Ever been in a real bad mood, and you need something to pull you out of it? Oh hi everyone, I'm Michael Croes, and this, well this is the Daily Grateful. You know what pulls me out of bad moods just about every day? Just about any time of my life, and I'm gonna go into some of those times with you.
I'm going to bear my soul to you, but I'm going to tell you what brought me out of those tragic and bad things, or helped, let's just say, it helped a lot, and that is music. I was listening to a podcast today by a young lady named Bobby Eltoff. Now she plays a character on her podcast that acts like she doesn't know anything. And today she was interviewing just a wonderful musician, a pianist, or keyboard artist named Charlie Booth, who's 31 years old and has collaborated with everybody.
And she said, she listened to music maybe once a week, and he just could not understand that. He said, I listen to music every day, and so why? And music will take you to places that you've never been. Music will get you out of places that you don't want to be.
It's just that important, and it's that vibrant, and it just reaches down into your soul, and I wish I could play music on this podcast for you. I'm not allowed to play the hits right here in the, I have to pull this out. I'll tell you, the podcaster's manual on page 334. Michael is not allowed to play the hits because ASCAP will come and get me, and I don't want them to do that.
Anyway, we don't copyright infringement and all that, but I can't talk about some lyrics, and things that had happened to me in my life. And I remember one time in the 90s, I was at a very low part of my life. I don't know if I should be telling you why, but I was in a very low part of my life, and I was, and I'm not going to share why because other people are involved, and I'm not going to do that. But I will tell you that I went to an Albertson's grocery store at 10 o'clock at night to pick up something.
I was sent there to pick up one specific thing, and I'm looking for it, and I'm just hating my life. I was so depressed. Every day for me was a struggle. It was just an absolute struggle.
Getting out of my car when I came home was an absolute struggle, and Albertson's at 10, 15 at night, and I'm wondering, what in the hell am I going to do? And all of a sudden, over the loud seekers, you know, they played music. They were like, there was nobody in the store. Nobody, just me in this aisle looking for olives.
That's what I was looking for, a specific type of olive. And I'm just having a hard time breathing. I'm so upset. And all of a sudden, John Denver starts singing to me right there in the canned area of the grocery store.
And he said, and I'm looking for space, and I find out who I am, and I'm looking to know and understand it's a sweet, sweet dream. Sometimes I'm almost there. Sometimes I fly like an eagle, but sometimes I'm deep in despair. That is from one of his songs called Looking for Space.
And it pulled me up. It got me up. I was able to leave that aisle with my thing of olives, and go up and check out and go home. And it was, I have to tell you, it was nothing short of miraculous.
It was truly nothing short of miraculous. It doesn't even have to be lyrics. I remember in the summer of 1972, a dear friend of a bunch of us here in the Clearwater area, a young man by the name of Stan Ottland, was on his way to North Carolina to go to a rolling stone concert. And there was a bunch of people with him that I knew.
I was going to go on the trip, but I couldn't. I had to work, but I was going to go on the trip. And they went to this little town and they were out in the woods, and a sheriff named Kermit Banks came out there because he didn't like the fact that there were a bunch of hippies out there, and he had a shotgun, and somehow the shotgun went off and it went right into Stan Ottland's chest, and he was gone, just like that. He was just gone, just like that, to the disbelief of a bunch of my friends several days later, at his funeral at Moss funeral home on Fort Harrison Avenue in Clearwater.
We couldn't go in. There were several of us. We just could not go in. We could not bring ourselves to go in.
And right down Fort Harrison Avenue, there was a light just up there a little ways, and a car came up, and it was parked right in front of us, and the windows were down. And this is going to sound so really strange. The theme to the odd couple was playing on the radio. And I'm sure you've heard it.
And I looked at a friend of mine that was there, and he looked at me, and we're all looking at each other, and his song, this music, this music is coming out of the car radio and right to us. And somehow, I don't know why, it's soohed our souls, and we were able to go inside, and honor our friend. It was just really, wow, wow, and there's just other lyrics that I could go into. Remember this one?
I'm just going to read these lyrics and tell me if you remember it. But of all the friends and lovers, there's no one who compares with you, and all these memories lose their meaning when I think of the love of something new. John Lennon, if you should ever leave me, though life would still go on, believe me, the world could show nothing to me. So what good would living do me?
God only knows what I'd be without you. Brian Wilson, here's one I bet you haven't heard. Stepping off of this dirty bus, first time I've understood. It's got to be the going, not the getting there that's good, and that's a thought for thinking if I could.
It's got to be the going, not the getting there that's good. Harry Chapin, yeah, music's right there for you. You can go out and listen to it today. As a matter of fact, you should listen to it every day.
It should be a just a important part of your life, a very important part of my life. It is an absolute gift from God. I'm so grateful for music. I truly am.
I'm grateful for the wonderful composers. I'm grateful for the very talented lyricist, Bernie Tophan. Where would we be without you? I mean, you know, Elton John writes beautiful music, but it's Bernie Tophan who writes all those words.
Bert Baccarat, fabulous music, Elle David. He wrote the lyrics. We'll talk to you tomorrow. I'm going to go listen to some music.