Imprinting Via Music

Growing up in a music loving household meant there was almost always tunes in the air.  My Daddy had the "Sunday Oldies" blaring in his shed, and Mum had 98.3 or even Chez 106 playing classic rock on the inside.  My oldest sis would pop in a cassette tape periodically and that wasn't always a good thing for me, or so I thought.  I mean, what young girl wants to listen to Bruce Cockburn or Billy Holiday?  I wanted cool, hip, happy music.

But Tam was into social issues.  A very proud moment for her was meeting and having a pic taken with Bruce himself while she was at Queens.  He still lives very near to us both, and can be seen perusing at the market sometimes I hear.

A friend recently posted the song, "Call It Democracy" by Bruce Cockburn on fb and it brought back all of these memories from my childhood.  I started listening to more of Bruce's songs on the Youtube link, and realized once they began playing, that I knew them.  Not only did I recognize the tune, but I found I knew the words too. They were a part of me. Some even made me tear up.  Was I imprinted with social compassion and the desire for fairness simply through music?

As a pre-teen, feeling like I was being forced to listen to these songs, no tears fell then.  I didn't feel the words the way I do now.  My biggest gripe was not being allowed to get my own horse!  I knew nothing of social issues or environmental issues.  So the songs didn't touch me.

Or did they?

Did these songs help mold me into the tree hugger I am today?  I mean, if a tree falls does anyone give a shit?  At present day, trees are falling at a rapid rate some 25+ years later.  I may not have heard them way back then.  But I hear them now.

Check out these songs!

"If I Had a Rocket Launcher" ** man! how many times have I wanted one of those?  How many times have I felt the very same sentiment as Bruce?

"If I had a rocket launcher some son-of-a-bitch would pay!".

"If A Tree Falls" **is this song why I give so many shits about the Amazon being torn down? Do we hear those trees falling?  Do we hear the voices of the indigenous people who still live among them?  Is this song why I know in my very core that GREED is the enemy and COEXISTENCE is the key?

"Green brain facing lobotomy,
 Climate control centre for the world.
 Ancient cord of coexistence,
 Hacked by parasitic greedhead scam."

Hear those harmonies?  Do they pull at your heart the way they do mine?

"Lovers In A Dangerous Time" **is this song why I believe in my core that we all deserve the right to love whom we want to love?  Is this why I have this fight in me?

"When you're lovers in a dangerous time,
sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime.
But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight,
Got to kick at the darkness til it bleeds daylight."

"The Trouble With Normal" **is this song why I'm a card-carrying Liberal?  Did this song introduce me to the word "democracy" or the term "personal rights"?  Is this why I'm an annoyingly squeaky wheel when it comes to fair pay for all?

"Strikes across the frontier and strikes for higher wage,
Planet lurches to the right as ideologies engage.
Suddenly it's repression;  moratorium of rights."

"A Dream Like Mine" **is this song why I seem so foot-stompingly sure my voice needs to be heard nowadays?  Nobody can push me around, nobody can take me down.  Is this song why I'm forever hopeful that with enough raised voices, enough petitions signed, governments will see the err in their selfish ways?

"The picture shifts to how it's going to be ... balanced restored."


Music is therapy and music is freedom.  With the right words, music can also influence.

Have you been imprinted this way?  By what artist?