Power of music can take us all back in time

One of my best nights out before lockdown was going to a concert at the Hydro in Glasgow to see the Bay City Rollers.

Part of the experience was going along with friends who were all of a certain age and had spent their early teenage years like me, swooning over the band.

It would be true to say that most of the female crowd was of that generation.

Like many I was saddened to hear of the death last week of Les McKeown, lead singer of the group.

When I hear their hit single, Bye, Bye Baby it takes me back to the Christmas disco when I was a first-year pupil at the Vale of Leven Academy. Isn’t it amazing that the power of music can instantly take us back to a place and a time?

I am a Radio 2 listener, and every weekday morning they have a music quiz called Popmaster which I like to tune into because it fits nicely around coffee break time.

In it, there is always a “guess the year” question, when the quizmaster names three songs and the listener has to guess which year it was when they were all in the top ten.

I am usually an expert at that question because I just hum the tune in my head and it takes me back to where I might have been and who I might have been with, and if I’m not absolutely correct, I’m usually only a year or so out.

One of the things we’ve missed most in church is our inability to sing our well-loved hymns. Hymns have the same effect on me as pop songs, because some hymns have the power to take me back to an important event where the hymn was sung.

I can still remember the hymns sung at personal family events like our wedding, our children’s baptisms, and of course funerals of family members.

There have also been many hymns which have marked my own journey of faith, like the hymn “O Jesus I have promised” which was sung on the day I became a member of the church; the day I was ordained an elder; and indeed, on the evening of my ordination too. So much so, that when we admit new members to the church family and ordain new elders, it is usually one of the hymns we sing.

In our Zoom Sunday School, we have had to find new ways of using sacred songs with our children. Mostly these take the form of colourful musical videos, quite often with actions, and we encourage the children to put themselves onto “mute” and sing and dance along.

It is a delight to scroll through the screens and see them do just that.

I wonder if in years to come, when one of these songs is heard, it will take them back to the lockdown Zoom Sunday school days. I know for certain it will for me.