Green Fields of Fance

I used to have a job that recognized November 11 (Remembrance Day) as a statutory holiday. I always went to the cenotaph, but one year I couldn’t. I was driving that day, and just before 11:00, this song was on the radio. There are many wonderful verions, but this is the one that made me catch my breath that day.

Sweet Caroline

I don’t care how much of a Neil Diamond fan you insist you aren’t, we all know that no matter where you are – in the car, writing an exam, at a funeral -  as soon as he hits the chorus with Sweet Caroline, you can’t stop yourself from singing Bah, Bah, Bah in response. Don’t fell bad. I do it too.

Hot Child in the City

Later, I thought Nick Gilder was the Next. Big. Thing. I believed this was musical gold, bought the album, and learned the words to every song.

So young to be loose and on her own.
Young boys, they all want to take her home.

One YouTube commenters calls it “one of the most sleazy and perverted songs ever. Not wrong.

Seasons in the Sun

What nine year old wouldn’t crush on Terry Jacks? I mean he had big hair, fringed jackets and was part of the Poppy Family. This time we did find the record, and I played it over and over, until even the penny on the arm of my turntable couldn’t prevent it from skipping. Funny thing – I still love this song.

Snowbird

I remember, as a very little kid, going from store to store, looking for a single of this song. It was the first mainstream song I wanted, and it was sold out everywhere. Maybe we found it eventually, I don’t really remember. I probably went back to the albums of children’s songs that we had until my next desire hit…

Another Suitcase in Another Hall

My daughter thinks she discovered musical theatre all by herself, but she wasn’t paying attention. I played some – like the soundtrack to Evita constantly when she was small. Her brother was listening. I knew I was playing Les Mis too much when I caught him, aged 3, walking through the house singing, “I smell women, smell ‘em in the air”.

Children, Where did you go?

This song by the Rankin girls transports me to a much simpler time when my kids were small and still thought I was the bee’s knees. When I put this song on, they would both come running from whatever room they were in to dance around the kitchen table. People warn you how quickly those time go, but man…

Mari Mac

This song is the one that made me a fan of Great Big Sea. They didn’t write it – it’s a cover. But Lord thunderin’, it’s good, b’y.



Mari-Macs mother's makin' Mari-Mac marry me
My mother's makin' me marry Mari-Mac
Well I'm gonna marry Mari cause Mari's takin' care o' me.
We'll all be feelin' marry when I marry Mari-Mac.

Why I know how to swim

The first time I remember the drowning dream, I was walking to the end of a long pier. It was unsteady, and the water was rising over the edge in crashing waves. Sometimes I’m swept away in a flash-flood. I don’t know if we live more than once, but if we do, in one of my previous kicks-at-the-can, I drowned.

Flying. Or swimming through the air

My flying dreams start the same. A jump off the bed, or a chair, or a table - any surface, really. I doesn't matter, because once I decide to fly the air supports me like water, and I swim through it from room-to-room, feeling as graceful as a dolphin.

When was the last flying dream? I don't remember.

The super power I had and lost

When I was young - probably through to grade 8, I could wake from an amazing dream and make myself fall back asleep, right back in the middle of the amazing dream. I can't do it anymore (hell, I can't even fall back asleep anymore -maybe that's the problem). I really miss it.

I'm not naked - you're naked

I don't walk around the house naked (though I've been told it might be a surefire way to get my son to move out). But in my dreams, I seem to be naked regularly. I often end up somewhere public before I realize that I’m, err, nude. Always, I try to casually leave, acting like there’s nothing to see here.

My super-power that wasn't (thank goodness)

A week, maybe two, before the sudden death of my childhood dog, I dreamed he died.

When I dreamed of anyone else dying after that, I was certain they were on their way out. This certainty faded over time, when no one else departed on-cue, and I’m glad I never tried to warn anyone that their earthly days were numbered.