When Songs Collide

When one of my sons was in high school, he had a habit of saying “Why was I Not Informed?” way too often.
I thought of his quote lately when my Amazon order arrived.
I don’t remember why I was looking up Mike and the Mechanics.
Oh wait, it was because this was the anniversary week of memorial services for our dads.

My dad passed away January 18, 1989.  I remember that the temperature was 59^o and sunny when we were standing at the cemetery.  A young man from the high school played TAPS on his trumpet, and members of the VFW gave a fine send-off to our dad, who was a Disabled Veteran of the US Navy.

My father-in-law passed away January 18, 1991.  There was 7” of snow shoveled off the sidewalks of the church, gray clouds hanging close and dreary.  There were so many people from the university who signed the Guest Book.  We couldn’t have all the family get together until late June for a burial near his mother.

Two years apart, but we have too many memories during this one week.  It turned out to be a good thing we had reason to be busy out of town for awhile.

Anyway, the other day, I was driving home along Fort Jesse Road, when The Living Years came on the radio.  The song was inspired by the death of the writer’s father, and so of course to be hearing it during this, of all weeks, meant I had to pull over into a parking lot until I stopped shaking.
I’ve owned that familiar cd for years, but decided to look up history of the song.

As the Internet is so good at providing a list or connection, I saw other works by the same group on the page.

This led me to Beggar on a Beach of Gold.

The cover’s picture of Mike Rutherford on a pile of gold coins was my clincher, and so I got it from AMAZON.

WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED of this great album?  It was released a dozen years ago.  I believe this is the band’s best work, looking at it as actual music and not the heart-rending sentimental songs of The Living Years.

That page at the link has some nice reviews.  Those folks have better words for describing the musical terms than I do.  Just know that I have listened to it three times already, and really want to memorize the title song.  ~~love and Huggs, Diane