Singing another special song

I love Monday nights. No matter my mood, no matter what else is going on, no matter how harassed I am when I rush out the door, I know that by 7.35 on a Monday night I’ll be feeling great. Tonight was absolutely no different. Before I left, I was rushing to finish off some bits and pieces of work work and I was feeling guilty because I hadn’t finished all the reading I was supposed to do for my course up in Perth tomorrow. I even contemplated – for all of two seconds - not going out at all. However, I knew that the emotional benefit of going would far outweigh the practical benefits of staying at home! And I’m so glad I did; being a bit lost during the course tomorrow will be a small price to pay for the pleasure of being at choir tonight.

Every member of the choir, I’m sure, could tell a story about at least one of the songs we sing and why particular songs are particularly special for them. I’ve written about a few already (like ‘Fix You’, ‘Wonderful World’ and ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’) and tonight yet another of my favourites was added to the list.

Annie and Jane work hard together for the Heart of Scotland Choir, but it’s usually Annie that spends a lot of time putting the arrangements together before directing us and teaching us how to sing our parts. Tonight was totally different though, as Jane was taking a wee turn at doing the song, and what a song she chose for her choir reveal debut!

One night, many moons ago, Alex and I were in our local in Glasgow having a few beers when we should’ve been studying. ‘The Rock’, on Hyndland Road, was just round the corner from our digs when we were at Uni and it was just too easy to opt for a few hours in the pub rather than a few hours with our heads in the books! We’d not long moved in to our wee flat and we were slavering about how lucky we were to have parents that hadn’t completely disowned us for living together at such a young age! The pub was mobbed, there was a great buzz about the place, we were pretty well oiled (the air was very, very smoky!)  and the jukebox was belting out some great tunes. Just as I turned to Alex and said, "Maybe we should get engaged, it might make our Mums and Dads feel a bit happier about us buying the flat together?", and Alex replied, "That’s a great idea! OK, let’s get engaged!" the jukebox blared out ‘..Like a Bridge over Trou-u-bled Waters, I will ease your miiiiiiiii-iii-ii-ind.’ From that moment on, in the Milne family history books, ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ became “the song that was playing when Alex proposed” – even though it wasn’t really as he didn’t really! But, hey, why let the truth get in the way of a good story; the Simon and Garfunkel classic will forever be one of our special songs! Jane's arrangement couldn't have done it more justice and, once we've all got the hang of our parts, I reckon it's going to sound awesome.

The other lovely thing about tonight was that Jane dedicated the song to her mum, Ray, who sings with the choir. It was yet another poignant wee moment in the life of HoS and a reminder of the fact that the songs we sing can mean different things to different people - not only for those of us that are lucky enough to be in the choir singing, but also for the people who come along to listen when the choir performs.

So, I might be floundering a bit tomorrow when the tutor elaborates on the psychodynamic theories that I was supposed to read up on tonight, but at least come next Monday’s rehearsal I’ll, hopefully, have a good grasp of the lower harmony part of a fantastic song - the one that was playing when Alex proposed....