I was grown before I realized that not all grown men burst into song at random moments while at home. My father and his brothers did, all the time. I never thought about it. I assumed, also, that when doing an a cappella version of any song that if you don't know the words it's perfectly acceptable to just make up your own words.
My earliest memory is Dad singing "Go to sleepy little baby" which I assumed he had made up. When the movie O Brother Where Art Thou? came out I was startled to hear the sirens sing that song at the creek, in a very seductive way -- and there were MORE LYRICS than just "go to sleepy little baby"! Who knew? I was totally startled. The fact that the other lyrics are, well, a bit sinister may explain why dad didn't go there. For example "everybody's gone in the cotton and the corn didn't leave nobody but the baby." If you want to hear the song go here.
Some of my earliest memories are of Dad singing: Another Saturday Night (Sam Cooke), Kaw-liga (Hank Williams Sr.), Jambalaya (Hank Williams Sr.) On a Saturday when Dad was working around the house Herb Alpert was often on the turntable.
I asked Dad once if he liked Elvis and he looked disgusted. "NO," was his disgusted response. I later talked to Mom about it and she said Dad liked Frank Sinatra's style of music, not rock & roll.
My mother liked to play the piano and sing and we would often gather around the piano and sing with her. Dad had a fine, lovely baritone although completely untrained. He could carry a tune, though, very well. He loved show tunes like Edelweiss (Sound of Music) and It Takes A Woman (Hello Dolly).
When we moved to Knoxville, Dad embraced country music. The bank where he worked usually got tickets to the country music performers who performed at the civic coliseum. My brother and I didn't care much for country music and usually fussed about being taken to those shows, although we saw some great acts -- Loretta Lynn and The Statler Brothers, for example. We were too young and ignorant to appreciate those concerts, I hate to say.
In the 1970's Dad was proud to be An Okie From Muscogee. He also liked to drink beer and walk around at the lake singing "Jose Cuervo you are a friend of mine." When Dad died some of the neighbors sent us a card saying "Some of our happiest memories are hearing Tony sing Jose Cuervo at the lake." Dad made up his own lyrics to that one.
When I was in college I spent a weekend with my aunt Diddy and uncle Bobby [Thompson] at their home, which was always enjoyable. Bobby sang Were You There, the entire weekend. Such a sad song, but he wasn't in a bad mood.
I never heard Dad's other brother sing [Lewis] anything that I can recall, but I know he loved music and sang. I imagine with Dad around he didn't have the opportunity to do much singing because he and Dad were always talking and visiting when together.
I realized last night when I was fixing supper that I do it too -- randomly sing around the house. It happens more around Christmas time, but I sing at other times, too. Mom sings too -- sometimes to Lola. Sometimes we sing together. Memaw could play the piano and Papa loved music and when he was young he could play a country fiddle.
Papa's mother's people, the MacMillans, played and sang well. Mom said on Sunday afternoons they would get together and harmonize, for fun, and were well-known in the community for being singers.
I watched a documentary about Elvis the other night on HBO and it was like watching home movies of a relative I'd not seen in ages. My memaw used to listen to Elvis singing gospel music all the time, and he had a lovely voice. (Elvis and Nat King Cole ruled Memaw's stereo.) I also watched the 4:00 movie every afternoon as a kid and saw all the Elvis movies. Not until I was a teenager did I chance to hear his classics like "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Hound Dog."
I am blessed to have been surrounded all my life by music. I saw a quote once that said something like "music is what feelings sound like." So true.
