This post is dedicated to Tex in the City, who also has a soundtrack to her life, and to Q, who can BIOHTM any time he feels like it.
You’ll need study materials for this post. Please pull your copy of Sam Cooke’s Bring It On Home to Me from your desks, and listen to it as you read. I shall wait patiently as you open the file by rocking the baby back to sleep.
I’ve written before about the influence the music of Sam Cooke has had on my life. Yeah, growing up, we had all the classics: Marvin, Aretha, Jackie, but those were the gods of my parents’ destinies. Sam Cooke was mine.
If you ever change your mind about leavin’, leavin’ me behind
bring it to me/bring your own sweet lovin’
bring it on home to me
I stopped for ice cream on the way home after work yesterday. I occasionally can have a fairly stressful day in the midst of this, my beautiful island vacation complete with blue water and lithe, limber cabana man. I know, right? And it was on this stressful day in paradise, I asked/informed my brand new manager I was leaving for the day an hour early.
I know I laughed when you left
but now I know I only hurt myself
but I’ll forgive you
bring it on home
As I waited for my white chocolate waffle cone topped with sweet cream ice cream with a Heath bar and Butterfingers mix in, I started to order a pint to go for the kids. Then I thought: no. This one hour of one day of one week of one month of the past 15 years is for me. Only.
I’ll give you jewelry and money, too.
That ain’t all, that ain’t all I’ll do for you.
Oh, if you’ll bring it on home.
Bring it on home to me.
Stuck in traffic for two hours after the best ice cream cone ever made, I skipped what seemed like 600 songs on my iPod before landing on Sam Cooke’s Sad Mood. Hunh. Wasn’t in such a sad mood anymore even while pulling over for three ambulances on their way to what I assumed to be a gruesome scene. Navigating the touch screen of my non-Apple car stereo gives me fits, and I finally found my way to playing the entire Sam Cooke library. Sang at the top of my lungs for 60 minutes. Can’t sing. Throat hurts. Happy hurt.
You know I’ll always be your slave
’til I’m buried, buried in my grave
oh, honey, bring it to me
bring your sweet lovin’
bring it on home to me
Sam was not the most stable lover of his era. Details of his murder are sketchy, but historians agree it involved a woman and a gun. I identify with the longing in his voice as he wants to reclaim lost lovers, the excitement in the very next song when a lover returns.
One more thing: I tried to treat you right
But you stayed out, stayed out and lied
But I’ll forgive you
If you bring it on home
Bring it on home to me
He mourns the loss of this woman, offers to be her love slave until the day he dies, yet can’t resist reminding her in the final verse that most of their collective problem is her fault. If you hadn’t been out leading a life of your own, honey, none of this would have happened.
I wanna hope she’s not the baby coming home tomorrow ain’t that good news man ain’t that news he’s meeting at the station who said in her letter she’s sorry that she left, found out she don’t want nobody else, says she wants him all to herself, but knowing us, it’s probably the same baby. Ain’t That Good News…
I loooved this post. Love how music makes us feel so alive and stir-y-up-y inside.
Aw, thank you, Dory. Music is actually my most effective anti-depressant.
I’m laughing at myself, b/c I stopped in early this a.m. to read your post and got a little melancholy and lost in thought whilst listening to Bring it on home to me……excellent tune.
I’m back to say that I am happy that you enjoyed your early release and ice cream cone…all for you. We do need to do that sometimes, don’t we? I can relate to the urge to pick some up for the kids…I do that all the time. I don’t recall the last time I went through a drive-thru and ordered for one. ???
I do think after I drop off my DVD at the Redbox tonight, I’ll stop and get a shake or a 7-layer burrito. For me:)
Oh, and as for the question as to whether the woman in the song is the same baby? My money says yes.
That sweet cream is fast becoming one of my favorite memories. If I weren’t so close to bankruptcy, I’d buy $5 ice cream cones more often. I’m not sure if the BIOHTM woman is the same as the ATGN woman only because Sam Cooke was more than a little popular with the ladies. I’m glad you enjoyed the song!
“…but historians agree it involved a woman and a gun…”
I am pretty sure that is the way all of us want to leave this world. Isn’t it?
Either that or in an East Coast/West Coast business dispute.
I was following along but the thought of your cone kept creeping into my head. Must download some Same Cooke but only after I make a trip to my local ice cream shop!
All I really wanted was a single scoop jamocha almond fudge from Baskin-Robbins, but my job neighborhood is lacking ice cream shoppe diversity.
I love reading posts that integrate music into the meat of the content. Well done.
Jack, welcome to the fringe and thanks for the compliment!
This part reminds me how we should all live.
“Sang at the top of my lungs for 60 minutes. Can’t sing. Throat hurts. Happy hurt.”
*making mental notes*