Episode summary:

TC & Maddog draw on TC’s book “Esprit De Corpse” to explore the profound influence of music in our lives, as conveyed through the exploration of lyrics that resonate deeply with personal experiences.

Music has been around since the dawn of time and it has set the tone for our lives for generations. It brings our memories to life illustrating how certain songs evoke emotions and reflections that shape our identities and connections with others. "Esprit de Corpse" reflects on life's pivotal moments and lessons sharing music to emphasize the lessons.

Join us as we embark on this auditory journey, contemplating the intersection of music, memory, and meaning in our lives.

Topics discussed in this episode:

In this enlightening podcast episode, the hosts delve into the multifaceted significance of music within our lives, articulating its profound impact on personal and collective identity. The conversation begins by reflecting on the tonal shift from previous episodes, which were characterized by a more serious disposition, to a more buoyant examination of music's role in human experience. The hosts assert that music transcends mere entertainment; it is an emotional touchstone that resonates deeply within our psyche, influencing our moods, memories, and connections with others.

The discussion is enriched by the hosts' anecdotes and their engagement with various song lyrics that evoke powerful emotions. They highlight how certain tracks can encapsulate the essence of significant life moments, illustrating the idea that music is a universal language that speaks to our shared humanity. The episode explores themes of nostalgia, connection, and the transformative power of music, suggesting that it serves as a guide through life's complexities, offering solace and understanding in times of trial.

As the episode unfolds, the hosts encourage listeners to reflect on their own musical experiences, prompting them to identify songs that have shaped their lives. They emphasize the importance of embracing music as a companion in both joyous and challenging times, reinforcing the notion that we are never truly alone. By the conclusion, the hosts leave their audience with a resonant reminder of music's enduring ability to connect us to our emotions and to one another, ultimately celebrating its role as an integral facet of the human experience.

Walkabout takeaways:

1. Music possesses a transformative power, capable of evoking profound emotions and memories that shape our experiences and identities.
2. TC & Maddog explore the intricate relationship between song lyrics and personal narratives, illustrating how music can resonate on a deeply personal level.
3. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on the significance of music in their lives, recognizing its ability to provide solace during both joyous and challenging times.
4. The discussion underscores the necessity of self-care and personal well-being, particularly in high-stress professions such as law enforcement.
5. Finally, the episode advocates for the cultivation of meaningful relationships, asserting that connection with others is vital for a fulfilling life.

To get your very own copy of “Esprit De Corpse” visit Amazon or any online book store:

“Esprit De Corpse”

More about E-Walkabout:

To learn more about Electronic Walkabout visit us at www.ewalkabout.ca.

If you want to read more “Thoughts of the Day” check out TC’s Book at Amazon:

“St. Mike's Fortunes”

A special thanks to Steven Kelly, our technical advisor, who keeps trying to teach these old dogs new tricks when it comes to sounds and recording!!

“Remember to take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you!”

“Leader of the Band”-Dan Fogelberg,1981

https://lyrics.lyricfind.com/lyrics/dan-fogelberg-leader-of-the-band

“Time”-Dean Brody, 2016

https://genius.com/Dean-brody-time-lyrics

“Looking Out for Number One”-Randy Bachman, 1981

https://genius.com/Bachman-turner-overdrive-lookin-out-for-1-lyrics

“Cats in the Cradle”-Harry Chapin, 1973

https://genius.com/Harry-chapin-cats-in-the-cradle-lyrics

“Live Like You Were Dying”-Tim McGraw, 2004

https://genius.com/Tim-mcgraw-live-like-you-were-dying-lyrics

“Turn the Page”-Bob Seger 1973

https://genius.com/Bob-seger-turn-the-page-live-lyrics

Artists mentioned in this episode:

1. Dan Fogelberg
2. Harry Chapin
3. Randy Bachman
4. Jimmy Rankin
5. Dean Brody
6. Tim McGraw
7. Bob Seger

Electronic Walkabout. No one should have to walk through life alone. We share the good times, the bad times, and the best times.

Everyone needs a little direction now and again. And TC and Mad Dog are here to show you the way. A podcast where we talk about the important things in life. Come journey with us.

The electronic Walkabout Maddog. Today we're going to examine the gift of music in our lives.

Oh, I know you like these ones.

Well, yeah. And because, you know, I'm. I'm. I kind of got the sense the last few episodes and use the word deep, they were much, much too deep.

So I thought we'd switch channels a.

Little bit, lighten it up, lighten a.

Bit, have some fun with this. Very good. But music is always changing.

And as much as there are a multitude of genres, there will always be lyrics that will touch you, hold meaning for you, and help you through your life. Now, when I was writing that, I was thinking about you because you've mentioned it a couple times on the episode, that jelly roll song.

What is that Now? It's okay. Not.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I am not okay.

I'm not okay.

Okay.

Music will be the one element that stops you time and time again. So what I'm suggesting is that music truly is a trigger. Whether you like it or not, it'll bring back happy memories, sad memories. It doesn't matter.

At the end of the day, I'll just say it's all good because it, what it really does, it shapes people, groups of people, a unit, even a country. If you think about how you feel when you hear Sing O Canada, when you're at a football game, group setting, whatever it is. Are you ready?

I am ready.

Now, shortly after I retired from policing, I wrote my first book, Esprit de Court. Now, what I did with each one of those chapters, I started with brief lyrics from a song.

So what we're going to do today, we're going to explore each one of those chapters. Not the content of the chapter, but merely the song that's in front of the chapter.

Kind of explain to the listeners or share with the listeners what the point was by choosing those lyrics. And while we're doing that, you chime in with any kind of song that pops into your head that kind of resonates with you.

As we kind of go through that.

For sure, we're question, though, where the was the chapter written first and then the. The lyrics found, or did the lyrics direct the chapter?

Sometimes it was one way and sometimes it was the other. Okay. Sometimes it was the chapter was written. Now I had to find the ly that kind of fit and kind of set the stage for the chapter in itself.

Gotcha. Interesting.

But first, as always, a thought for the day when it comes to a new idea. Give it a chance. It could be like that new song that doesn't grab you right away, but after listening to a few times, grows on you.

I like that.

Kind of fits with the update.

It does. I was expecting there to be some sort of musical innuendo with that one in the introduction.

Okay.

Are you familiar with that?

No, I'm not.

Okay. And any of these songs that you haven't heard, I suggest I could even probably send you the links to list these songs because they.

And that's the thing about lyrics. If. And it's funny because you, you ask these old rockers, well, what's this song about?

For example, with the Eagles in Hotel California, it was funny. It was kind of surfing the net and there's Joel Walsh, and it's probably the wrong person to ask. Well, he just said it's about California.

You're like, well, no. Where's the deep meaning?

Where's the deep meaning? Because a lot of people think it's got some satanic meaning or something.

Right.

My point being is that when you listen to a song, it doesn't matter what the lyrics are. If they resonate to you in some way, your perception, I think that's the whole point. So it could be different for anyone, really.

So was that, Was this book at retirement time or prior?

This was written just after I'd retired.

Gotcha.

But I, and in fairness, I, I probably put it to bed after that because I've been actually writing that book for like a five year period.

Okay.

Gotcha. Yeah, Gotcha.

Yeah. I like the concept of, of the song lyrics per chapter. And, and I will.

I have to make a confession now because once my wife hears this, I'm gonna get an earful. I am the worst for paying attention to what lyrics are songs. I, I like the songs and the melody, but half the time I don't put any thought into it.

And then I've heard a couple and my wife's like, you know what this is about right. I'm like, no. And then she'll tell me and I get offended. I'm like, are you kidding me? I didn't realize that.

Yeah.

I'm gonna input as much as I can. I know music, but paying attention to lyrics is probably not my strong point.

It's funny, there was no.

I can't mention the song now because like I. I mentioned this whole maybe tailoring a podcast episode with a song and there's this one song that you knew what it was and let's just say it was X rated. So there's no way we're touching that.

Right.

But it sounded great.

Yeah, exactly.

So getting back to this leader of the band, really, as far as I'm concerned, this is almost a. A love story that, that the writer is writing about his father and the gift that he gave to the writer and his brothers and in this case his.

His father being a music man. And that's the same thing. So that's the gift that he gave to him. Now what the segue was the chapter really. I was speaking about my dad change what.

What he had given to me because he was probably the best friend I had and probably one of the biggest role models I had. It just kind of made sense.

Yeah. And is it almost impart that this book is the same type of gift to your kids?

Well, it could be. It could be. And the funny story about that, that book, I ran into someone 2 weeks ago I hadn't seen probably in about, I'd say easily in 10 years.

A retired Port Moody police officer. And this guy, he's got. He likes to talk. So you can't just say hello to him. That's it. You're into it.

He mentions the book, you know, one of the best books I've ever read. But it's more the lyrics, I think that that kind of sets the stage really, really nicely. Okay, that's great.

Again, you're going to get an email with the yes, please. Yes. I might even put the. The links to these. These songs e. Even the videos in the show notes for the listeners.

Great idea to go ahead and chapter one. Chapter one was on or is on retirement.

I hadn't actually the last chapter because it just made sense to me until I got a few people to review the book before I went forward with it. And someone came up with this great idea. Why don't you put retirement first?

Because it's something that's so important that no one thinks about and you really should be thinking about it as you start your Career day one. Not when you're like getting ready to retire and you're going to that retirement.

Course panicking because you haven't saved enough or haven't planned enough.

You think you have time, you think tomorrow's always coming down the line, and then one day you wake up and find the trouble is you thought you had time.

Yep. Yeah. And I think that, you know, resonates with a lot of people to live in the moment and, you know, and it's.

You don't know what you have until it's gone. And yeah, time is one of those things.

And it's not just retirement. You can really just kind of put that in the context of living life to its fullest because you. We think we're going to live forever, primarily.

Yeah, yeah.

And time with your kids, time with your spouse. And yeah, it goes on and on.

And before you know it, you're out of time. Chapter four, Looking out for Number one. And one of the reasons why I, I wrote that chapter was to.

To really hit home the point that, hey, look, you got to look after yourself. I mean, if you're going to really commit to any, any career, whatever it was.

And just in my case, of course, it was policing, you have to really not only do the best you can, but if you want to kind of get promoted, rise in the ranks, whatever, you really have to look out for yourself because everybody else is doing the same thing. Yeah.

And it's not out of greed or anything. It's just you have to be self serving and promote yourself in order to get noticed.

And the only hitch that I kind of add on to it is that bring as many people with you as you can. And it has nothing to do with legacy, although legacy will be a part of it.

But if you can teach people to get to the top and bring as many people as you can, wouldn't. Wouldn't that be great?

Oh, for sure. Yeah. And I think that just naturally becomes your legacy. You don't plan for a legacy, but the actions and what you do is what determines your legacy.

Yeah.

Okay. And it makes a lot of sense. You know those lyrics.

Yeah, the basic ones.

The Basic ones. Looking out for number one. There's only one way to make to the top. It's for number one. I can't sing like Randy or can I?

And did you realize the guess who are getting back together and they're touring next year?

Is it a retirement fund tour or.

Don't know. But it.

That's great.

Chapter five. And we talk. We've talked about this topic on the podcast and one time or another, it's the whole. And people call it work, life balance.

I. I say life, work balance and how important it is to look after ourselves, especially if you're in a, let's say, first responder environment where that job can really wear on you quite easily. So you have to look after yourself. And it's a question of how you do that. And what I did is to hit home with. With people. I got my brother and.

And I'll say this way to start and then I'll say it a different way as. As we finish. Who's a cancer survivor.

And when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer back in the 90s, and just to let the listeners know he's still alive today, that changed the way that he looked at life. That changes the way he lives life. And it's not. It's not the same.

No.

No.

I don't think you take those second chances for granted when they're that presented to you in that dire of a fashion.

It's true. And it's kind of a backhanded gift in a way. Right. Because it's.

The Silver Spoon, Little Boy, Blue Man.

Moon, and the lyrics. And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me he'd grown up just like me. My boy was just like me.

Now, for those of you that hadn't heard the song, the. The song isn't. And, you know, that's one thing that's kind of lost with the songs today. It's. They don't tell stories like they used to do. No.

It seems to be more shock and awe inspiring these days than.

Yeah. So the story behind this song is simple, is that the father was always away on business and all the, all the son wanted to do was spend time with.

With his dad. And he said, well, yeah, as soon as we get home, we'll do this. But then he was on the road again. So they never got to spend that time.

And then finally the dad retires. And what happens is that he wants to spend time with the son, but the same thing just happens. And it.

You call it karma, call whatever you want, but it really hits home. And when the son comes, the dad and says, you know, can I borrow the car? And dad just wants to spend time with it.

No, I got to go with my friend's dad. And then it ends up where the. The kid goes to college, you know, he's living his own life. And here at the end, you get these lyrics.

And then he'd grown up just like me. So, I mean, the message behind that is, is that if. If you don't really pay attention to that whole life work balance, you've really missed the boat.

And there is no going back.

No, no, you can't get that. That's the only thing you can't get back is time, you know, And I.

I used to travel quite a bit, and I literally, it was. I was well aware of being away from home wasn't good for. For anybody. But when I landed out of the sky, literally, I hit the ground running.

Whether it was taking Josh to football practice, doing as much as I can, just making sure that. That I was there and doing the family things. Yeah. Did it exhaust me now and again? Of course it did, but it didn't matter.

No, no. It wasn't about you. It was about the kids.

That's right. And that's, That's. That's the important thing about that. Chapter seven is on relationships. Now you can.

You can talk about business relationships or personal relationships. It really doesn't matter. It's important to have relationships in your life. And because we.

We weren't meant to be on this planet to live by ourselves for sure. And I know we talked about that recently on an episode where you had this one friend that. That's okay being by themselves, and that's fine.

That's the other end of the spectrum. But I would even venture that individual likes to, I'll just put it this way, dip their foot in that pool of humanity just to get that.

That I'll say fix they need. Because you do need that. That relationship now and then.

Or the reminder as to why he wants to hang out by himself.

I'll tell you a little story about him in a second. He said, I was finally the husband, the Most of the time I wasn't, and I became a friend. A friend would like to have.

Mildly inspiring.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay. I mean, there's another song where the story is that the. A guy is facing his mortality and realizing.

And he's kind of making up for lost time, but then realizing the importance of relationships and how you should act and what kind of a husband you should be, what kind of a friend you should be, what kind of a father you should be. A few years back, Jeanette and I had tickets to a Timbergraw concert.

You're probably going to laugh at me when I say this, but I didn't realize that included in the tickets were backstage passes.

That's pretty cool.

It is pretty cool. And I. I didn't know. But on the way to the concert, I said, you know, Jeanette, I think we have backstage passes with that.

But sure enough, we did so pleasantly surprised. We get up there, and it's probably about 10 people acoustic. Tim McGraw is like, literally, far as you and I are part mad dot. And he's singing.

Singing songs. There was one song that he sang that. It's one of his. It's called Don't Take the Girl. He didn't sing it during the concert. It was only the backstage.

That was a big hit for him as well. The funny thing about it is I'm singing it along. Jeanette got mad because I was, like, in her ear, and he want. She wanted to hear him, I think. Yeah.

But you get this. That's a fantastic experience.

It is a fantastic experience. And we did shake hands. All right, so. Yeah.

You still haven't washed that hand to this.

Yes. That's what happens. Okay, we're just going to take a little break from the chapters because I want to tell you a little story about this book. Okay.

And if anybody does want to read the book, you can get it through Amazon. But this is a funny story. Let me see here. What did I do with that? Is that a hairy. Just a moment, please. Here we go.

So a buddy of mine I work with, we'll call him John because his name is John. So he. He bought one of the books shortly after it was published. And of course, first. First of all, I'll tell you this.

When you write a book and you throw it out to the world, it's like you're afraid to ask.

Well, for sure.

What do you think of it? Yeah, there. There's a. There's a. There's a reason why you should ask that, because you want to know. Okay. Did it Hit the mark. Did it, did it get the.

To the audience the way I wanted it to? So I tell the book to John and I, he come to work and I said, John, have you read the book yet? Oh no, I haven't had a chance to do that.

Here I am on the road again There I am up on the stage. Here I go playing Star again There I go, turn the page.

So you think about that song that Bob Seeger writes and it's about him being on the road and then all. And he's on the road up on the stage, on the road, up on the stage and how much that's kind of taking a toll on him for sure.

But in this case what happened was not long after he had the book, I asked me if he had an opportunity to read it. Well, turns out no.

His wife grabbed the book and she, she's a telecoms operator who works dispatch at E. Comm, which dispatches fire, police, ambulance for the lower mainland. She takes the book to work and so there's a number of people that are reading the book at work and he hasn't read it yet. So I'm, I say, okay.

So it comes back like three months later. I said, okay, John, you got to read the book because I want to know what, what you think about it.

The next thing you know, it takes an international journey to the USA, a 10 day visit and on an Alaska cruise. So he takes the book on an Alaska cruise and he's sharing the book with the people on the boat. So.

And some new publicists.

Yeah, so it went, you know, I've never been on an Alaskan cruise, but you know, all the ports up there. But that book went to all, all those ports and in some of those pubs. So when he got back I said, have you, have you read the book yet?

And he says, no, no. But on the cruise he's sharing it with someone from New Zealand, Norway, California and Germany. So this book is well traveled.

It's getting well traveled. Then his father in law picks up the book, his father in law reads it. John still hasn't read the book.

So John's Father in law is a member of the Legion. So he starts taking the book to different legions around B.C. it went up to the Legion and Caleb's. For heaven's sake. It's John's problem.

I don't know, he can't read book. Right. So what happens after that is that he takes it on a 23 day trip to Europe. So he takes it to Europe with it.

Berlin, including Potsdam, Dresden, Nuremberg, Basel, Stuttgart, Cologne, I guess Dusseldorf, excuse my, my pronunciation on this. Germany, Venice, Prague. And I can go on and on and on and then finally return to Canada. And enough was enough.

I said, John, you're going to spend some time reading it. But no, he goes to Hawaii. But not only that, while he's in Hawaii, he runs into this retired army colonel from Alabama.

So the, the colonel takes the book back to Alabama with him, reads the book and then sends it back to John. I said, John, are you going to read the book?

Yeah.

So finally he read the book and he did a review for me. Okay, now do you want to hear the review?

I'm actually very interested now that it's gone this path.

It's just crazy. This book illustrates an open, unbiased view for readers.

Different from what is displayed on the news and other tragedies that members are faced with. Provides another view of human, of the human side from the work and service that we provide to Canadians.

What better way to show the exploits of a number of members than through this book?

Many of the Americans and Europeans that I met had a general interest in meeting the iconic Dudley do right with the red coat and the adage of the Mounties, always get their men. It truly shows a small glimpse of the day to day interactions that our members encountered in their daily activities.

It allowed me to relive my own experience in the RCMP and the same time share with others.

That's a great review. So did he ever say as to why he was so adverse to reading it or just.

No, but you have to get you have to know this guy to. To I'll just say to love him, right? So because he was the one that he'd be the type of guy. He'd bend over backwards very.

And he goes, oh, you gotta read his book. You gotta read this book. So it's.

He's your biggest cheerleader. But yeah, he wouldn't read the book.

But he finally did, thank God.

So that's great. It justifies, I think, to your point, you know, if you're nervous to ask how so what did you think? It'd be nice to hear that that type of review.

The only downside. And. And you know, it does cost a little bit of money, but he probably cost me probably easy bucks and book sales by Disney. No. And.

And just to be fair, I didn't write the book. That made fun.

No. No.

Well, that music is telling us that the first part of this episode has come to an end. Stream in for the next part of this episode and join TC and Maddog as they continue to share the songs and lyrics of TC's book, Esprit de Corpse.

Remember to take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you. To learn more about E-Walkabout, please visit us at ewalkabout.ca.