Thursday, February 3, 2011

Dreams and Sonny Bono



I met the man last night. No, not that man. I met Sonny Bono. Yep, that's right, the one and only. Yeah, I know he has passed away, but in my dream last night I could see and hear him perfectly. It is odd now, in daylight to think that I dreamed of Sonny Bono. My friends have dreams of Joey Ramone, Janis Joplin, or even Jim Morrison visiting them in the flesh. But me? I get Sonny Bono.

He was really cool actually, and all I can remember of him was the sound of his voice as he sat in the backseat of my old 68'Mustang, as we drove down a curvy road together. We were musing about life, and how precious it can be, to cherish what you have, when you have it, and then we began humming a tune. The humming was in perfect harmony (Sonny is very easy to harmonize with) and soon the hum turned into lyrics, and a song was born. It was more of a chorus, but as we sang together the words spilled over into my conscious, and I was awake with a perfect melody still fresh, and Sonny's voice floating in the air from somewhere far far away.

Music comes to you in so many ways and it is not the first time I have awoken from a dream with a song buzzing in my brain, but from Sonny Bono? It is a true first. I actually have been going through his vast catalog of songs this morning just to be sure that I am not outright plagiarizing his work, but so far nothing.
It's funny because I never knew how talented Sonny Bono was until I was digging through his songs, I of course know lots about Cher- but now I know the man that stood beside her on their old comedy shows was so much more than the butt of her jokes, he was actually the writer of almost all their songs and produced their records too.
So thanks Sonny, I appreciate the backseat driving, the sentiment and the song... Now the hardest part is going to be getting Tony to sing like you.