My daughter is currently working on a song about Alzheimers. There’s cheerful for you. But it is a known fact that, as memory disappears, the ability to sing and remember songs stays a lot longer than other things. So in care homes, having singers come in to sing the old songs is real therapy. When I started in care homes many years ago as a health worker, the age group meant it was all songs from the Second World War. Now it seems to be Elvis impersonators.
A song about memory loss could perhaps slide into a version of an old song, originally a hymn and then a civil rights anthem – How can I keep from singing? Sometimes thought of as an old Shaker hymn; actually it is not. But the refrain “How can I keep from singing?” seems to fit the idea of my daughter’s song.
So, many years after I last wrote humorous verse (and even got paid for it occasionally) I had a rusty try at using the verse and chorus to fit the end of my daughter’s song.
As colours merge in misty shades
And to the past we’re clinging
Though memory dims and recall fades
How can I keep from singing?
So we may we feel as visions dark
And silent calm ‘tis bringing
A final time, we make our mark
How can I keep from singing?
All together now…
