Looking for Hey Jude

Music is the great joy in my life. Songs give all of our lives time and place. Some I take with me through life, others I discard because the memories are too painful or too poignant. Carmen Ohio, for example, is bittersweet with memories of my best years at Ohio State. When I hear the Best Damn Band in the Land play chimes, I mentally turn the music off because it reminds me of one too many birthdays!!!

This year, my Seraphim Chorus’ spring concert will be entitled “1969 – The Summer of Love.” Like the title says…where were you in 1969…and what music were you listening to? There is all sorts of wonderful music from that era. I was going to Youngstown State at the time, and white soul bands were all the rage. Lots and lots of trumpets and saxaphones! The hippie/freak music was also popular. It was the intent of the director to focus on Haight-Ashbury San Francisco flower power tunes. That music was smokin’ in more ways than one.

I volunteered to look for some music from the era, and it has turned into a labor of love as I perused the Top 40 lists looking for Summer of Love tunes. It is harder than you would think. We are a chorus, and we prefer to sing SATB 4 part scores. There aren’t too many Doors tunes that made it into the standard SATB library. You can find solo music with either piano or guitar accompaniment, but that’s about it. And some music you can buy here in the United States and other music you can’t. But you can lways buy it in the United Kingdom, so that’s where I order some of the hard to get stuff. Even then…they may or may not send it to you depending on the copyright.

Notwithstanding, the trip down Memory Lane has been a hoot. I was a Motown fan, and steered clear of a lot of the hard rock stuff; and some of the Flower Power stuff I found kind of fluffy. No, if I were going to San Francisco I wouldn't wear a flower in my hair.

While in school at YSU, I belonged to the Newman Student Organization (the Catholic student group) and it was run by some peace loving priests who were protest oriented. That is about as close to the "movement" as I came. These holy men did silk screening in the basement of the church rectory and took us to the midnight movies at the Foster Theater to see “underground” films…very psychedelic with a strong dash of sex!!! We got an education though…lots of fun.

But peace and love ruled the day, and it was a force to be reckoned with. We would go on retreat, and at night we would literally gather round a fire and sing Kum Ba Ya, Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore, and any number of Peter Paul and Mary songs. Those are great memories.

One song in the soundtrack of my life from that era was Hey Jude. It was on the "approved" list of Newman songs, and we would turn on the Beatles and sing out “Daaa Da Da dadada Da; dadada Da; Hey Jude.” It is the quintessential song from the late 1960’s that always makes me smile, reminding me of my friends, most of whom I still see on a regular basis today.

Hey Jude went right to the top of the list of music I wanted to find. It was hard. You could buy solo arrangements. You could buy instrumental arrangements. You could even buy SSA arrangements. But nowhere could you buy an SATB arrangement, except from my trusted store in London, England. (It's that way with many Beatle tunes as well as some Simon and Garfunkle stuff).

The music came today, and I was ecstatic as I sat down at the piano and plunked out the arrangement. It looks spectacular, and you can spell program finale H-E-Y J-U-D-E. I can hear the audience belting it out with us…and I can see my friends sitting in the audience just like at the Newman retreats. They might be 60 plus, but they are still 19 to me. And maybe Fame will be there in person...and Dibble in spirit.

So an open request to my Director…I have the music. And I can’t think of a better way to end a late 1960’s musicale than a couple of hundred people Da Da Da-ing…Hey Jude.