The Seven Song Itch - Songs for Jackie

On December 25, 2011 my father passed away from cancer.  After many years of suffering he finally let go and moved on to a better place.  I consider myself fortunate to have made peace with him several months earlier—we didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things.  Though we had our issues, he was a simple man that only wanted a ham sandwich, cable television and a comfortable chair.  The one thing that he did give me was my appreciation of music.  Most of the time the radio was my baby sitter while he was off doing what he was doing.  When differences divided us, music united us.  I can’t thank him enough for giving me the ability to be at odds with someone and yet, bond over a song.  I dedicate this collection of “Jackie” songs to my father and hope that he is bonding with other spirits and listening to some great music.

There are a lot of songs that had Jackie in the title.  Some didn’t quite make the list here, but I put them in a playlist on Youtube, which you can get to by clicking here.

1. Sinead O'Connor-"Jackie"

I like the edginess of this song.  It has an intensity of dedication and passion for a sailor named Jackie.  It reminds me of how lucky my father was in his life in his ability to survive a disaster and come out of the experience without a scratch.

2. Van Morrison-“Jackie Wilson Said”

Though I prefer the Dexy’s Midnight Runners version of this song, I figured that my dad would appreciate this one more.  It has a nice swinging rhythm and kind of makes you want to just get up and dance.  When my father was in his late forties, he took up ballroom dancing and spent many years sharing his moves out on the dance floor.

3. John Mellencamp–“Jackie Brown”

My father was absent from my life a majority of the time, which created a lot of tension between us.  I don’t begrudge his decisions, but sometimes when I listen to this song, I can relate to a lot of the difficulties he saw around him.  This song is very special to me, because I can really relate to it, and I suspect that he could as well.

4. Ozark Mountain Daredevils-“Jackie Blue”

When I was growing up, I thought that I was named after this song, but as luck would have it, I was named after my father.  In the years since, I’ve received a lot of mail to Ms. Jackie Jr., (you would think that Jr. would clarify things) which confused the hell out of me.  In this song, I thought that a woman sang it, but as it turns out the male drummer Larry Lee, did the vocal track.  I think we all live in patterns and when something that we think is one way, may actually be something else.  Jackie isn’t just a female’s name, there’s Jackie Chan, Jackie Gleason, and Jackie Mason.

5. Tori Amos-“Jackie’s Strength”

I was in the audience at this show, and have been a fan of Tori for years, but I was not familiar with this song.  I’m not sure if it applies to my father, considering it alludes to a bride on her wedding day as well as Jackie O'nassis.  Though you wouldn’t know it from his appearance, my father was a very strong man, well strong willed.

6. The New Pornographers-“Jackie”

This song is not to be confused with, “Jackie, Dressed up in Cobras,” which is on their Twin Cinema album (2005).  This song is from their debut Mass Republic (2000) record.  I love the lyric in the song that says, “Jackie you yourself said it best when you said:” It appears several times in the song, but I can’t help but laugh when thinking about how assured my father was when he was telling a story, even when we all knew it wasn’t true.  I guess you have to accept people as they are and not who you want them to be.

7. Ramones–“The Return of Jackie and Judy”

I’ve always been a punk rocker, and I like this song.

Bonus Song: Fastball–“The Way”

This song really typifies the attitude that my father had towards life.  He really didn’t know where he was going, and most of the time he made it up along the way, but the road was always calling him.  I’d like to think that I’ve inherited his good luck in some of the chances I’ve taken in life.  God knows I didn’t plan for some of the stuff that happened along the way, but what I learned from my father was to get back up, brush yourself off, and continue to do whatever you want.  I doubt that he had many regrets and I hope that is my legacy as well.