Hi! Welcome to “What’s Your Story?”, the every other Tuesday space where I invite YOU to participate in the writing. Thank you to everyone who participated in Your Thrilling Experience. Eight great stories are available to read there now and it’s never too late to add your own. For each episode, I offer a writing prompt. In 200 words or less, YOU get to practice telling YOUR story.
Every other Tuesday in “A Body of Work,” I tell a story about a song that I wrote. I think it’s awesome how songs have the power to create stories in people’s lives. Imagine all the unique stories that exist in the world because of a great song like “Over the Rainbow” or “Let it Be.” In 200 words or less (word counter), tell us your story about a song — any song, any story.
Maybe your grandmother sang her favorite song to help you sleep or maybe your whole family sang that one hymn as your dad was breathing his last breaths. Maybe you danced on the street when you heard a particular song blaring from a car stereo or maybe you cry every time you hear that one song on TikTok. Tell us.
Tip of the Week: Don’t pressure yourself to write 200 words. If you’d prefer, tell the whole story in one sentence — even if it’s a run-on sentence. Seriously, your participation is what counts here. Your story wants to be told.
Keep it 200 words or less. Be honest. Have fun. Leave your contribution in the comments. I’ll go first.
In 1984, I left my sheltered life in Kent and went off to a sheltered life at Northwestern University. Following in my sister’s footsteps, I moved into Chapin Hall. It was an historic dormitory with tall ceilings and majestic windows. The hallways were wide enough that my roommate Jerry and I could play indoor freestyle frisbee.
Early in the Fall quarter, our resident assistants, Rob and Dave had a party in their room. Hal Walker from Ohio got plopped down on the floor in the midst of an amazing collection of human beings — Charles from New Orleans, Alexis from New Mexico, Jerry and Stu from Long Island, Scott from New Jersey and Cindy from Tennessee to name a few. Rob and Dave provided the bong hits.
And then it happened. Rob put on the album, “Live Rust” and for the first time ever, I heard Neil Young play “Sugar Mountain.” I couldn’t believe this kind of music even existed. After all those years of piano lessons, I finally found music that spoke to my soul. Sugar Mountain became my theme song, “You can’t be 20 on Sugar Mountain, though you’re thinking that you’re leaving there too soon…. You’re leavin’ there too soon.” (200)
My first car was a ’74 Chevelle Malibu. 16 year old me really had no business having that much horsepower at my command. Luckily for the people I shared the road with, it was also a gas hog that became too expensive to maintain, so off it went.
And so it was that I found myself senior year with a much safer-and much less sexy- 1981 Honda Civic wagon. Light green with a huge dent in the door, it had sketchy brakes and a clutch that always seemed one step from total failure (snap shifting is a lost art, IMO).
But what it did have was a great sound system. And if you lived in Beaverton Oregon in 1992, you heard this coming out of the speakers. A lot. Loudly.
This song was played on the way to shows, on the way to the beach, and on all those drives to nowhere every kid and his friends take.
The Douglas C-54D aircraft was traveling from Alaska to Yukon when the radio signal was lost and the plane disappeared. Among the 44 military personnel on board was my grandfather, who left behind my grandmother Marjorie, who at the time was pregnant with my mom. No trace of the aircraft or its crew was ever found, and ‘Marjorie’ picks up from my grandmother’s point of view.
One reviewer wrote: “the track represents something of a call, a late night prayer or shout where a woman speaks to her husband, finding some sense of hope or comfort from talking into the dark. In this way, the song speaks of grief and mourning, and our desire to anchor those lost within our minds, granting them being once more, if only through their continued ability to shape and influence our own experience of the world, no matter how unseen their hand might be.”
It was about a year ago that I learnt this song and didn't really think anything of it. Just a nice, traditional sounding folk tune. Over time it grew on me and I'd play it to family, sometimes on stage and even during school music exams. Sadly, without knowing it was also the last song I played for my grandfather during October last year.
He was a local minister of South Queensferry and was essentially the embodiment of my Scottish side (Other half being Irish). I miss and think of him every day. I was told after his passing that 'Farewell to Stromness' was a personal favourite of his, I had no idea haha. It was played twice at his memorial service alongside 'Come by the Hills' by The Corries and 'Wild Mountain Thyme' by The Chieftains, all of which will remind me of him for the rest of my life.
He is gone from me and my family but I'm grateful that I have this music for him to live on through. No one else may know when I play but It's something I shall hold so ever close to me forever.
My family always sang a unique version of the Happy Birthday Song that no one else knew. I don’t really know how it started but it is lovely and we always sang this instead of the traditional song. It takes its melody from "Love Unspoken", a song featured in the opera The Merry Widow by Franz Lehar.
This topic caught my attention, as it immediately made me think of a certain day in 2001. My mother had taken ill and was taken to the local hospital where she was sent for an emergency pacemaker as her heart rate was too slow. My mother often spoke of her wish to avoid prolonging life, should she become ill (she was 82). Well I went to visit her after her surgery.
I told her about the pacemaker being implanted and she asked me "What does that mean?". I teased her that now she was like the ever ready bunny and her heart would go on forever! She was annoyed with me and her current state of being hospitalized! When I left the hospital, got into my car and started it, the song that was on the radio (and just starting) was "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones. I couldn't help but laugh!
Mar 22, 2022·edited Mar 22, 2022Liked by Hal Walker
Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens
Music has the power to bring people back, or people's neural network back, or help people's soul reconnect back to certain parts of a neural network, or so it seems, and "Morning Has Broken" was a good song for that for me, as one song I sung when little.
Growing up, my Grimmy was always humming and singing hymns. She sang when she baked, cleaned, thumbed through her bible or magazines and when she worked in her flower garden. One of her favorites was “I’ll Fly Away”. That song has followed me around most of my life. As young man, I remember hearing it played at Brady’s by Pat and Ansel during one of their Monday night jug band jam sessions. I heard in New Orleans played by the Rebirth brass band. It’s in one of my favorite movies, “O Brother, Where Art Thou”. It’s been played or sung by many artists across multiple genres of music.
At some point, Grimmy asked me to learn it for her. I learned it on the acoustic guitar, tenor banjo and mandolin. Her favorite was when I played on it the tenor banjo. It made her so happy to hear me play and sing it for her. Sadly, she passed away in August of 2020. I was blessed to be by her side at the end. Blessed to share that song with her one last time. Surprisingly, it doesn’t make me sad when I hear it or play it. I feel comfort knowing that she’s “…in a land where joy will never end”.
1985 live aid benefit concert Wembley, London UK . Organised by Bob Geldolf to raise money and awareness for the terrible famine in Africa . ( I only just found out a sister concert also happened in Philly @JFK stadium .
It was huge some 70,000 people .
Xmas 1984 many British artists released a single ' live aid- feed the world ' . Everyone bought it to raise money and I played it on my mum's single deck record player .
That summer was a scorcher . 12 yrs old I walked to the shop ( no doubt to buy sweets ). Nearly every house had its windows open and out came the sound of the artists of the concert via TVs, no doubt some of them still black and white . Queen played and I felt so alive I can't actually remember what song it was but Freddie Mercurys iconic voice is unmistakable . I can feel it now that feeling of being an 80s child , shorts and t shirt and discovering so much music every wk on the radio .
So my stand out song is definitely ' feed the world .
' but in our world of plenty , we can spread a smile of joy , throw your arms around the world at Christmas time ' .
When I was traveling alone in Europe in 1983, I bought my first Walkman. It was a Big Splurge, and an impulse buy at a small shop in Brussels, Belgium. Big ole heavy cassette player I carried in my pocket. I needed something to play on the Walkman so I bought one cassette. There were maybe 5 or 6 cassette tapes on the counter that I could choose from. I chose Bob Dylan’s Infidels. I have a vivid memory of leaving the shop, putting on my headset, turning on the Walkman, and entering a whole nother reality. I loved that Walkman. 
Later that very same day I took the train to Amsterdam. I arrived late at night and had to find my way to the hostel. I walked alone through the grungiest of neighborhoods, young and fresh and dewey,carrying my suitcase on my shoulder (no rolling bags then), wearing my Walkman, clearly not a local. Lost and a little bit scared.
But I was listening to Infidels on repeat. (“On repeat” meant playing the cassette to the end, then turning it over and playing the B-side to the end, then turning it over and playing the A-side to the end… And so on, and so on, and so on) But I distinctly remember listening to Bob serenade me as I walked through these bad neighborhoods. And when “what’s a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?” came on, I felt like I was in a movie, and that song was the soundtrack. It was perfect. Bob Dylan kept me safe.
Singing my first born to sleep was always a challenge. She was never tired, and “Rock a bye Baby’ didn’t do the job.. Her father introduced me to “Hush little Baby, don’t say a word’ and from that point on, all four of my babies were graced with the same goodnight song. (it works with “Mama” too, by the way.)
In 1984, I left my sheltered life in Kent and went off to a sheltered life at Northwestern University. Following in my sister’s footsteps, I moved into Chapin Hall. It was an historic dormitory with tall ceilings and majestic windows. The hallways were wide enough that my roommate Jerry and I could play indoor freestyle frisbee.
Early in the Fall quarter, our resident assistants, Rob and Dave had a party in their room. Hal Walker from Ohio got plopped down on the floor in the midst of an amazing collection of human beings — Charles from New Orleans, Alexis from New Mexico, Jerry and Stu from Long Island, Scott from New Jersey and Cindy from Tennessee to name a few. Rob and Dave provided the bong hits.
And then it happened. Rob put on the album, “Live Rust” and for the first time ever, I heard Neil Young play “Sugar Mountain.” I couldn’t believe this kind of music even existed. After all those years of piano lessons, I finally found music that spoke to my soul. Sugar Mountain became my theme song, “You can’t be 20 on Sugar Mountain, though you’re thinking that you’re leaving there too soon…. You’re leavin’ there too soon.” (200)
"Unsung"- Helmet
My first car was a ’74 Chevelle Malibu. 16 year old me really had no business having that much horsepower at my command. Luckily for the people I shared the road with, it was also a gas hog that became too expensive to maintain, so off it went.
And so it was that I found myself senior year with a much safer-and much less sexy- 1981 Honda Civic wagon. Light green with a huge dent in the door, it had sketchy brakes and a clutch that always seemed one step from total failure (snap shifting is a lost art, IMO).
But what it did have was a great sound system. And if you lived in Beaverton Oregon in 1992, you heard this coming out of the speakers. A lot. Loudly.
This song was played on the way to shows, on the way to the beach, and on all those drives to nowhere every kid and his friends take.
Hal, my song story is about a song that I wrote with my band, Reddening West — hope that's okay.
The song is called “Marjorie”, and it was inspired by the disappearance of USAF Flight 2469 in 1950 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_Douglas_C-54D_disappearance).
The Douglas C-54D aircraft was traveling from Alaska to Yukon when the radio signal was lost and the plane disappeared. Among the 44 military personnel on board was my grandfather, who left behind my grandmother Marjorie, who at the time was pregnant with my mom. No trace of the aircraft or its crew was ever found, and ‘Marjorie’ picks up from my grandmother’s point of view.
One reviewer wrote: “the track represents something of a call, a late night prayer or shout where a woman speaks to her husband, finding some sense of hope or comfort from talking into the dark. In this way, the song speaks of grief and mourning, and our desire to anchor those lost within our minds, granting them being once more, if only through their continued ability to shape and influence our own experience of the world, no matter how unseen their hand might be.”
Here’s the video we made for the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvxOaYBKxU4
'Farewell to Stromness' - Peter Maxwell Davies
It was about a year ago that I learnt this song and didn't really think anything of it. Just a nice, traditional sounding folk tune. Over time it grew on me and I'd play it to family, sometimes on stage and even during school music exams. Sadly, without knowing it was also the last song I played for my grandfather during October last year.
He was a local minister of South Queensferry and was essentially the embodiment of my Scottish side (Other half being Irish). I miss and think of him every day. I was told after his passing that 'Farewell to Stromness' was a personal favourite of his, I had no idea haha. It was played twice at his memorial service alongside 'Come by the Hills' by The Corries and 'Wild Mountain Thyme' by The Chieftains, all of which will remind me of him for the rest of my life.
He is gone from me and my family but I'm grateful that I have this music for him to live on through. No one else may know when I play but It's something I shall hold so ever close to me forever.
The Happy Birthday Song
My family always sang a unique version of the Happy Birthday Song that no one else knew. I don’t really know how it started but it is lovely and we always sang this instead of the traditional song. It takes its melody from "Love Unspoken", a song featured in the opera The Merry Widow by Franz Lehar.
Here is a link to the Tom Chapin version: https://youtu.be/tvbJsFzI3RI
This topic caught my attention, as it immediately made me think of a certain day in 2001. My mother had taken ill and was taken to the local hospital where she was sent for an emergency pacemaker as her heart rate was too slow. My mother often spoke of her wish to avoid prolonging life, should she become ill (she was 82). Well I went to visit her after her surgery.
I told her about the pacemaker being implanted and she asked me "What does that mean?". I teased her that now she was like the ever ready bunny and her heart would go on forever! She was annoyed with me and her current state of being hospitalized! When I left the hospital, got into my car and started it, the song that was on the radio (and just starting) was "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones. I couldn't help but laugh!
Has the universe ever spoke to you through song?
Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens
Music has the power to bring people back, or people's neural network back, or help people's soul reconnect back to certain parts of a neural network, or so it seems, and "Morning Has Broken" was a good song for that for me, as one song I sung when little.
Thank you Cat!
Growing up, my Grimmy was always humming and singing hymns. She sang when she baked, cleaned, thumbed through her bible or magazines and when she worked in her flower garden. One of her favorites was “I’ll Fly Away”. That song has followed me around most of my life. As young man, I remember hearing it played at Brady’s by Pat and Ansel during one of their Monday night jug band jam sessions. I heard in New Orleans played by the Rebirth brass band. It’s in one of my favorite movies, “O Brother, Where Art Thou”. It’s been played or sung by many artists across multiple genres of music.
At some point, Grimmy asked me to learn it for her. I learned it on the acoustic guitar, tenor banjo and mandolin. Her favorite was when I played on it the tenor banjo. It made her so happy to hear me play and sing it for her. Sadly, she passed away in August of 2020. I was blessed to be by her side at the end. Blessed to share that song with her one last time. Surprisingly, it doesn’t make me sad when I hear it or play it. I feel comfort knowing that she’s “…in a land where joy will never end”.
1985 live aid benefit concert Wembley, London UK . Organised by Bob Geldolf to raise money and awareness for the terrible famine in Africa . ( I only just found out a sister concert also happened in Philly @JFK stadium .
It was huge some 70,000 people .
Xmas 1984 many British artists released a single ' live aid- feed the world ' . Everyone bought it to raise money and I played it on my mum's single deck record player .
That summer was a scorcher . 12 yrs old I walked to the shop ( no doubt to buy sweets ). Nearly every house had its windows open and out came the sound of the artists of the concert via TVs, no doubt some of them still black and white . Queen played and I felt so alive I can't actually remember what song it was but Freddie Mercurys iconic voice is unmistakable . I can feel it now that feeling of being an 80s child , shorts and t shirt and discovering so much music every wk on the radio .
So my stand out song is definitely ' feed the world .
' but in our world of plenty , we can spread a smile of joy , throw your arms around the world at Christmas time ' .
When I was traveling alone in Europe in 1983, I bought my first Walkman. It was a Big Splurge, and an impulse buy at a small shop in Brussels, Belgium. Big ole heavy cassette player I carried in my pocket. I needed something to play on the Walkman so I bought one cassette. There were maybe 5 or 6 cassette tapes on the counter that I could choose from. I chose Bob Dylan’s Infidels. I have a vivid memory of leaving the shop, putting on my headset, turning on the Walkman, and entering a whole nother reality. I loved that Walkman. 
Later that very same day I took the train to Amsterdam. I arrived late at night and had to find my way to the hostel. I walked alone through the grungiest of neighborhoods, young and fresh and dewey,carrying my suitcase on my shoulder (no rolling bags then), wearing my Walkman, clearly not a local. Lost and a little bit scared.
But I was listening to Infidels on repeat. (“On repeat” meant playing the cassette to the end, then turning it over and playing the B-side to the end, then turning it over and playing the A-side to the end… And so on, and so on, and so on) But I distinctly remember listening to Bob serenade me as I walked through these bad neighborhoods. And when “what’s a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?” came on, I felt like I was in a movie, and that song was the soundtrack. It was perfect. Bob Dylan kept me safe.
Singing my first born to sleep was always a challenge. She was never tired, and “Rock a bye Baby’ didn’t do the job.. Her father introduced me to “Hush little Baby, don’t say a word’ and from that point on, all four of my babies were graced with the same goodnight song. (it works with “Mama” too, by the way.)
“Papa’s gonna by you a mocking bird.
And, if that mockingbird won’t sing,
Papa’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.
And, if that diamond ring turns to brass,
Papa’s gonna buy you a looking glass
And, if that lookin glass gets broke,
Papa’s gonna buy you a Billy goat…..etc. etc.
Last line:
“You’ll be the sweetest baby in town.”❤️❤️❤️❤️
My gosh ! It was 199 words it's a record 😊🌻