Mathis magic on my anniversary

Feb 07, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – No one can tell me there isn’t a book, a song, a movie, a singer, that whenever your marriage anniversary comes around, that can help to evoke spiralling memories of that wave. For me it is the world’s best voice put to music – Johnny Mathis. Today is my 42nd anniversary and Mathis is in front of my eyes.
I got to love the voice of Mathis because my sisters were crazy about him and saw him perform in Guyana when I was just a baby. Growing up with reggae, soul, rhythm and blues, Bollywood film music, and pop music in general, Mathis was at the core of all the genres I enjoyed.
The first time I left Guyana was in 1978. I completed UG and was courting my future wife, Janet. No one in Guyana wanted to touch me because the strong man of Guyana, Forbes Burnham, had put out an employment fatwa on me. I was UG’s best graduating student but couldn’t find a job anywhere in Guyana. Every private sector manager was afraid of Burnham. My sister, named Janet too, sent for me to “chill out” in Barbados.
When I was leaving to get married, she gave me a Johnny Mathis album, “Romeo and Juliet” and told me never to part with it. I have never parted with it. Janet, my wife and I left to study in Canada. In Canada, I bought all the Mathis albums I saw at Sam’s on Young Street in downtown Toronto.
As I listened to the phenomenal voice of Mathis during endless winter nights when Toronto challenged Siberia for unbearable coldness (God, I hate winters), I played two songs over and over and over because they reminded me of the year of uncertainty, my uncertainty when I couldn’t get employment but my romance with Janet kept me alive.
Those two songs were a psychedelic and pyrotechnical reminder of my bohemian courting days. As I listened to Mathis sing them, it was as if I was Mathis and Janet was the subject. No husband in Guyana has carried his wife through what I did to Janet – oppression; spells in the lockups; endless libel writs; employment dismissal, email and telephonic abuse, vulgar insults on the roadways and constant harassment from the taxman. Well by writing this column on my 42nd anniversary, you must know we survived.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

You’re a lady – Johnny Mathis
Now the evening has come to a close
And I’ve had my last dance with you
On to the empty streets we go
And it might be my last chance with you
So I might as well get it over
The things I have to say won’t wait until another day.

You’re a lady, I’m a man, you’re supposed to understand
How these things are often planned to be
You’re romantic, I’m a fool,
You’re the teacher, I’ve come to school
Here I sit and hope that you’ll love me.

You’re pure magic, unlock my chain
Nothing ventured, nothing gained
And so I say with no restraint, be mine, be mine.

Hard to answer I agree
But then I’ve got to know
I’m not asking you to marry me
Just a little love to show
Girl, I know I could make you happy
So the things I have to say
Won’t wait until another day

You’re a lady I’m a man
You suppose to understand
How these things are
Often planned to be.

You’re romantic, I’m a fool
You’re the teacher, I’ve come to school
Here I sit and hope that you’ll love me
You’re pure magic, unlock my chain
Nothing ventured, nothing gained
And so I say with no restraint, be mine, be mine.

Wild is the wind – Johnny Mathis
Love me, love me; say you do.
Let me fly away with you.
For my love is like the wind
And wild is the wind.
Give me more than one caress.
Satisfy this hungriness.
Let the wind blow through your heart
For wild is the wind.
You touch me.
I hear the sound of mandolins.
You kiss me.
And, with the kiss, the world begins.
You’re spring to me, all things to me
You’re life itself!
Like a leaf clings to a tree
Oh my darling, cling to me
For we’re creatures of the wind,
And wild is the wind, the wind.
Wild is my love for you.
You touch me.
I hear the sound of mandolins.
You kiss me.
And, with the kiss, the world begins.
You’re spring to me, all things to me;
You’re life itself!
Like a leaf clings to a tree
Oh my darling, cling to me,
For we’re creatures of the wind,
And wild is the wind, the wind.
Wild is wind.

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