Thank you for that introduction and welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback! I'm Jumpin' John, and we'll be looking back at some of Rock and Roll's greatest artists, songs, and stories. The story of my life revolves around the wonderful relationship that I had with the love of my life: Sally Lehman McDermott. This particular podcast is going to be highly personal. Honestly, it is primarily intended for Sally's family and friends and not really for the general listening audience.
Music has the mysterious power to trigger deep emotions and re-awaken memories. In the My Musical Memories series here on Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts I will explore the various ways that music was an integral part of my life with my best friend and soul mate, Sally. In today's podcast, Sally, My Love - My Musical Memories, Part 3 (abbreviated M-M-M-3), I will explain my thought process for including music at the Celebration of the Life of Sally Lehman McDermott.
Sally was my lover, my confidant, and my beacon of light. In the words of our 1973 wedding vows, Sally was my wife, in sickness and in health. Unfortunately, in 2012 Sally was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer. Over the next nine years she endured three operations, chemotherapy, radiation treatment, and oral chemo with little complaint. Sadly, after a period of remission, the disease returned as Stage IV cancer in January 2020. She was so strong and fought bravely, but Sally succumbed to the cancer on July 30th, 2021.
Her death has shaken me to my core, the loss leaving me with profound grief. My grief is intense, and I miss Sally every day. While I am adjusting to her absence, I am not the same man today that I was with Sally by my side. My confidence and self-esteem has been shattered. I am still figuring out how to fill the empty hours each day that would have been filled with our conversations, with her laughter, and with her companionship.
When her cancer returned at the start of a worldwide pandemic, I tried my best to help Sally. I still have lingering doubts as to whether I, as her companion and caregiver, could have done more for her. Rather than fruitlessly be consumed by those coulda-woulda-shoulda thoughts, I decided to find ways of sustaining Sally's legacy and my memories of her.
I had heard about the concept of creating a video slideshow, with photos of a loved one set to music. Sally and I shared a love of music, so I decided to make such a slideshow to honor Sally's memory. I planned to play the video during the Celebration of the Life of Sally McDermott. I also intended for the video to be a keepsake for Sally's four peeps: daughter Emily, daughter Molly, granddaughter Sophie, and granddaughter Grace. Since I had a couple weeks to put it together, I could take my time and did not have to rush. I spent hours sifting through hundreds of photos, eventually selecting several that seemed to cover the years of Sally's life. I arranged the photos in chronological order and then thought about appropriate music to synchronize with the photos. My rationale for choosing music was that each song should have had some personal meaning to Sally and me. Also, to keep the audience's attention, my goal was that the entire music slideshow should be no more than 20 minutes long.
Using the Shotcut computer software program, I put together the music slideshow. The final result was a video of 18 minutes and 58 seconds in length, featuring selected photos of Sally over the years, plus eight songs that had special meaning to me and Sally. I entitled it, "Sally Lehman McDermott's Journey Through Life". I used two photos of blue indigo bunting birds for the first frame title page. The last frame was a sketch by granddaughter Grace. Grace called that sketch "Superhero Grandma."
The eight songs that I chose were:
•"Blue Eyes" by Elton John
•"Le Temps de l'Amour" by Françoise Hardy
•"Toi" by John McDermott
•"Colour My World" by Chicago
•"All My Loving" by the Beatles
•"Beautiful" by Gordon Lightfoot
•"Lovely To See You" by the Moody Blues
and
•"I Will" by the Beatles
As my goal for the "Sally Lehman McDermott's Journey Through Life" video was to end up with a video no more than 20 minutes in length, there was really no consideration given to any other songs. However, here are fourteen other songs, listed in alphabetical order, that I could have used had there been no time constraint:
•"Because" by the Dave Clark 5
-This song has a pleasant melody and loving lyrics, and the Dave Clark 5 was one of our favorite groups from the 1960's.
•"Blue Guitar" by Justin Hayward (as part of Blue Jays)
-A beautiful melody, plus Sally's favorite color was blue!
•"Happy Anniversary" by the Little River Band
-Attracted by the Little River Band's wonderful harmonies, Sally and I often used to playfully sing "Happy Anniversary" on various anniversaries and birthdays.
•"Hello Bluebird" by Chet Atkins
-Because of Sally's love for birds.
•"Hummingbird" by Seals and Crofts
-Also, because of Sally's love for birds.
•"J'suis D'accord" and "Tous Les Garçons et Les Filles" by Françoise Hardy
-Sally taught middle school French, and she was a favorite among her students. They affectionately called her "Mimi", due to her writing "Mme" (M - M - E) in front of her last name, McDermott. M - M - E is the French abbreviation for "Madame". I had already included a Françoise Hardy song, but these two were also from Françoise Hardy's first album, which Sally and I listened to together numerous times.
•"Living in the Past" by Jethro Tull
-I am presently living in the past, reminiscing about as many pleasant memories of Sally as I can.
•"Mas Que Nada" by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
-We loved this Portuguese song, with its snappy Latin beat and melody.
•"New Horizons" by the Moody Blues
-The Moody Blues were one of our favorite bands. I had already included one Moody Blues song, however, new "New Horizons" was always a favorite. By the way, we selected "New Horizons" for the father-daughter dance at our daughter Emily's wedding in 2005.
•"The Nittany Lion" and the "Penn State Alma Mater" by the Pennsylvania State University Blue Band
-Having met each other while Penn State students, we liked everything to do with Penn State University. As students in 1972 we hand wrote the song lyrics to these two tunes so we could sing along.
•"Teacher" by Jethro Tull
-Sally was a devoted and conscientious teacher, and she always got a kick out of this song by Jethro Tull.
•"Traces" by the Classics IV
-We really liked this tune for its melody and lyrics.
On Sunday, September 5th, 2021, we held a Celebration of the Life of Sally McDermott for our family in the backyard of the home that Sally loved. Music was a large part of the ceremony. As people arrived and settled in, a selection of Sally's six favorite classical songs were playing in the background. They were "Spring" from "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi, "Für Elise" by Beethoven, "Liebestraum No. 3 in A Flat Major" by Liszt, "Water Music" by Handel, "Air on the G String" by Bach, and "Claire de Lune" by Debussy. During the ceremony, granddaughter Sophie played a piano piece in honor of her grandmother.
I felt that it would be uplifting at the end of the Celebration of Life Ceremony to pass out some of my many percussion instruments, such as bongos, tambourines, maracas, etc., to all attendees. Sally and I had often had fun listening to rock and roll songs and tapping on bongos in rhythm. Sally especially enjoyed the Latin rhythms of Santana, so I chose "Oye Como Va" by Santana. Everyone in attendance at the Celebration of Life participated in a group percussion, tapping out a beat while listening to "Oye Como Va" at the end of the ceremony. I think it was a fitting tribute to Sally.
So here are the eight tunes that I chose for the video, along with a brief explanation of why they were included:
1st) "Blue Eyes" by Elton John
This was our favorite song by Elton John with a beautiful melody. Of course, Sally had blue eyes and she was my baby!
2nd) "Le Temps de l'Amour" by Françoise Hardy
This was our favorite song by the popular French singer Françoise Hardy. Françoise rose to prominence in the 1960's as part of the French "yé yé wave" of pop music. Sally's sister Judy, knowing about teenaged Sally's interest in French, gave Sally a copy of Françoise Hardy's first album, and we would later purchase a full catalog of her hits. "Le Temps de l'Amour" was featured in the Wes Anderson film, Moonrise Kingdom.
3rd) "Toi" by John McDermott
The first night that I met Sally I tried to impress her with my limited knowledge of the French language. From that night on until we were married, I often wrote letters to Sally in French. I also fancied myself as an amateur songwriter and wrote a couple songs for her in French. "Toi" is an excerpt from my song of love to Sally. I recorded it some fifty years ago on a small cassette recorder.
4th) "Colour My World" by Chicago
This was a favorite song of ours from the band Chicago, with its pretty melody and words of love. In 1972 I hand wrote the music score to "Colour My World", to the best of my ability, so that Sally could take it home and play it on piano.
5th) "All My Loving" by the Beatles
Paul McCartney was Sally's favorite Beatle, and it was a thrill for her to finally see him in a concert she attended with her sister Linda and brother-in-law Bill. This is the first of two Paul McCartney songs that I used. We played this song multiple times for our daughters and granddaughters when they were very young. "Close your eyes and I'll kiss you, tomorrow, I'll miss you" seemed very appropriate to this situation.
6th) "Beautiful" by Gordon Lightfoot
We both liked this beautiful melody and its beautiful lyrics. This song is a natural for inclusion in a tribute to a beautiful woman.
7th) "Lovely To See You" by the Moody Blues
We loved the music and message of the Moody Blues. This positive, upbeat song seemed to be an appropriate song to include.
8th) "I Will" by the Beatles
The second song by Paul McCartney that I used is a simple song of love set to a catchy melody. It worked well as the closing song in the video.
To me, Sally was inspirational. She lived by "the Golden Rule", and was an excellent role model. Over the fifty years that we spent together, she taught me so much about life and living. Thanks to the influence of her love, I feel that Sally’s spirit carries on within me.
I am so thankful for the support and love I receive from our daughters and their families, and for the support of other relatives and friends. This podcast, as are all the podcasts in the My Musical Memories Series, is dedicated to the memory of the love of my life, Sally Lehman McDermott.
This has been Rock and Roll Flashback….where in today's podcast - Sally, My Love - My Musical Memories, Part 3 - I reviewed my thought process for including music at the Celebration of the Life of Sally Lehman McDermott. Be sure to watch for future episodes of My Musical Memories, only on Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts. So, for now, I'm Jumpin' John McDermott, and until next time….Rock On!