Advent Day 18

When you are a teenager you can be very influenced in your musical choices by your friends.  Luckily for me I had lots of different friends who all liked different music.  One very close friend loved Elvis her whole life.  She was never swayed by David Cassidy or The Osmonds, for her he was the King simple as that.  Through her I learned to love his music, it was a case of having too do so really, and I can never hear him sing without thinking of her.

Around the same time other friends had discovered the magic of Motown and the deep soul sound that came from Detroit.  In the days before the internet or even Freddie Laker flights, American was far away, a place where everything was bigger, better and louder than here in England.  Of all the Motown groups we loved the Jackson Five best of all, and it was with great sadness I watched the most beautiful Michael destroy himself so very publicly. The prince of pop still remains one of the greatest ever for music and movement, from the soulful ode to a rat, Ben to the insightful Man in the MIrror, with a Thriller in between it is hard to say which was the best of his songs.

To complete the royal flush I needed a Queen, and the obvious choice would be another band who broke the mould.  Freddie Mercury took Queen to a place they would never have reached without him.  His distinctive voice, his over the top persona and fabulous stage presence will live forever more.

So we have it, a King and Queen and a Prince, all magical, amazing and all dead before their time.  So very sad, but how amazing they were.  It is very hard to pick just one song from the three of them for tonight’s Adven. What every Royal house needs is a Joker and there are many fun songs out there to choose from.  This song by Elvis was played at the end of my friends funeral and everyone in the Chapel understood why it was so perfect.  The King catches himself laughing in the midst of a performance and boy does he laugh.

So this is dedicated to all the people we have known and loved who have left us far too soon, we are thankful we had them in our lives and will always try to remember them with a smile.

A