Pain, and the remedies thereof, can play with your brain — or at least that what I can attribute my idiosyncrasies to at present.
Take last week, for instance. We had all these photos of new officials being sworn in - and in my mind I thought a good headline might be “A whole lot of swearing going on.”
It’s certainly not the first time I have overruled myself on ideas for headlines.
It’s always good to have a moderating influence, either yourself or someone else.
Back when the late Tony Eierdam would read over my columns before they were published, he would sometimes call and ask, “are you sure you want to print that?”
Those who knew Tony can understand the irony of him cautioning restraint.
But it is why, when our own inner voice fails to speak up, that we all read each other’s stories before publishing, not just for proofing purposes, but to sometimes say, “are you sure you want to print that?”
And while the answer is still sometimes “yes,” it is also frequently “no.”
But back to the thought of pain remedies and what they do to your brain, I recall the prescriptions following my knee replacement, first Hydrocodone and later Percocet.
As I would lie in bed or get up to do my therapy, two songs would go through my head. I have no idea why.
The first was a song that made it to the number two spot on the Billboard chart in 1965. Myself, being in the second or third grade at the time, do not recall hearing it then as much as I remember the Beatles’ “I wanna Hold Your Hand.”
Anyway, a guy named Len Barry recorded a song called “1-2-3.”
In my research for this column, I discovered that Barry’s genre was called “Blue-Eyed Soul,” something I never heard of. It turns out that “Blue-Eyed Soul” is basically Rhythm & Blues and Soul Music, basically the Motown sound, performed by white artists.
Another anyway, as I strive to stay on course, during my convalescence I couldn’t get that song out of my head.
1-2-3, oh, that’s how elementary it’s gonna be
C’mon, let’s fall in love, it’s easy (it’s so easy)
Like takin’ candy (like takin’ candy) from a baby
Couldn’t get it out of my head, that is, except when it took turns with, of all things, the old hymn “We’re Marching to Zion.”
When I say “the old hymn,” it was published in 1707, and written by Isaac Watts, who composed something like 750 hymns in his lifetime, including one that you probably sing even if you don’t go to church: “Joy to the World.”
The stirring refrain of this great old hymn evokes feelings of victory.
We’re marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
So there you have it. It’s so easy — like takin’ candy from a baby — we’re marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.
I sure am glad I didn’t get hooked on that stuff!
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