The radio station in my car is playing three songs with an idea or theme that ties them together. I don't recall the station but I do remember the idea. They played three songs with reference to Cowboy in them.
The last song of their triple play was Bon Jovi's Wanted: Dead or Alive "I'm a cowboy, wanted dead or alive..."
As I pull into my parking lot, the disc jockey challenges listeners to suggest their own triple play. I almost immediately thought of two songs that have moved me recently. Both songs are about being young. Oh Very Young by Cat Stevens was on my car radio on the evening of my High School Graduation in 1974. The song struck me then as infinately better than the sweet but sappy We May Never Pass This Way Again by Seals & Crofts (The song our senior class selected as our class theme song). The other song I thought of was reintroduced to my recent memory because it was featured in a play Girl from the North Country - Deluth, MN 1934 written by Bob Dylan. I saw the play as a guest of Janie at Cleveland's Playhouse Square. The Dylan song "May You Stay Forever Young" (It turns out that Bob Dylan wrote that song in 1974). "May you build a latter to the stars and climb on every rung. May you stay forever young."
I wondered if my memory bank could think of another appeal to my YOUNG triple play, when is struck me that a song I remember from my son's wedding day in 2012 was a perfect fit for the thematic triptich. We Are Young by Fun featuring Janelle Monea says "we are young, so let's set the world on fire. We can burn brighter than the sun..." but is closes with the sweetest visualization of "...when the bar closes and your feel like falling down...I'll carry you home tonight..."
I doubt if I will get the radio station to play my triple play. But it was fun to recall the special meaning of those three tunes.
After all, I'm a cowboy wanted dead or alive...We may never pass this way again...You're only dancin' on this earth for a short while... May you stay forever young...We are young ... so let's set the world on fire... we can burn brighter than the sun... (even as we are in the path of the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024).
Photos: the moon at the Moonrise Hotel rooftop in University City and the Spring daffodils adjacent to the Saint Louis Art Museum sculpture garden.
Wanted Dead or Alive – Bon Jovi
https://youtu.be/sUd2KoJkjWw?si=ZS_Wcb5yx6AptQG-
We may never Past this Way Again – Seals & Crofts
https://youtu.be/6gdkpzLJlA4?si=Ol9iV-njGYE0xI5w
Oh Very Young – Cat Stevens
https://youtu.be/EiwBAkOx1fQ?si=bdcKvCJIvYVViheU
Foever Young – Bob Dylan
https://youtu.be/eHms_-Ja-wY?si=vx7MKtbJZ_4gmzxp
We Are Young - Fun.:
ft. Janelle Monáe [Lyrics/Vietsub]
https://youtu.be/SNssSYVZuIw?si=3mgQohNZulPVtDXR
