Sunday, October 16, 2011

BOOK OF LOVE - Shona Jackson Memory

 
Modigliani - I'm Lost in your Eyes
                
            Boy
 
I Touch Roses
                         
Book of Love
 
 You Make Me Feel So Good

Book of Love was a popular Dance music group of the eighties.  I played several of their 12 inch dance records at parties and clubs, my favorites were BOY, I Touch Roses, Lost In Your Eyes (Modigliani), Book of Love, You Make Me Feel So Good.  The story behind the song about Modigliani (moh-dill-yawn-ee) is so tragic and beautiful, that song holds very special meaning for me.  Modigliani was a painter, who dies young and tragically before anyone recognized the value of his impressionist paintings.  His lover, pregnant with their child, flung herself to her death off the roof of the garret where they lived, unable to go on without him.  The song is about how the lovers were Lost in each others Eyes.
The song spawned several versions, including an instrumental used in the movie Planes Trains and Automobiles, a long Dub version that I cant seem to find, and a Requiem Mass version, very spiritual.

Back in the seventies, a fierce young woman joined a Star Trek club I ran via the mail.  Her name was Shona Jackson.  She was fierce.  Fierce in her interests, her pursuit of them, her beliefs, her passion for life.  In the eighties, Shona died, way too early.  Upon hearing, I put together a cassette tape of elegaic music in her memory and sent it to Sue Frank who was consolidating items for her family.  On this tape, I used evocative snippets spliced together on a dual cassette deck.  Lonely steam train starting up and leaving the station at night, lonely whistle.  The sound of a steady rain shower with some thunder, sound of crickets, a heartfelt rendition of Ave Maria, and the Requiem Mass version of Modigliani by Book of Love.  It's ethereal quality and the poignancy seemed to match Shona's story.
So below I include a link to that version, and want Shona to know she is not forgotten.
Modigliani - Lost in Your Eyes Requiem Mass

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