“Oh yeah, love’s the only thing that matters anyhow.”

Those lyrics are from the song Sweet Cherry Wine by Tommy James and the Shondells released in 1969.

I have been singing it over and over again lately, and with the help of my “Alexa,” listening as well.

 

I haven’t written anything to post on “Musings” in over three months.  I haven’t felt like it.  I have been in a funk since Christmas.  I don’t know why exactly.  Maybe it’s seasonal depression; maybe it’s the #PutinPriceHike on our gas costs; maybe it’s the massive losses in our retirement accounts at a time when I would like to retire; maybe it’s the Valentine’s Day card I bought for Kim that cost me eight bucks (8 bucks!); maybe it’s the threat of World War III and nuclear war looming over the futures of my grandsons; maybe it’s the weight gain I can’t blame on anybody but myself ushering in a new stage of my old age.

 

In 1969 I remember Sweet Cherry Wine as being a cool song that I liked.  At that point in my life, I wasn’t paying too much attention to lyrics in songs so I didn’t really get the message.

Having grown up on lyrics like “Makes my heart go run-run ditty”  or  “Down dooby doo down down, Comma, comma, down dooby doo down down,” what was the point of listening to lyrics.

Anyway, I just thought it was a song about drinking wine.

We had a lot of division in the country in the 60’s and 70’s.  In fact in Tommy James’ book “Me, the Mob, and the Music” he writes “Before the 1968 election, there was very little left-right, conservative-liberal dichotomy.  That election, that year, was when we lost our national unity and became a red and blue country.  Divided we fall.”

We had Vietnam, we had Watergate, and not long after we had our first oil crisis.

My daughter Hayley reminded me this past week about a photograph I had taken when I was in high school that got published on the front page of a local newspaper called The Advisor on February 3, 1974.  The photo was taken during the oil embargo of 1973 and 1974 and she wanted to use it as part of her lesson for one of her classes.

The oil embargo of 1973 had some similarities in origin to at least a part of our current oil and gas situation (the Putin part) in that during the Arab-Israeli War of 1973 the Arab nations imposed an embargo on the United States in retaliation for providing arms to Israel thus banning petroleum exports to the US and other nations supporting Israel.  Domestic oil production had declined and we had become dependent on importing foreign oil.

We had long lines at the gas stations and prices jumped.  It was common for gas stations to run out of gas.  I happened to have worked part-time at the Shell station in my hometown of Oceanport where the photo was taken and therefore I had a pretty easy time getting gas.  I had taken the photo as part of an assignment for my high school photography class.

“Divided we fall.”

That may be true.  I think September 11, 2001, would tamp that division down a little but it is raging back.

We have climate change, social media, fake news, Build Back Better, Make America Great Again, socialism versus capitalism, and on and on.

Heck, even the Senate’s attempt to cure my seasonal depression is pitting family member against family member.

 

Though often thought to be related to psychedelia and drugs, Sweet Cherry Wine was more a song protesting the Vietnam War and according to Tommy James in an interview in 2010 the song “was about the blood of Jesus.“

 

“…yesterday my friends were marching out to war
…listen, now, we ain’t a-marching anymore”

“No we ain’t gonna fight
Only God has the right
To decide who’s to live and die”

 

I have always said that writing is great therapy.

I guess I should start practicing what I preach.

Maybe practice what I preach in more ways than just writing.

 

“To save us He gave us sweet cherry wine”

 

This is my blood, drink it, in remembrance of Me.

 

Pray for peace.