Smoky Mountain Brain

We were listening to music out on the balcony the other night, and some songs came on that made me think of stuff I used to think when I was a kid, and it made me laugh.

The first one was Smoky Mountain Rain

I hadn’t heard that song in so long that hearing it brought back a vivid chain of thoughts. The first time I heard this song, I think I was 4 or so. I remember thinking “So…let me get this straight. You’re just riding in trucks, and then getting out in different towns and yelling her name? That doesn’t seem like it would work too well. What if you’re going the wrong way? Or what if the whole time you’re going one way, she’s going the other way? Heck, why don’t you tell us what her name is, and then we could all look for her?”
I guess I was thinking of those times when our cat would stray, and we’d go outside and call for him, or that time I got lost wandering around our huge yard, ended up walking towards the neighbours, and they had to go down the road calling my name. Whatever the reason, I put way too much thought into this song.

Then there’s the zillion songs that talk about being together until the end of time. I remember thinking “He knows when time ends? He has to know, since he can say he’ll be with her until the end of time. It’s like mom saying we go to bed at 9:00. She knows when 9:00 is and can tell us. So if he knows when time ends, when is it? And what happens when time ends. Do all the clocks just stop? What do we do then?” I don’t think I ever said any of this out loud because I think people would have laughed and laughed and laughed and I would have had another one of those moments where I looked at them and thought “That wasn’t a joke! Why are you laughing?”

This next one I thought about when I was in high school, but I still laugh because my perspective has totally changed on this song. It was “Unanswered Prayers” by Garth Brooks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i2DeBP-paw

Every time it would get to the line about “As we walked away, I looked at my wife, and then and there I thanked the good lord for the gifts in my life…” I thought “What the heck? Did the old flame turn into a psycho? Or did she become ugly and scary and evil? How would I feel if I were the old flame and my old flame was thinking ‘Gees, did I ever make the better choice by choosing my wife instead of you!'” I know now that he was just saying that it turns out that they were probably not as awesome a couple as they had originally thought and things worked out better for each of them, but high school me would always think he was saying “Sheesh! I really dodged one there! What a fool I was!”

And those were the strange old thoughts dredged up by songs. I’m sure I’ll think of more.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.