Songs that made America

In 1947, an eight-year old might not fully understand the phrase “castle on the hill,” but he would understand “castle in the air.”

That was the year I first heard Judy Garland sing this:

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh, why can't I?

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh, why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?

I could picture that land.

At the same time, I knew it wasn’t real in the same way that streets and cars were. But the land could exist. Somehow. In some way.

Because I could imagine it.

Because Judy Garland sang it with such conviction.

To discover you have a potent imagination at such an early age…it’s not a lesson you forget.

You made that discovery without anyone delivering an image to you. She was just singing. You were listening to the radio.

Words and music were coming through.

A land beyond. In the sky. Higher than a rainbow.

I was born into that. Born into that art coming through a radio.

What a tremendous life I was living in—that would have been my thought.

It of course led me to imagine many other things.

All the way up to now.

When at age 11 I began to study grammar, the mechanics of language, it certainly occurred to me I could write about what I imagined. I could use language for that: