KEVIN McCORRY, HOST: I’m Kevin McCorry and this is ‘Jukebox Journey.’
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “Matter of Trust” by Billy Joel, “1-2-3” by Len Barry, “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs, “You Get What You Give” by The New Radicals, “Adam Raised a Cain” by Bruce Springsteen, live July 1978, “Roadrunner” by The Modern Lovers]
KM: We’re unstuck in time, jumping through decades and genres, meditating on a theme. This week: Count on it.
You start with the basics: 1, 2, 3…
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “One” by Amiee Mann, “Just the Two of Us” by Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers, “My Blue Heaven” by Fats Domino]
KM: And build up to…
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “Eight Days a Week” by The Beatles, “Love Potion No. 9” by The Searchers, “10 out of 10” by Oliver Heldens feat. Kylie Minogue]
KM: From there you practice basic operations.
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “Add it Up,” by The Violent Femmes, “Subtraction” by Coheed and Cambria, “Multiplication” by Bobby Darin, “Roses” by Outkast]
KM: But the math gets harder and so does life as a key question emerges: what actually counts?
Is it the distances we travel to find what we’re looking for?
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “With Arms Outstretched” by Rilo Kiley, “Twenty Five Miles” by Edwin Starr, “Louisiana” by The Walkmen, “I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)” by The Proclaimers, “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, “Million Miles” by Bob Dylan]
KM: Maybe what counts is the amount of hardship we endure?
[MUSIC: “96 Tears” by ? & The Mysterians]
KM: Or the wins we rack up, even if small?
[MUSIC: “Count It Victory” by The Williams Brothers]
KM: Certainly surviving year after year and marking time is worth accounting.
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “Nineteen” by Tegan and Sara, “Powderfinger” by Neil Young, “Fear” by Kendrick Lamar, “30” by Bo Burnham, “100 Years” by Five for Fighting]
KM: But as age fleets away, we think back on the years — some are treasures; others traumas.
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” by The Band, “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” by Richard Thompson, “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night!) by The Four Seasons, “1979” by The Smashing Pumpkins, “2021” Vampire Weekend]
KM: Like time and age, there’s another ledger you can’t escape.
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell, “Cover of the Rolling Stone” by Dr. Hook, “If I Had a $1,000,000” by Barenaked Ladies, “The Story of O.J.” by Jay-Z]
KM: And when it comes to money: how high should we index it, and the power it affords?
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” by Wu Tang Clan, “It’s Money That Matters” by Randy Newman]
KM: Versus holding the line on values that are harder to quantify: Faith, hope, love, integrity, morality, creativity….
[MUSIC: “Danny’s Song” by Loggins and Messina]
KM: It’s not an easy calculus. But you pick your battles and try to find balance.
Hopefully, like musicians keeping time, you find people who share your values — people who help you stay in rhythm to make something that adds up to more than the sum of its parts.
In other words: Something that really counts.
[MUSIC: “1234” by Feist]
KM: I’m Kevin McCorry and this has been a Jukebox Journey on WHYY.
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