Do you have a song that takes you back to a feeling, time and place of your life every time you hear it. I'm sure you have one, music has that effect on us. During my three week trip from Utah to Texas with my friend, Judd. He introduced me to Nina Simone who sings the "Sinnerman". Its a very spiritual song, you can say its religious song
considering it talks about god, the devil, forgiveness and accompanied by a lot of chanting. Its a very moving song. I would consider this one of the theme music for my trip with Judd.
Three months after the trip, I finally downloaded the song and like a time machine it took me back on that trip. As the 10 minute song played on in my room, blasting through my computer out the speakers and woofer. A river of memories flooded my body. Judd and I had a tendency of playing the song only when we were driving. It wasn't hard to associate the song with something beautiful because we were constantly experiencing a great amount of the good life. Let me try to paint you some of the pictures it reminds me of.
I remember the first time I heard the "Sinnerman". We were driving back from Antelope Island State Park, Utah. It was our first adventure. Its an island surrounded by the Salt Lake, it is small but filled with wild life, buffaloes, Foxes, Deers, and thousands of birds. It was an amazing day. We floated on the Salt Lake, saw all the animals mentioned above and noticed some amazing landscape. It was one of those days that just kept giving, each turn was greater than the other. We took a million pictures of the sun setting on our right and moon rising on our left, witnessing both during the same hour. I also have a picture of Judd peeing on the truck while these amazing phenomenons was happening. after the sunset, we jumped in the car and Judd played the song. As he was playing the song, outside my window a flock of tiny little birds would do this amazing flight. Imagine yourself holding the ends of a blanket and lift these ends up as high as you can and bring it down fast enough to send through a wave of air under the blanket. Repeat several times in a constant and rhythmic pattern, get the picture? Multiply this image 10 times and imagine the blanket wasn't made of cloth but of birds, a million tiny birds all flying in perfect rhythm. The still water of the Salt Lake reflecting this dance, multiplying the experience some more. It was magical... we didn't stop or even try to capture it with the camera. It was one of those things that just had to be appreciated during the moment. Captured only in our memories.
To our left
To our right
Those are birds on the water before the afternoon flight.
"Sinnerman" was played several more times. Another event it marked for me happened during the last leg of our trip. I always imagined this song being played during a 90 mph drive down a hot isolated place. Where storm clouds go to pasture and where a handful of vast landscapes meet, several miles of hills crosses path with another hundred miles of flat dusty, cactus infected plains. Where sand meets clay. I imagine a road with no lights, never ending and lost. The afternoons turns gray transforming into the dark night with only headlights to guiding you towards the unknown. The pianos beating faster. Feeling helpless, tired and exhausted by the days memorable gifts but still driven, wanting to see more even though you know you are at the mercy of natures dark night and time. Your patience is measured as the clock turns its digital numbers to unfamiliar hours. The rhythm of the song becomes in sync with the speed we were traveling. In the dark you speed with the song and listen to your life's sound track. It screams, it screams and the tempo grows faster. I felt my heart beating faster, life racing through my eyes. Everything was flying past me. It was at that moment that I was realized that I was not dreaming and this was not an imagination. I was traveling through New Mexico to the Texas border, in my truck with a good friend, listening to "Sinnerman", I was living a perfect moment. That moment now encapsulated into this 10 minute song. The song now carries a different meaning for me, more than just the story it is trying to tell. It now has a visual backdrop to me, accompanied by a life lesson, a reminder that life can go by fast so we should never forget to just live and enjoy the humble now... Nina screams at the top of her voice "Power! Power!" and for some strange reason I'm a believer.
Judd