Letter to Julia 20130305

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Oh Julia, I ate your chicken wrap since you didn't show up for dinner last night.  I hope you don't mind.  The home made bread turned out much better this time, since I cooked it more.  I found some butter lettuce and tomatoes at the night market, and cooked up some chicken breast.  Alhamdulillah.

Ah, the past.  You are my future, and I can only wait for Allah to allow me you, so I think a lot about the past.  It's amazing what a small child can recall.  Do you remember much about your life when you were 4 years old?  That would be 1988, right?  I was browsing YouTube by year, and I came across the very first song I could remember, it was sung by a chick singer, and I had totally forgotten about it.  Strange, one would think that a musician would remember the first musical influences, but this song had completely slipped away from my heart until a few days ago.  "Puff the magic dragon" was the 2nd song to come into my memory, "Close to you" by the Carpenters was the 3rd, and "The circle game" by Joni Mitchell was the 4th.  The first song I remember is Cilla Black's version of "Goin' out of my head".  I don't normally blab about my heart and mind in this public situation, but I think that it would be important for musicians to know that the most important musical influences stay in hiding to show up later as wisdom, and when they least expect it, to coincide with contemporary events.  Of course, Allah gets the credit and the glory.

Cilla Black has an elementary school teacher look about her, but she is an awesome singer.  She has a sort of overdrive in her voice, which is graduated like a volume knob as opposed to a switch, and she can get LOUD.  In this 1969 performance, it seems that she flubbed the words at the end of the song, or did she?  It doesn't matter, she is a grand singer.  I couldn't help but cry when I heard this song again.  I can't explain why.