Two EZ, one weird. A jukebox song gave me a son. Oddly, for me, there's a story in that:
1) What's Goin On - for my soul
2) Love Reign O'er Me - for my Mary
3) I Can't Make you Love Me - my wife died after a 5yr battle w cancer over 20 yrs ago. She beat it the first time but, when it came back in 9 spots on her ribcage, she declined treatment and waited for the end. That the end took 2.5 yrs of soulsucking pain to come was a whole nuther kind of drama. Mary was not a happy person to begin with - having been not only molested by her father but traded like a baseball card to other countryclub dads of Beloit Wis - but the sickness slowly reduced her from person to creature.
Got a call at work one night from the bartender at my corner bar. Kelly adored my Mary and could usually handle her moods, but Mary was unusually intractable that night (by then she was too sick to go out much, so i guess she made it count) and there was a function going on - band and everything - in the bar's 2nd room and Mary's tirade was spilling over. Rushed over, found Mary ready to throw her drink at some "mancunexttuesday" (her favorite word). She stopped, as she usually did, when she saw me, but did not calm. After arguing with me in in a corner, she began to cry and i knew her cry cycle was worse than her scream cycle, so i grabbed her by the hand and dragged her over to the dance floor at the party. I stuffed $20 into the tip jar of the verrrry cute keyboardist/singer and asked for Beatles "In My Life" (Mary's favorite song) and slowdanced and harmonysang Mary to calmness along to it. It was a liontamer-dramatic change it achieved and the entire crowd forgave my gal as she sank back into humanity. It also served to achieve notice of me from the chick singer, which didnt bother me at all.
To the song. It was bartender Kelly's favorite, so it got played a lot. Being that it was the career culmination for an old friend of mine (i'd toured w Bonnie Raitt 20 yrs before) and is really one of the greatest ballads ever, i liked it well too. Now, because my voice is too deep to hit the high notes in most any song, i've developed an unusual harmonizing style, a third or so under rather than over the melody, with some strange phrasing resolutions that are a mathematical function of doing it that way. With some songs, including ICMYLM, that can apparently be quite distinctive and Kelly started playing it then sauntering down to my end of the bar in hopes i'd sing along. Since it gave me a chance to sing without my usual performance anxiety i became happy to indulge and eventually i'd harmonize so Kelly (therefore most of the bar) could hear it from wherever and it became quite popular, odd for a saloon.
One night, Kelly puts it on and i, full of crank & jager, do my performance when up behind me walks someone who sings a traditional harmony to ICMYLM, achieving a CrosbyStillsNashing of this lil ballad. The whole bar went nuts, i turn around and its the supercute singer from Mary's horrornight. We bonded right there, became fast friends, she got me to throw away 30 years of paralyzing stagefright to join in monthly blues shouts at a local club and eventually worked some weddings together (our back & forth of SRV's Pride & Joy was legendary) and she was the first person i went to when my bedridden Mary released me to enjoy other female company. Chick singer bore me a son a month before Mary died who, now 21, has been a drummer in a working local band in his mother's native SD for five years. Still can't make anyone love me, but it sure is nice when they volunteer.
