Into WHAT Mystic...

Listen to THIS before you read this one!!!

What a great song... (Van Morrison-Into the Mystic AKA...BEST SONG EVER ).

Written around my birthday (month wise!) in 1969, released around valentines in 1970. It does something that I cannot explain. It has been my all time fave "it" song since I was maybe 14. It TRULY moves my soul. No man will ever make me feel that way... Besides "At Last", it is the only song that truly makes my heart stop and take that extra beat (or five). And that is what music is supposed to do. Some laugh at me (or get frustrated), because I can listen to music for hours (drunk or sober) and I know I can be an annoyance with my requests. Each beat transports me to a better sound of mind, a different world, a better frame of mind. I (jokingly) blame my parents...there was always music playing in the house, or they would take me in my baby carrier to latino clubs or the fact they "forced" me to play piano so young. I thank them for all of that now, because my mom and dad taught me to love music. They showed me that music can take you to a different world, a better mood, just different.

Even now, my now dad (Arturo...I say now Dad, because my dad who passed when I was 19 sent him one to be my dad while he couldn't be here on earth) has shown me the beauty of music. He sings it and loves it, and his voice is absolute heaven. Watching him sing brings such pure joy to my heart it is inexplicable. His voice is my calm! His son sings too and loves it. The appreciation I have for music now is only because of them. And the fascination I have with music, it is something I should thank them for. Music has always been my getaway. Whether it was on the radio, tapes in my car at 17, or cds at 20, me playing it on my piano or on my Alexa in my kitchen in my 'now'. Some take me back, some move me forward like a gush of a waterfall, others suck me under and I have to come up for air but I do it. The instruments, the sounds, the beats, the injection of goodness and peace music provides to me is none other than real. Sure, it's because I grew up with it, and my youth was perfect, so of course you would think it was that. But it is more. Those who know how to play instruments understand what I mean. you get to recreate those sounds, you make the music, you make that feeling for yourself and the ones listening to it. You get to put your hand on something that makes music, something that makes joy, something that makes life.

• It's something different to hear Fur Elise at a restaurant versus playing it with your eyes closed feeling every note as if that key would leave your fingertips if you didn't touch it. It's different to play something like Metallica (not that I have, because I can't but have tried) and know that you hit every note. Music...a huge part of our history.

But when you feel it, when you ingest it, that is something. I write. I write for hours at night when others are sleeping. I used to write on a blog (maybe this one) . Never to be seen on the blog, because for a while it was anonymous. Now not so much. But when I write...my accompaniment, my best friend at the moment, my hand on the shoulder, now the one leading my fingers, but the one guiding my heart, is the...music. It could be Etta James, it could be Van Morrison, it could be Highly Suspect, it could be Nina (my other #1 fave), it could be Elvis, it could be the Ronettes, or maybe even the Jackson Five.

I still 100 percent believe I was born in the wrong generation. My mannerisms, my values, my lifestyle, my interests are not from this era. Can you imagine living in this life but yet feeling more apropos in another? That is me. That has always been me. And so much of that is the music. And yet I know I would have done just fine in previous generations because the music was pure, it was solid. But I'm here, in this one, so all I can do is play my old old old school music and enjoy it. And enjoy it I will!!!