Sunday morning I woke up with muffled hearing, singing an Eagles song in my head. Since I was a child I’ve awakened most mornings singing a song that way. Sometimes it’s a hymn, sometimes a popular song, sometimes some obscure tune I don’t even know the title of. My mom use to tell me it was unique to wake up that way. To me it’s just been something I do so on Sunday morning it wasn’t unusual to start the day immediately that way. And it wasn’t unusual at all that the song flitting through my head was Peaceful Easy Feeling.
On Saturday night my husband and I had been to a sold out Best of the Eagles concert at a beautifully restored ancient theater in our city.
Way back in July when the concert was advertised I instantly wanted to go. Tickets went on sale on August 1. I stayed up and at the stroke of 12:02 a.m. I went to the web site and put in my bid for our tickets. We got 5th row center seats, which put us practically on stage with the band. With the huge speakers aimed directly at us and the sensational line of sight, it was JUST like that … being on stage. I loved it.
The BOTE Band is an Eagles Tribute Band and they are wonderful. They LOOK like the Eagles and after about 3 minutes listening to them and watching them perform on stage … very close up and personal from row 5 … it was easy to become totally convinced that they WERE the Eagles.
Eagles’ music is timeless. Just looking around the theater there were people of all ages with the predominant age group seeming to be my own and older. When the band went into one of their famous Eagles songs there were a lot of silver heads bobbing and that was just huge. It brought home to me again that age is just some damn fool thing that happens to our bodies. We pretty much stay the same in our heads. And, of course, those Eagles songs move even the oldest and most debilitated of us. How could they not?
Not only were MOST heads bobbing (hair color irrelevant), there was lots of clapping (gnarly arthritis-afflicted fingers not withstanding) and occasionally someone, at a high point in a song, would leap to their feet in a blaze of excitement and memory. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
Sometime during the evening I thought in amazement what a fabulous computer brain God has blessed us with. With all the knowledge I’ve accumulated over the years … through a full nursing career and all of life’s losses and excesses … I was amazed and pleased to realize that I remembered ALL the words to at least 87% of the Eagles songs. That in itself is an unequaled tribute to the music, and, of course to God and his magnificent human brain machine.
As the evening progressed through Heartache Tonight, Lyin’ Eyes, Take It to the Limit, Life in the Fast Lane and Desperado I went through a series of emotions. Mostly I smiled non-stop with an occasional tearful moment as the songs brought back memories that were just out of reach and feelings of times and moments gone by. But mostly it was that smiling thing that meant I was having a time and was just where I was supposed to be on that special Saturday night.
At the end of the concert as we were leaving the theater we had an opportunity to speak to the Best of the Eagles band members and shake their hands. What a treat that was! The first thing I said to them was, “My face hurts from smiling.” And it did.
Like a high school girl with memories of the prom I saved our tickets, put a push pin through them and stuck them on the bulletin board in my office. They are hanging beside our tickets from HAIR, a couple of play bills and a small poster from a night enjoying a Beatles Tribute Band several years ago. Who says old folks can’t make new memories?
While none of us really goes all whoop whoop about advancing years, I’m so glad to have come along when I did with the opportunity to enjoy some really fabulous music of “our time.” And every now and then it’s a privilege to be able to relive those sounds at a concert with a phenomenal tribute band. In counting my many blessings, Saturday evening will be among them.
Occasionally it’s just special to step back into our past and enjoy the good that it was through the lyrics of a song.
Today I got an email update of programs that will be coming soon to our area and guess what’s coming? The ULTIMATE Journey Tribute Band. I’m starting to feel nostalgic all over again.
Tickets are on sale RIGHT NOW …
heimdalco 