It's midnight at the depot, and I drag my bags in line. Traveling light, I got to go, but the bus won't be on time. Everybody's looking half alive. Later on, the bus arrives.
Lyrics by Harry Chapin. Hello and welcome to the Daily Grateful. I'm Michael Crouse, and I was trying to be inspired about what to do with the podcast about today, you know, because it is Friday. Is today Friday?
Yes, today's Friday. Good morning, America. It's Friday. Thank you, Paul Harvey.
I was, you know, the inspiration for today's podcast was, can music heal you? And no, it can't, in my opinion. Some people will say it will. I say it can't.
But can music inspire you? Can music make you feel better? Can music change your life? And the answer to that is absolutely correct.
Without any doubt in my mind, music can change your life. And I'm going to go back to an album that came out by Harry Chapin. Oh, gosh, I don't even know when. A long, long time ago, 1972, I think.
It was called Heads and Tails. If you don't know who Harry Chapin was, he was a marvelous singer and a marvelous songwriter and a great lyricist and a wonderful humanitarian. He devoted his life to feeding the hungry back before it was popular to do that. I mean, this is what he did.
He was a family man. I don't edit. We're just keeping moving. He lived on Long Island with his wife and his kids.
And he was, you know, he was just that kind of guy. Died in a car wreck on the LAX. All we have left is his music, but his music literally changed millions of people's lives that listen to it because the album sold millions of copies. So obviously millions of people listened to it a lot because there was one hit, you know, the taxi.
Remember that? That was the big hit. But there were other songs on there. And Greyhound is the one I just started reading you some lyrics for.
And it gets it is musically. It's wonderful because it starts out slow and then it builds up and then it has, you know, it just builds up wonderfully. And then at the very end, it goes gets really slow. He says, 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 or for keeping if I could. It's got to be the going, not the getting there that's good.
He wrote other songs that were on that album. One of them, very just listen to it sometime. Mail order Annie. All right, this is weird.
When I was a kid and I was in Detroit in the winter time with my brother and some cousins and some friends of my cousins. We went to the movies to see Mail Order Bride, which was really strange. It was I just I remember sitting outside the theater and here's why I remember it. We were going to pay to get in and we're going to pay the kids rate.
And my brother was a little bit too old. And the friend said, they're going to ask you what date your birthday is. And he says, I'm going to be behind you singing 49, 49, 49 because he had to be for, you know, 1949. Then he could get in on the kids rate.
He got in on the kids rate. Then we had extra money to buy popcorn with. So and I was already a kid. So but anyway, there was this Mail Order Bride movie.
And when I heard Mail Order Annie, I remembered that movie and it just came right to me in the lyrics of it. I'm not going to share, you know, I'll do the last two lines. Mail Order Annie, can't you see I'm trying to tell you that I'm glad that you're here? You are the woman who's come to be my life, my wife.
Wow. And then there's Mr. Tanner. He was a cleaner in a town from the Midwest and all the cleaning shops in town.
He made his the best. And it was about this guy named Mr. Tanner who sang. He was an operatic tenor and he sang in his shop and he wanted to get, you know, everybody said, you need to go and get on stage.
And the song is the story of Mr. Tanner going and making his debut and the reviews that came after. And it's kind of a sad song, but it's also inspirational because at the end, if I can find it here, music was his life. It was not his livelihood and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good.
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul. He did not know how well he sang. It just made him whole. Wow.
Music can totally change your life. The Beatles, Let It Be. That was a life changer. Well, there's lots of Beatles songs that were life changers for me, but that would be one.
And Penny Lane. I have no idea why that song always makes me happy every time I hear it. And then during the anti-war movement, there was a song called Come on, people, smile on your brother. Everybody get together.
Try and love one another right now by the Youngbloods. Remember that? Yeah, kind of changed my life. Kind of gave me inspiration.
I want you to embrace music. I'm going to have to edit this podcast. I hate editing podcasts, but it's 43 minutes after the hour, 11 o'clock. The podcast is supposed to drop at midnight and I'm tired and I've had a long day and I have a flat tire on my truck that I got to deal with in the morning.
But I'm grateful that I got to talk to you about music. We'll see you Monday.