Music has a way of transporting us to a different time and place. American composer Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” is a great example. The piece beautifully captures the contours of the 19th-century Pennsylvania countryside.
Closer to home, we began to wonder how Key Biscayne has been portrayed in music. We did some internet sleuthing to find out.
The earliest reference we found, Fleetwood Mac’s 1974 “Bermuda Triangle,” contrasts the security of a Key Biscayne harbor with a stormy area of the Atlantic Ocean where numerous ships and airplanes have allegedly vanished.
“You’re feeling safe in your harbor, and everything seems certain, right next to Palm Beach and Key Biscayne, behind a velvet curtain,” the song begins. But danger lurks! “The moon goes gray with worry, and the sea turns a pale white,” and listeners are cautioned that “something strange is going on tonight down in Bermuda.” Never mind that Bermuda is actually north of Key Biscayne, not south. Perhaps the songwriter didn’t look at a map.
There seems to have been some dissent amongst the band members as to their views about our island. Twenty years after “Bermuda Triangle” was released, Fleetwood Mac vocalist Christine McVie recorded “Bad Journey.” In it, she sings of going to Key Biscayne and finding “nothing there.” She must have had her eyes closed.
Gordon Lightfoot, on the other hand, took a rosier view. In “Morning Glory,” he describes traveling “all the way to Biscayne Bay for a dip in the shining sea,” fondly remembering “moments . . . frozen in time” involving an “old rendezvous” where “the key was kept inside a shoe. ” Alas, the story ends sadly when the subject of that rendezvous throws him out.
Country singer John Michael Montgomery also romanticizes Key Biscayne. In his 1994 “You’re the Ticket,” he sings, “Wanna be a midnight plane, headin’ down to Key Biscayne, livin’ life and lovin’ every minute.” Sounds good.
In “When I See This Bar,” Kenny Chesney reminisces about the days when a group of friends were “living like pirates and wanna-be stars.” Years later, “some are still living the dream, stuck in still life it seems,” while others have moved on to points as scattered as “Maine, Jacksonville, and Key Biscayne.”
While some songwriters seem to reference “Key Biscayne” solely as part of a clever rhyming scheme, others have a closer connection. Such is the case with George Strait’s “How ‘Bout Them Cowgirls,” written by Casey Beathard. Casey’s father, Bobby Beathard, served as director of player personnel for the Miami Dolphins back in the 1970s and lived on the Key for several years.
The song suggests nothing compares with the sight of cowgirls, not even Niagara Falls, Las Vegas, or a trip “crisscrossed down to Key Biscayne and Chi-town, down to Bangor, Maine.”
Musician Louie Archambeau recalls how Key Biscayne made it into the lyric. Though Louie now resides in Vero Beach, he was a fixture on the Key for many years, performing regularly with his guitar at the English Pub and the Eagles Nest.
“Casey grew up on the Key,” recalls Louie. “He came back one time and sat in with me at Miami’s Tobacco Road when he was just writing the song but had not completed it. The next thing I know, he’s got the song finished with Key Biscayne in it.”
Louie understands the power of music. “There are some songs I sing that I can’t get through without crying. Songs can be so emotional. Songs can convey emotion more than anything.”
Thanks to Sherman Donnelly for suggesting the topic for this week’s column. Do you know any other songs that reference Key Biscayne? Perhaps you have written one yourself. Please let us know, we’d love to hear from you.
For the last #lighterside column, click here.
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This article was originally published by a www.islandernews.com . Read the Original article here. .