Boise Gathering 2008, Part 3

Soulful Songs

JJ: Songs can do a lot to influence mood and there are some songs where people can tap into the soul of things. A lot of songs just tap into kind of a fun energy within us. I would not say that these tap into the soul but they tap into the creative part of our selves – and they are just fun to listen to. But every once in while a song comes along that really stirs the inward parts of our selves and the song itself elevates the feelings and the passion to the level of our soul. I will play you just a couple of my favorites that do this and I think you’ll sense this also.
(JJ plays the Titanic theme song instrumental.)

Now why was Titanic the number one movie of all time in revenue? Was it because the story was good? The story had been told before but it was told in a new way and the writing was good but that was not enough. What drew people back was the basic sound of the whole thing and they came back again and again, especially young teenage girls that are very much into the heart. They were very much affected and some of them saw it like twelve times or so.

Audience: My daughter saw it eight times and she even dyed her hair red. Chuckling!

Audience: This is very Irish and a lot of the Irish songs can do that to you.

(The song continues to play.)

JJ: What this does is tap into the soul although every once in a while I meet somebody that says they do not like it. No matter how good you think something is there is going to be a certain percentage of people that do not like it. But I find people who are sensitive to the soul energies usually have a similar feeling about music as I do. Then people who like superficial stuff like a different type of music that does not really take you to the soul. The only thing I did not like about the movie was at the end when she threw that jewel into the ocean. I was thinking just before she threw it overboard, “No don’t do it! Sell it and give the money to the poor – do something with it, but don’t throw it in the ocean.” But even though I did not like that part it still stirred a lot of emotional energy.

( The Titanic theme song “My heart will go on” sung by Celine Dion is now playing.

My heart will go on is the other melody in there that I thought really stirred the soul energies. Is it my imagination or do you guys feel the same way about the soul energies connected with it?

Audience confirms they all feel the soul energy connected with the music from Titanic.

JJ: I would guess that about a third of the people that saw the movie did not feel the soul connection to the music and the people that didn’t sense it were not interested in higher spiritual things.

Audience: Maybe they do not listen to music.

JJ: That is perhaps part of it.

The song continues to play.

JJ: And I am not really excited about Celine Dion but this song is beautiful. I would say that without this music it would have done half the revenue. I think the music just permeated the consciousness of people.

Okay we will move on to another one from the Beatles, “Here Comes the Sun.” I did not usually like anything from George Harrison like I did Lennon and McCartney, but when he wrote this I think it touched the soul just as much as any of the other Beatles songs did. He must have been particularly inspired the day that he wrote this for some reason.

The song continues to play and then JJ switches to Richard Marx.

JJ: Here is the only song from Richard Marx that he wrote that I thought really touched the soul.

The song “Right here waiting” is playing.

JJ: You guys remember this one?

The thing I find interesting is a lot of artists like Richard Marx write one song that touches the soul and the rest of the songs do not seem to do it and it is interesting that they just have one moment where they are really inspired.

Audience: Christopher Cross and the song “Sailing” is another example of this.

The song continues to play.

JJ: Here is another song that touches the soul for me.

Cat Stevens’ song “Moon Shadow” is now playing.

JJ: It is hard to believe that this guy just gave up his life and his music and became a Muslim and very religious. He started playing again but the gap has been so long he has not really produced anything worthwhile. If he would have stayed focused who knows where he would have went.

The song continues to play.

JJ: The Rolling Stones were kind of a carnal bunch but they did write one song that kind of came close to the soul. They wrote some really good music that centered listeners a lot on the earth and personality though.

Rolling Stones song “Lady Jane” is playing.

JJ: Depends on the mood but I thought this was kind of a different song for them to write. A little bit out of character for them but it was a good one.

The song is now stopped.

JJ: And we cannot forget “Enya” her music is very soulful and it was like she was trying to stretch herself to go higher.

(Transcriber: Her beautiful music is playing. On a side note Enya sings a beautiful song for “The Lord of the Rings” “The Fellowship of the Ring” called “May it be” that truly touches the soul.)

JJ: Okay I will play just a couple more songs that touch the soul and this one here is sung by my son Ramsey, he is really talented and does a lot of different things. He has had a band, he makes videos, he speaks a number of different languages, he is really a smart kid and he plays about every musical instrument there is.

(Next playing is Blondie performing the song “Call Me.”)

JJ: This song is a good one and kind of creates an interesting mood.

Okay now I am going to play you guys a song that really touches the soul, are you guys ready? This is the one, the soul toucher! Here it is!

(He plays “Born to be Wild” performed by Steppenwolf.)

JJ: This needs to be louder! Laughing!

Here is another one I liked and if you are old enough and remember the Vietnam War then you will remember this one.

(He plays The Times are a Changing by Bob Dylan.)

JJ: I think he touched the soul somewhat in his early stuff.

Here is another one that really kind of moves you!

(Now playing is “Gloria” performed by Laura Branigan)

JJ: I will end with a song I wrote when I was about 22 that I think really touches the soul and I hired a guy to sing it for me because I am not that great of a singer. It is called “A Year and a Day” (Click on the link to play.)

A Year in a Day

Copyright 2011 by J J Dewey

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