Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Stand by Me

As I got into a taxi with a standing Buddha figure this morning, the song "Stand by Me" came on the radio. The driver had tuned in the oldies station, and I couldn't help but sing along with Ben E. King. As I recalled the lyrics while staring at the small golden Buddha statue in the red case, the context of the music affected the meaning. After the ride in the taxi, I decided to do a little research and I found that "Stand by Me" was inspired by an old gospel song. It makes sense, then, that the words could adopt a more spiritual meaning. Before today, I just hadn't ever thought of that song in that way before.