SassyBlonde

First, an explanation: you've probably seen posts in the "Lyric of the Day" category here from time to time. In case you're wondering where these come from, they're whatever bits of my job are stuck in my head that day. And I usually mean all day, by God.

One of the things I love about my job, that being a free-as-a-bird and poor-as-a-church-mouse freelance musician, is that I get to play lots of different kinds of things for lots of different kinds of performances. One night I might be playing Beethoven at the Kennedy Center, the next I'm crammed in a scary little orchestra pit playing beautiful transcendent tunes for a show. It's a whimsical sort of existence, juggling all of those different styles and all of the different instruments I use to play them: flutes, clarinets, saxophones, recorders, whistles and sometimes the odd percussion instrument (I mean, I have two hands and the poor percussionist can't always do everything.)

One of the sometimes maddening things about my job is that I tend to take my work home with me in little snippets that patter around in my brain all day and night. For instance, when I start a new musical, I almost always have bits and pieces and even entire songs from the show running through my head 24/7 for the first few weeks. Usually my shows run anywhere for three to ten weeks, so you can see how that could get really annoying.

My solution is to get a recording of the show and just simply learn the entire thing. Sing it, play along with it, read about it, sing it some more, and just listen to it everywhere I go. Not that it chases the little snippets away, but at least I can put them in context and sing the whole song if I want to.

A while back my husband had the bright idea of creating a "Lyric of the Day" posting here, just to show one more window into what's running around my brain and maybe exorcise some of those random snippets. And I thought you might enjoy hearing some of those bitty snippets to go with the words, too, so above each new one will be a little audio bit too, if I can manage it. And maybe a little blurb about why I like it (or don't) so much. Hopefully it won't be one of those "Stars and Stripes" things... maybe stuck in your head just because I showed it to you. But if so, maybe you'll find some new cool thing to listen to, right?

So without further ado:

Click here to hear The Proposal

I'll be comin' back to you Darlene
Back to your dark eyes,
And hair
Marry me when I return Darlene
And until that day my love,
Take care

Be thee well
May the Lord watches all watch over thee
May God's heaven be your blanket as you softly sleep
Marry me
When you're finally in my arms you'll plainly see
This devoted sailor's heart and soul are yours to keep