"Watch Out World!"

I imagine people of other ages – what else can I do but imagine I am only one age – listening on their headphones to motivating music, fueling their secret dreams and desires.

Or maybe they are listening to stock prices.   Who knows?  (And who knows they’re not their secret dreams and desires?)

For me – yesterday’s post reminding me of the power of musicals – it was “Old School” record player and vinyl.  Which you could not practically carry around on the street – people would trip over the cord.  You had to “gas up” at home, before going out where people thought you were nothing.  (The most thundering sound I ever imagined was Canadian television producers seeing my name on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, going “Him?”)

Lacking external support – or detectable internal support, for that matter – I turned to the stirring songs in musicals, where characters, currently down but not out, got up, “held” for the cue from the conductor, and told the world they’re not done.

It’s all corny.

It all helped.

Helped what?  I don’t know. I just remember that look of despair when I was teaching in England and another teacher said, “Don’t worry, it probably won’t happen” and I said, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

I needed that out of my head.

And got the inspirational “antidote” with:

“Stand well back, I’m comin’ through

Nothin’ can stop me now…”

(”The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd”)

“There’s got to be something better than this

There’s got to be something better to do

And when I find me something better to do

I’m gonna get up, I’m gonna get out,

I’m gonna get up, get out and do it!”

(“Sweet Charity”)

“I’m the greatest star, I am by far

But no one knows it…”

(That one’s embarrassing.  “Funny Girl.”)

“I’d like to swim in a clear blue stream, where the water is icy cold.

Then go to town in a golden gown, and have my fortune told.”

(Girly, but hopeful.  “The Fantasticks.”)

Okay, what else?  Oh, yeah.  Sammy!

“I ain’t bowin’ down no-o more

I ain’t bowin down no-o mo-ore.

Now I’m standin’ up, I ain’t on the floor

I ain’t bowin’ down no-o mo-ore.”

(“Golden Boy”)

And if Sammy, why not Steve Lawrence.

“I’m no loser!

That’s a dirty word to me

I’m no loser!

And I’m never gonna be…”

(“What Makes Sammy Run?”)

Okay, three more, among others I’m forgetting.  I mean, I had a medley! 

How’s this for “uplift”?

“I’ve got to find a reason

For living on this earth

Something to want

Something to be

Somehow to say

I am me.”

(“Carnival”)

And, of course,

“This is my Quest, to follow that star,

No matter how hopeless

No matter how far,

To fight for the right

Without question or pause

To be willing to march into hell

For a heavenly cause!”

(That one rattled the rafters.  “Man of La Mancha”)

And maybe the sappiest of all, but it still works,

“Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain

Though your dreams be tossed and blown

Walk on

Walk on

With hope in your heart

And you’ll never walk alone

You’ll never walk alone.”

(“Carousel”)

Y’know, just remembering that jostled the pheromones.  Which, more than perhaps, was probably the point.  I’ve been battling a “bug” lately, which, like a bad houseguest, refuses to leave. 

Maybe musicals can help!

Any song – from any genre – help you rise and prevail?  Let me know.  Maybe I’ll add it to my repertoire.