country classics take me back to a time when I used to go to gay two-stepping where I met a lot of my really good friends. 

I'm glad I have a diverse love of music.  In dating some of the twenty-somethings, I think it is the difference in music that is the hardest for me.  Songs that invoke angst or moodiness are my favorite, always being able to pull more feeling out of pain than happiness in a song.  Lady GaGa does nothing for me except wonder where she got the bacon on her dress and why I'm suddenly hungry... to call some of these current singers 'artists' is a joke.  Nowadays, anyone can be famous and it doesn't take talent and the music award shows couldn't be a better reflection.  With auto-tune and various other electronic alterations, almost anyone can sing... well, maybe not Taylor Swift.  Oh well, I'm sure our parents said the same about us... or you, maybe... since I was listening to their music at 14, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.