Paul Richardson: The best words ever

Ingenious combinations of words have made up every memorable quote that endures. A few singular words become iconic, but they are rare and associated with a symbol or event.

Like other items, songs, books, occasions and places; a combination of words will jump to the front. 

Our current state of affairs has highlighted one for me that was always leading the pack, but now has taken on a new depth in its meaning.

During our sophomore year in high school, my old friend Randy Turner and I were working on the school newspaper staff. This was in a day when the paper was created on memo graph film punched out on typewriters. A very time-consuming process. 

My memory of these days was resurrected recently by a Facebook post from Randy with a photo of the newspaper as it appeared following Don Bogle promoting us during our junior year and the move to offset print and photos! 

On the many evenings when we returned to the high school to work producing the paper in our sophomore year, we were permitted to play “our” music during this time. Someone either an upper classmate or one of the teachers involved had a fine collection of Moody Blues’ albums. These were the early works and included “On The Threshold Of A Dream”.

On at least two different occasions I discussed my opinions regarding a specific song from the aforementioned album with Steve Kenny. 

While we have differing opinions about this song, one must realize that the impact a song has is dependent upon a lot of different things. It certainly must have the appeal based on the style of music and we can all agree that certain songs just grab hold of you. 

The Moody Blues were always a known group of poets by nature. Join their poetry in with some good blues riffs, coupled with a good tempo and beat, well, you got my attention. Join all of that with the frequent repetition of not only that song but the entire album and that played in my head for years.

The song in debate is “Lovely To See You” and will certainly be an anthem for me following this current period of isolation. I had already selected this song to be a part of repertoire for my last send off. Yes, I have selected the music which will play at that occasion! The good wife thinks it is morbid, but I think it is a good idea to have all these things taken care of and besides, the music will really represent me and what my life has experienced.

I’m going to close up this article with some of the words from this poetic work; “Wonderful day, passing my way, knock on my door, even the score with your eyes, Lovely to see you again my friend, walk along with me to the next bend……”

Search out and enjoy this song online and let me know your opinion the day you knock on my door. I will be saying, “Lovely to see you again, my friend.”

(Paul Richardson's column, The Horse I Rode On In, is published weekly in the Neosho Daily News, Seneca News-Dispatch, Aurora Advertiser and on the Turner Report.)