"Kenny's Death Unlocks Memories"

Popular music has an amazing ability to encapsulate our memories for us, a lesson which I learned again this very morning. You see, since learning of the death of singer Kenny Rogers at age 81, admittedly I've cried a few tears.  Those tears were NOT primarily for Kenny, though I am a bit sad hearing of his death.  The tears were more for the MEMORIES his death unlocked. Memories encased in some of his music.

The year was 1985.....35 years ago this very month, when I bought the album above.  It was the first Kenny Rogers album I ever took a chance on, and I purchased it because the single "Crazy" was the beautiful love song I wished I could have sung to my wife at the time, Beth. Hearing it on the radio made me buy the album.

And hearing it again TODAY made me sad thinking of how SHE suffered and died, though I know she's in Heaven.

Anyway, I listened to the ENTIRE album again today ("Crazy" is track #7 or 8) and it also reminded me of three MEN that I love.  First, my Grandpa who began to feel the effects of the illness that eventually took HIS life, there in March 1985. The album transported me back to that time period. Secondly, the great President Reagan who had just won re-election and would visit my hometown a few months after the album came out. The album pictured above somehow reminded me of all of THAT, as I drank it in. And, Thirdly, Bill Bane, President of the supply company who kept my business running strong in '85, was conjured up in my memory again this morning. All three have passed away since I bought the record and each has been a frequent topic of parts of my blogs since I've started writing them.  You see, listening to Kenny's CD today unlocked memories of ALL FOUR of these beloved ones....all at once. Memories flooded through my brain and some of that flood seeped out through my eyes, in the process. I know OTHERS who've been affected by popular music that same way.

"What About Me?" is not the ONLY Kenny Rogers album I've liked.  There was also "Water and Bridges" (not to be confused with "Walls and Bridges," by John Lennon.) There were "single" songs I heard like "Something's Burning" (with The First Edition), "Something Inside So Strong," the song "Planet Texas" and the GREAT videos for "Morning Desire" and "Twenty Years Ago." Kenny Rogers was not the TYPICAL male singer I fancy....most of them write their own music, Kenny did not. He sang OTHER people's songs so it's hard to know who HE was...and usually that's not my preference.  On the other hand, Singer-Songwriters like CAT STEVENS (see my March 2nd blog) reveal who THEY are in their music and I therefore have more to say about THEM when I write about them.

But Kenny Rogers was a great vocalist and he sang "MY" songs....the songs I'd write if *I* could write songs....that's the point.

And songs that he sang held "the Key" to many, many memories which got unlocked today.