#14

#14 on The List is written by Lynda Hamblin, my Mother; the one responsible for my love of music, especially Dylan and Van Morrison.

by Lynda Hamblin - January 25, 2010

Aside from my family, I have two passions in my life – music and baseball. Not necessarily in that order…depending on how Detroit is doing it could be baseball first and music second. Regardless, music has sustained me throughout my life and been a constant companion since I slow danced around my older sister’s bedroom to Connie Francis, Paul Anka, and Bobby Vinton (she was a bit of a romantic).

As a teenager, my days were punctuated by the greatest artists of the 60’s. We called them records then and every penny I could squeeze out of my father went for the latest Dylan or Beatles or Credence release. I walked three and a half miles in the sweltering Arizona heat to the record store on the day Rubber Soul was released because I couldn’t wait for someone to get home and drive me there.

Musicians and rock bands carried a bit of a mystic in those days…before the Internet and tabloids lay their entire lives out for all to see. I believe that mystery was part of the web that drew us in. Who were these guys? But their words and music spoke to me in a way that often shook me to the core. Mr. Aldrich, my 10^th grade American History teacher, asked our class to write an essay entitled, “What I Would Be Willing to Die For.” He was somewhat dismayed when I wrote three pages about how and why I would be willing to die for the chance to see Dylan at the Fillmore in November. However, he did give me an A.

It sounds cliché to say that music can save your life but there are many who know this is true…and you know who you are. Perhaps this line from a journal I kept during my senior year in high school, a tumultuous and trying time in my life, sums up the indelible impression the music stamped me with; at once disturbing and enlightening, I wrote, “…how is it that I can remember every word from every song on the radio and I cannot remember even one time my father or mother told me they loved me.”

I clung to the words and music like a life raft. I could not have survived without them. Even now the life preservers are being cast about for those of us who flounder, fall, get up and fall again. David Gray is such an artist, a savior of sorts, saving us all a generation at a time.

Mike, a huge David Gray fan, was hesitant about including him on the blog – ”…he might be too successful to be on the list.” Perhaps. After the release in 2000 of White Ladder and the breakout hit single, “Babylon,” he did become a bit of household name. Regardless, the criteria for the 25 artists on this blog fit him perfectly. And although he released a Greatest Hits album in 2007, I persisted that he be part of the experience. While David Gray was an easy choice for me, narrowing down to only one album proved difficult. In the end, Life in Slow Motion won out.

#14 David Gray - Life In Slow Motion (2005)

Whether it is his genius at the piano or on the guitar, or the poetry of his words, this album transcends. The poignancy of the image of dissolving snowflakes in the title song, “Slow Motion,” speaks of hope and loss at the same time. There’s that lifeline – grab hold. Or how about the poetic imagery in “Now and Always?” I defy anyone not to see the swans on the water.

The swans are ghosts

On the jet black water

The swans like ghosts

On the jet black water

Hey little baby

I’ll hold you close

We’ll glide like ghosts

On the starry water.

Every song is a gift, bundled up and waiting for you. And like all good poets, he leaves the interpretation of his words to each of us. The story in each song is not clearly defined. It is a little like reading a great book with a surprise ending. I hope you will all revisit Life in Slow Motion and take the time to really listen. Surely, David would not mind if I quote the Irishman, James Joyce, when he said, “I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality.” However, it isn’t just the mystery of the music David Gray will be immortalized for – he is just quite frankly, one of the best.