Music (Unchained Melody)

Is there a certain song for you that you've heard before but suddenly takes on new meaning? Maybe circumstances in your life are reflected by what the song is about, maybe you learned what the songwriter originally meant when he wrote it, or maybe you just realized that the song rocks. I want to write a few posts about music, because sometimes, as powerful as they are, words simply aren't enough.

At the restaurant where I work, the background music is a basic mix of Oldies. There are few songs that I haven't heard at some point before, but there are some that it's like hearing them for the first time. Last night I had one of those experiences with "Unchained Melody."*

It really is a beautiful song, but for whatever reason, when I heard of it I remembered it was the theme to the movie Ghost back in the early 90s. I think I only saw about half of it, once, when it was on TV. What I remembered of it was there was a man who was killed and wanted to simply touch his wife but couldn't because he didn't have a body anymore. Luckily, a psychic allowed him to possess her for the evening. As I remember it, the scene was not sexual in any way, merely a husband being able to experience the joy of holding his wife one more time. Whether that was actually how it was or not, that's what I remembered. Suddenly, the song had new meaning: you can hear the longing in the singer's voice, begging for his love to still be there even though he knows she probably isn't. I thought about what it would be like if I couldn't hold Allison anymore, if we were separated like that. I had to focus on work to hold back the emotion.

This morning, I told Allison about it and started crying. The emotion in the song is profound: deep love mixed with powerful sadness. I told her that even the thought of being with her and being able to hold her in my arms was too much (even now, just listening to the song again has me crying like a baby). It was a wonderful moment that we shared and even though it was difficult emotionally, I was glad for it. It also makes me grateful for the Sealing power, so that if we are worthy of our covenants, I won't have to be without her (and with that thought, I can't stop smiling).

Like I said, as powerful as they are, sometimes words aren't enough.

What are songs that mean more than words can alone to you?

*Sorry, for the live version; I couldn't find a version of the studio recoding that I could embed.