Patsy, Trisha, and the Power of Music

Early one morning as I was driving downtown, I was listening to a classic country radio station.  I heard an old song that I remember from my childhood, Patsy Cline’s “She’s Got You.”  According to Wikipedia, Patsy recorded it in 1961, the year I turned 5.  I have a very vivid memory of being at our little house on 38^th Place in Lawton, playing with my sister in our parents’ bedroom, for some reason.  The radio was on, and Patsy came on  singing the saddest song I had ever heard.  Even then I knew that she sang like an angel.   I listened attentively to the story she told, a story of lost love and regret, and I remember that it evoked images that I could relate to, such as a class ring and records, like my mother had, and other things I was too young to understand.  

At the time, my Dad was stationed in Korea, so I understood something about the feelings of loss the song expresses.  Every time I hear “She’s Got You,” I go back to that little house and remember vividly what it was like to be a 5-year-old boy and all the feelings I felt the first time I heard it.   ­­­­­­

I have a playlist on my iPod titled "Patsy and Trisha."  The Trisha is Trisha Yearwood, in case you aren’t familiar with her.  These two are connected in my mind for several reasons.   They are both altos, and both have the ability to sing a song in a way that really moves me.  Trisha has a song called “Xs and Os” that includes the line, “Well she's got her God, and she's got good wine, Aretha Franklin, and Patsy Cline.”  So, Trisha and I share a love for Patsy’s songs.

Also, I once met Trisha Yearwood.  Well, kind of.  Back about 1998, I took my daughter and a friend of hers to the Independence Day concert at Ft. Sill, which was outdoors on the Polo Field.  The concert  was all country that year, and there was some young cowboy the girls wanted to see, I don’t even remember who.  The headliner was Willie Nelson, but there were several other artists, and there was Trisha, who was the reason I wanted to see that concert.   I remember that when she took the stage, I pushed my way closer to the front so I could see her better.  She was singing something angelic and I was mesmerized.   As I stood there smiling, a little taller than most in the crowd, wearing my OU Sooners ball cap, Trisha looked directly at me.  I mean, we made eye contact.   She recognized me as an individual in the crowd.  There was a momentary connection between us.  For a few seconds, she was singing to me. It was not my imagination, really.  It happened. 

So, now when I hear Trisha, I remember that concert, the sounds of that day, the heat, and how cool it was to “meet” Trisha.  As when I hear Patsy Cline, Trisha’s singing takes me back to a specific place and time in my life.  

It is my experience that some songs have that power-- the ability to transport us, to remind of the way we once felt, and how it was to be that younger version of ourselves.  I bet you have your own examples, just as I do.

Along with Patsy's and Trisha's songs, there are many others that transport me back.  When I hear Gladys Knight sing "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me," I think back to when Dana and I were first dating.  It was the first of many songs that we now consider to be Our Songs.  And when I hear Edwin Starr's War, I am once again a junior-high kid, having a great time roller-skating as fast as I can at the Doe Doe Park rink.  

I think Trisha could relate to all these musings because she has another song called “The Song Remembers When.”  It is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.  If you have never heard that song, or even if you have, take just a few minutes and experience it here.    This song is another one about lost love, about a song on the radio bringing back memories and feelings long buried:

"After taking every detour
Getting lost and losing track
So that even if I wanted
I could not find my way back
After driving out the memory
Of the way things might have been

After I'd forgotten all about us
The song remembers when."

Those lyrics express beautifully one of my favorite aspects of music.  If you listen to Oldies Radio, like I do, assuming that you are old enough to remember when those old songs were new, you know what I am talking about.  Who needs a time machine?  The songs remember when.