Birthday Memories
My brother-in-law David is famous in both his own family and mine for taking a well-known tune and writing new lyrics to accommodate any occasion. Over the years he has written songs for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and even wrote a beautiful (and fun) musical tribute to my late husband Jay (to the tune of Sam Cooke’s What a Wonderful World - I’ll have to get that up on here at some point).
When my mother turned 80 in 2009, we had a big family gathering in Columbus, Ohio. My parents had just downsized from a large condo to a much smaller independent living apartment. The gathering was going to include not only the big birthday celebration, but also the first lottery of the youngest generation picking through various items they were getting rid of at that point. (the second lottery would come in 2022 when we distributed the remainder of their belongings).
Our family is spread out and it can be difficult for all of us to schedule time together, so we knew this was going to be a special set of memories. And 80 seemed a pretty important milestone that deserved a big party. And a song. We prevailed upon David to write one set to the only tune I could reliably play on my banjo at that time - Cripple Creek. So he did, and everyone else who was participating in the instrumentals had to learn it, and it had to be the key of G. (when you listen you will discover my definition of what it means to “reliably play” this song - in my defense I will say I’ve always been a closeted banjo player, and having an audience and being recorded no doubt impacted my level of competence and consistency. Just sayin’…)
David outdid himself (as he always does) and we were able to get a recording of the entire extravaganza. When you see the video you will notice that our fearless songwriter and conductor was not able to join us in Columbus. This was over thirteen years ago, in the days before Zoom, so we had to patch in his voice, accompanied by PowerPoint slides. My brother Sam did some editing and polishing after the fact (to the extent that was even possible, given the mishmash of questionable musical talent he had to work with), and captured the essence of that fun weekend. He also added credits at the end, establishing without doubt that this was an inclusive, collaborative project from beginning to end.
Enjoy.
