Friday, March 25, 2016

An auntie song??

Klara wrote a post recently about how her little niece had learned a special song to sing for her mother on Mother's Day. When the niece offered to sing it for her, Klara said that instead, she would love to hear the song for aunties. Her niece responded that there wasn't any auntie song.

Is there?? I tried to think of any songs I knew about aunts or aunties, and the best I could come up with was "Your Auntie Grizelda" -- a rather quirky song from my childhood by the Monkees -- with Peter singing lead, slightly offkey! Can anyone come up with any other auntie songs??

Anyway, Klara's lament about the lack of songs for aunties did bring to mind an old Barry Manilow song, a cut from an album that was in my sister's & my vinyl collection in the late 1970s. And when I went to read the lyrics, they were all about regret and loss and disappointment, and not appreciating people when you have them in your life, until it's too late. So in that respect, maybe it's a somewhat relevant song for some of us, sometimes. ;) 

(You can't take it too literally, of course -- I could never imagine changing my number & turning away from my nephews! -- but I know some of us feel a little taken for granted by our families and friends sometimes -- we are always expected to be there for them (because we have all this free time on our hands, because we don't have kids, of course...!) but the relationship isn't always equally reciprocal.)

A Linda Song
by Barry Manilow

He never wrote a song for Linda
He wrote as though he lived alone
He wrote of dreams that end of sad brave men
Inventing worlds he never know

But he never wrote a song for Linda
And she was right there all along
Loved him back to life
When his luck ran low
But he never wrote a Linda song

He nearly broke his heart at writing
Linda kept him from despair
Standing by his side, through the hungry days
But he hardly seemed to see her there

And he never wrote a song for Linda
And she was right there all along
The one real thing in his crazy world
And he never wrote a Linda song

When the bills piled up and couldn't pay
He couldn't dream no more
So he hitched a ride and he rode away
And he left a note for Linda by the door
By the door

When times got rough he'd phone her
Once or twice she took the call
Then she changed her number and she turned her head
And Linda never looked back at all

He'll never write a song for Linda
And she was right there all along
All he knows, is no one understands
And he never wrote a Linda song
No he never wrote a Linda song


6 comments:

  1. No songs for aunts (and uncles)?? Yeah, time to end that.

    My vote is based on the movie Beaches.
    Bette Midler's "Wind beneath my wings."

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  2. I agree with you... I also have the feeling that the relationship isn't always equally reciprocal.

    I love the Linda song.

    lots of love from sLOVEnia,
    Klara

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  3. I need to look up the relationship between the two words -- is it just same spelling and pronounciation but two different words, or is it the same root -- but "beloved" and "aunt" are both "dodah" in Hebrew. So the word comes up a lot. And you could technically say all the songs about a person's beloved are about a special aunt :-)

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    1. Dodah is a beautiful word.
      I am now proud to know my first two Hebrew words.
      Thank you for sharing.

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  4. I actually happened upon your blog when I googled "Julie & Julia". I read over for a while, smiled a little and cried a little. I gave birth to a stillborn son, Alexander, in 1990. It hurt so much I never got up the courage to try again. I have beloved nieces and nephews in my life, even great-nieces and nephews as well. I love them all deeply and have made peace with my loss and life. While I was reading, it occurred to me that somethimg I never thought would happen did happen; I survived! Thrived even which I never could imagine during my darkest days. We all survived, didn't we? We're productive, happy, loved and loving. It still amazes me though how the memories come out of nowhere. But we're still here.

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    Replies
    1. We did, & we are!! :) Thank you so much, Anonymous, your comment just made my day! :)

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