Hey readers. I've been toying for a while the idea of doing a series of posts with a common theme, all titled similarly and linked together. I've finally settled on "Scattered Black and Whites". This is going to be a series where I post about pieces of music and songs that are special to me. Ones that hold distinguished places in my memory. Ones that I associate really memorable experiences with. Some funny, other sad, others romantic, some totally strange and perhaps inexplicable. I'm not going to regularly schedule them, I'll just let them come as feels natural. I hope as well that I might prompt you to think of music that's special to you and why :)
I thought I'd start with my single favourite song of all time, a song I've loved since I was a little kid and that has stayed close to my heart even as I've discovered more and more music as I've gotten older. The song is Mr Bojangles by Sammy Davis Jr.
My favourite type of music has always, and I imagine will always be, Big Band music. The Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin and all the others who floated in and out of the group - are just, for me, one of the most amazing bunch of artists to cross the earth. I got introduced to them by my mum and my grandparents just as I was getting to an age where my mind was opening up to music and the part it could play in my life. It started when my mum bought Robbie Williams' Rat Pack covers album Swing When You're Winning. The mention of such a thing may immediately destroy any musical credibility you think I may have, but I don't apologise. It's a very, very good album of Big Band music. And hearing it made me want to hear the originals, so I did and at some point my parents bought me Sammy Davis Jr's greatest hits.
I spent a good portion of my early and pre-teens listening to nothing but Big Band and Jazz and somehow, through it all, "Mr Bojangles" stood out to me above everything else. I don't associate it with any particular experience, but I just fell in love with it. It might be the story. It's so beautifully heartbreaking. It's about washed up, alcoholic old dancer, Mr Bojangles, who looks back and his life and just sees all his wasted time and talent. It might seems strange that a 12 year old white kid fell in love with a song sung by a black guy from his grandparents' generation about a drunk old music hall dancer. Arguably, you have a point. But still.
This song just strikes a chord with me somewhere and I don't know where. I just love it so much. It has such a gentle, lilting pace to it. It strolls along sounding so wonderfully melancholy, all the tragic lyrics played against the smile you can hear in Sammy Davis' voice as he plays the part of the old reminiscent Bojangles. And he's said himself that he relates so strongly to the song, and that really comes through. The way he tells the story, he's just so into it. It might seem cheesy or corny to someone without any idea about the song or big band music, but to me it's just so honest. Maybe that's why it resonated with me at a young age. I think I saw that this guy was honest and real. And maybe that's what made me so particular about artists being honest and having integrity in my subsequent musical discoveries.
I don't know how you'll feel about the song. If Big Band and what not isn't your thing then it might just seem a bit alien and ridiculous. But I hope not. And even if it does, I don't care. This song is incredibly special to me. Heck, it's even my karaoke song. But more on that at another time perhaps.
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