free, to be sure of, what I am and who I need not be...

 

I think in one of my previous blogs, I mentioned the complexities of black music.
Anyway, this clip of stevie wonder's "superstition" visually proves my point. look at how many instruments there are in the recording studio!

If you really  try to listen (meaning, close your eyes and listen to the song several times) and isolate the layers of different melodies/ rhythms/ and instruments played all together, it really is quite amazing.  


anyway, i'm slightly sunburned from today's hike.
this is the 4th one for the year (meaning, I can cross the "go on at least 4 hikes" off of my goal sheet)
^_^ victory.

I have to work on my art goals. From now until December, that's what I want to focus my energy on.

I'm kind of all over the place. My mind feels that way tonight.  A lot of different things happened this summer, and I think in the next 5 days I have to process what was accomplished, and what still needs work (physically, mentally, emotionally...)





When i was younger, my dad used to make a lot of mixed tapes. I think that's why I take extreme pleasure in making mixed cds/ playlists for my friends...
because I watched how happy it made him. 
Anyway,
On one of the last tapes he ever made me, he put this particular song on "Free" from stevie wonder...
And while he was putting it on, he looked at me and smiled, and said "this song reminds me of you."

and, I kind of liked it, but I liked the other songs more (after all, my tape had songs from janet jackson, and the jackson 5...as well as other songs I was more familiar with....)

As I got older, I developed a deep deep appreciation for the song (the arrangement!!!), the depth lyrics ( lyrics and video posted below...), and for all of the memories that the song holds.


On my happiest and loneliest days, I listen to this song over and over again on my ipod.

I guess, as kind of a reminder, but maybe more as an affirmation of self. The older i get, the more meaning I find in my dad's smiling comment.

Of all of the songs he knew, I'm happy really happy  that this song reminded him of who I was then.

And through the irony of time, memories, and love,  the same song reminds me of him, and who he is now.

**winnie.

 Free like the river
Flowin' freely through infinity
Free to be sure of
What I am and who I need not be
Free from all worries
Worries prey on oneself's troubled mind
Freer than the clock's hands
Tickin' way the times
Freer than the meaning of free that man defines
Life running through me
Till I feel my father God has called

Me having nothin'
But possessing riches more than all
And I'm free
To be nowhere
But in every place I need to be
Freer than a sunbeam
Shinning through my soul
Free from feelin' heat or knowing bitter cold
Free from conceiving the beginning
For that's the infinite start

I'm gone - gone but still living
Life goes on without a beating heart

Free like a vision
That the mind of only you can see

Freer than a raindrop
Falling from the sky
Freer than a smile in a baby's sleepin' eyes

I'm free like a river
Flowin' freely to infinity
I'm free to be sure of what
I am and who I need not be
I'm much freer - like the meaning of the word free that
crazy man defines
Free - free like the vision that
The mind of only you are ever gonna see
Free like the river my life
Goes on and on through infinity