A song I'm not going to play tomorrow is a song that I had to listen to a lot when I was a kid, because my mother loved Neil Diamond, & had a greatest hits live collection she would listen to, & that song was the song "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." Wikipedia has a page about the song. I'm not sure I heard the Hollies version when I was a kid. But damn did I hear sweaty, bedazzled Neil Diamond croon that song a lot.
Here's the thing. When I was a kid, I made a lot of assumptions about the way the world worked. I would make assumptions instead of asking questions much of the time. I think the idea that I had figured something out made me a little happy, a little proud. & sometimes I would blurt my assumptions out & get mocked, usually by family members, for saying something stupid.
For example: I came to conclusion at some point that all cities were bordered by railroad tracks. It seemed so perfect to think that you knew you were in one place because you drove or walked over train tracks. (It would have been better to have actual drawn borders, but this was good, too.) One time, in the car with one or more of my siblings, we passed over train tracks - I can tell you exactly which ones they were, too: the ones crossing Kingsley Road right before Kingsley intersected with Garland Road in Garland, Texas - & I said, happily, "We're in another city!" I was derided immediately by my family members. At the very least, I'm sure I was told I was stupid & to shut up.
The effect of this was not to make me ask more questions, but to make me not express my assumptions out loud. (Thanks, siblings!) Many questions I had didn't even make it to assumptions, actually. Many of them just stayed unanswered. I guess they were mysteries, but they didn't really bug me too much. Most of the time.
However, I could never figure out what the hell the line "he ain't heavy, he's my brother" was supposed to mean. I'm completely serious. What sort of parallel structure of choices existed in the universe where the two options were "heavy" & "brother"? I tried to make sense of it as a kid. But - & this is crucial - I didn't try to make sense of it by listening to the damn song.
You see, if I had just listened to the lyrics, I would have heard Neil Diamond croon melodramatically: "I'm strong, strong enough to carry him. He ain't heavy, he's my brother."
Honestly, it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense. An adjectival description of someone doesn't negate their relation to you, after all. "She ain't diabetic, she's my sister." "He ain't a little feverish, he's my father." "She ain't waifish, she's my second cousin, twice removed."
But the song does explain the "heavy" part, which baffled me.
Again, I didn't spend a whole lot of time pondering this. I was a kid, I had Star Wars things to daydream about. & I know why I couldn't much pay attention to the song itself - the sweaty Neil Diamond in the bejeweled Evel Knievel outfit on the cover of the live album (which is how I remember it) made me very uncomfortable. Elvis Presley in the same period frightened me a little, too. They should've been jumping semi-trucks on their motorcycle instead of singing!
Anyway, I won't play that song tomorrow. & I'll tell you why, tomorrow.
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