30 Songs in 30 Days, Day 8 - A song that you know all the words to

The infamous stolen song book I still haven't given back to my mother.

I guess it's mine now.

I'm more likely to know the guitar licks to songs - I can identify those immediately. I tend to listen more to the music than to the lyrics. There are a few exceptions... My favorite artists - Metallica, Dolly Parton, Patty Griffin; and new (to me, anyway) artists I might be obsessed with.

The really big exception, however, is any song that was featured in The Book. When we moved to Fort Campbell, my mother somehow became a hippie, and regularly played guitar and sang in the evenings with her friends in our living room. They did songs like 'They Called The Wind Maria' and 'Mr. Tambourine Man', all out of this Magic Book.

The Book was a treasure trove of lyrics - folk lyrics nestled next to old gospel lyrics with chord suggestions written above. I studied The Book obsessively. The songs were fabulous. I wasn't allowed to listen to music like this...except when it was sung and strummed around a circle in my living room, apparently.

When we moved from Fort Campbell to Germany, I happily claimed possession of The Book and never looked back. My mom asked for it a few times. Hmmm...

Example page from The Book with my mom's handwritten chord changes

The most-read page of The Book, the 'Let It Be' page

My younger self discovered 'Let It Be' in The Book. It's the most precious of all Beatles songs to me, I doubt I'll ever forget the words.