COVER YOUR LOAD

chaptertwelve:

I had never heard this song before tonight, but it made me cry because it’s so apt.  Take me far away from the battle.  I trust she’s at peace now.

I emailed my family about Whitney:

Don Lemon said on CNN tonight that she’s so important because her music has been the soundtrack of people’s lives, and it’s absolutely true.  When I hear “The Greatest Love of All”, I remember hearing it as a painfully shy little girl and wondering if I would ever be brave enough never to walk in anyone’s shadow.  I remember listening to “How Will I Know” while swimming in the backyard in Oklahoma City.  ”I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” is arguably the best car singing song in the world, my favorite memory of which involves driving around Edmond about a year ago, [my sister] Roxanne and I belting it out unabashedly in the front seats of my Explorer while [my niece] Annie sat mortified in the back.  And “One Moment in Time,” well, that’s one of the most moving, inspiring, compelling songs ever recorded in the history of the world.  I get goosebumps and bawl every single time I hear it.  (Watch that video.  Watch it!  You can get inspired and be awed by how unbelievable her voice was live.)

Elsewhere, commentators were talking about the fact that essentially every young singer today, regardless of genre, lists Whitney Houston as an influence.  Jennifer Hudson, apparently, has spoken about how she used to put on Whitney’s albums and sing along, pretending they were singing a duet.  I may not be a professional, but I do still consider myself a singer, and I have my own memories of her influence.  When I was twelve, [my brother] Wade gave me two soundtracks for Christmas - The Bodyguard and Pretty Woman.  I love, love, loved those tapes - listened to them all the time - and whenever I see or hear anything related to The Bodyguard, including Whitney’s version of “I Will Always Love You”, I remember how I’d use a hair ribbon to hang a wire whisk from my bedroom ceiling fan so I could pretend it was a recording studio microphone.  I’d set up my music stand (because, you know, they have those in recording studios, too), put on that soundtrack, and sing “Run to You” and “I Have Nothing” and all the rest at the top of my lungs until I was blue in the face, pretending that I was a famous recording artist laying down tracks in the studio just like Whitney.

I know there must have been millions of us all over the world who did similar things and I think when your legacy involves having generations of little girls pretending to be like you, you must have done something right.  It’s a shame she was so troubled later in life, but I know she was genuinely loved by her family and friends and I know she took joy in her incredible talent, which is comforting.

I didn’t really feel this until I read Tricia’s post above. It got me thinking and I realised how Whitney was like a background to so much of my life growing up. And while I haven’t actually sat down and listened to the music in years, I’m playing The Greatest Hits album now and am flooded with memories from high school and as a kid, and all the way back to South Africa where as a 5 year old I learnt about music from my older cousins - and yeah, it was Whitney, and the The Greatest Love was the first song I learnt how to sing.

While I never actually counted Whitney as one of my favourite singers, looking back I think that was because it was always a given; something that I took for granted because she was always there. Whether it was my sister blasting her songs through the stereo, or having The Bodyguard as the go-to rainy day movies for school holidays. Or the fact that all my cousins had the albums in their collections. It didn’t need to be mentioned.

So in the end there’s a lot I owe to having her music in my life and especially during my formative years. While my friends were listening to Sepultura and RHCP and Jeff Buckley I was still listening to the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack and being all overly emotional about a girl. But more than that, there is something powerful about being a kid and hearing the lyrics “I believe the children are our future…” Even if I didn’t quite understand it at the time it helped shape who I am.