I think a song did once save my life, or come close to it.

Several years ago I was living in the Southwest, and became very ill when a flu epidemic hit. I got socked with it and was sick for weeks, in and out of the hospital so much I couldn't pay my rent, lost my apartment, and ended up in a group home. I'm a middle-aged woman, and most of the other residents were young men. They talked as young men often do: Loudly, and with a liberal amount of profanity. In addition, most of them were addicts supposed to be in recovery but secretly still using, and their personalities reflected this. Add to all of it, the rap music pound-pound-pounding from earliest sunrise to late into the night. Not to criticize fans of rap. It's not my personal taste, to begin with. Too much percussion for my enjoyment, and the vocals come too fast for me to comprehend. If you like it, fine, but it's not for me. Besides, I didn't exactly feel up to having a constant party.

In this environment, I was tense and found it very hard to recover from my illness. It also turned out I was diabetic, which I didn't know yet, but having an undiagnosed condition made it even harder for me to get over the flu. The medical care sucked in that particular state, for disabled people on Medicaid, as I was. Three prescriptions a month, that's all you get. If you're on three routine meds (I was) and you get sick, tough. You don't get any more meds. Nor did I have enough access to medical care to even find out I was diabetic. I'd been to the hospital, but nobody ever thought to test me. Wouldn't have mattered anyway. I'd already reached my limit of three monthly meds. Insulin wouldn't have been given.

To cope, I plugged Gordon Lightfoot into my personal CD player, put it on repeat, and insulated myself with my headphones. I listened to Carefree Highway for a continuous 48 hours, I kid you not, probably 500 times in a row, while I drifted in and out of consciousness, too ill to even change the CD.

I have mellow taste in music, have had since I was small. People criticize me for it and call me boring, but so what? Not all music is meant to be danced to. Mr. Lightfoot and Carefree Highway lulled me into relaxation so that I was able to regain just enough strength to travel back home, where family cared for me until I finally started to feel halfway well again, after months. If he didn't save my life, he at least helped me.