Anniversary Songs

If you’ve been coming around Older Eyes, Bud’s Blog for a while, you know he loves music.   His life has a soundtrack of thousands of tunes, tied to good memories and bad.  Mrs. Eyes (also known as Muri to my Bud) is not the music lover her husband is but our 50 year marriage (tomorrow) still has a soundtrack of love songs.   I thought I’d post a few today in preparation for the big day.

Our courtship began with coffee dates at The Campus Restaurant at the University of Connecticut.  This was likely playing on the jukebox and it still takes me back:

Can You Believe … 49?

We have a group of four couples that we go out for dinner with for Christmas.  They are all friends we made when we moved into our first house in 1972.  We see each other sporadically during the year but Christmas is the only time we go out as a group.   One of the remarkable things about this group is that we have almost 200 years of marriage between us.   My wife, Muri, and I are doing our part with our 49th anniversary today.  Given our fairly long courtship at the University of Connecticut, we have known each other for 53 years.  Looking back at the immature, arrogant young man I was at 21, I have to believe I had some guidance in choosing her to be my wife.  Perhaps there’s some truth to the Jewish notion of a Basheert,  the name of the woman a man will marry announced by a voice from heaven 40 days he is born – literally a match made in heaven.

Silly Love Songs

A few years ago, Paul McCartney had a hit with his post-Beatles band, Wings, titled Silly Love Songs.  I really disliked that song, in spite of the fact that it had a catchy tune that I would find drifting though my brain at odd times.  Catchy is not necessarily good.  In this particular case, catchy was awful, a lesson as to what can happen when a songwriting team that has produced hundreds of songs that altered the music industry go off on their own.  You get Silly Love Songs and Instant Karma.  The subject matter of Silly Love Songs, I can’t argue with because I LOVE love songs.   After all, I grew up on Put Your Head on My Shoulder and Dream Lover and navigated college to Reach Out I’ll Be There and Unchained Melody.  And from my Mom, I learned a fondness for the great American Songbook, whether it was performed by Old Blue Eyes, Linda Ronstadt or Diana Krall.  And being somewhat of an old school rocker, I’ve always loved bombastic love songs of the sort recorded by bands like REO Speedwagon, Journey and Chicago.