Ep2 Positive Rock Lyrics "Happy Veterans Day" - a podcast by Academy for Success

Happy Veterans Day Wolfpack! It's November 11 and today we celebrate and thank our veterans for serving and protecting our country. Rock and roll has had its fair share of veterans including the father of rock, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Manzarek of the Doors, Shaggy and Tool front man Maynard James Keenan. Also, Toy Caldwell served in the US Marine Corps during the Vietnam War until a landmine accident sent him home. If you don't recognize the name Toy Caldwell, he was the founder of the Marshall Tucker Band. There was never a Marshall Tucker in the band, and it was originally called the Toy Factory. . They ended up with the Marshall Tucker Band when they saw on their key to the rented rehearsal space they were using the name Marshall Tucker. They later learned that Marshall Tucker, a blind piano tuner, was the previous tenant of the space. The Marshall Tucker Band is an interesting group coming to us out of our very own Spartanburg, South Carolina that incorporated blues, jazz, and country into their sound helping to establish the genre of Southern Rock.

Pulling from the Marshall Tucker Band's vast discography, today we are looking at "Bob away My Blues". This song is admittedly a little heavy on the country side, but still brings us a very positive message.

Well I'm goin' down to the river

I've got a canepole in my hand

I've got my redworms in a Maxwell house coffee can

I'm gonna sit under a shade tree on a riverbank where it's cool

I'm gonna close my eyes and dream and let the cork bob away my blues

The speaker in this song has a positive outlet for his every day stresses and ensures he takes time to go fishing and let "the cork bob away [his] blues." We all need a method to destress. A noticeable absence in this song is the lack of specifics about his blues. Throughout the song he only makes reference to his pa encouraging him to move to the city and being a city boy with the country blues. It's a noticeable departure from your typical blues song which delves into specifics regarding the source of the speaker's blues. SImilarly, while venting our frustrations can have a cathartic release of stress, if it's done without focus on a solution, and done repetitively, it can start to refuel the stress as no solution is addressed and a feeling of hopelessness can set in. Vent if you are looking for solutions. But distance yourself from the stress with hobbies and past-times which can calm your mind.

Also noticeable is that city boy who remembers his roots in the country. Sometimes we forget where we come from, and in education that can translate into why we chose to become a teacher. Usually it's not a simply "I love reading," or "I love history" or... well, insert the appropriate subject for you. There are plenty of occupations for the subject matter we chose to teach, occupations which would keep us from having to try and wrangle a menagerie of emotionally volatile teens. But we chose teaching.  Usually there's some component of wanting to help teens grow and develop. We got into it focused on the student. But we let standards and tests shift our focus to the content. Remember why you chose teaching, especially as tests creep up. Growth is growth, be it academic, behavioral, interpersonal, or that slow growing personal growth that doesn't fully develop until adulthood. Positive relations with students will garner at least one.

Thank you for being the best, thank you for all that you do, and remember to let the cork bob your blues away.

Further episodes of AFS Wolf Den

Further podcasts by Academy for Success

Website of Academy for Success