At the conclusion of some movie I happened across when just surfing the channels the melody of a song suddenly caught me, a very old song—and yet I knew every last note of it. My God, I thought, that’s ancient. And musical memory is astonishing. Then I wondered if Ramona, written by Mabel Wayne and L. Wolfe Gilbert, for the movie of the same name, is as familiar to the young generations as to someone like me who first heard it, no doubt ten or more years after it had already become a great hit in 1928....
Here is a link to a YouTube version of this wonderful ancient melody, and below its concluding verses…
Ramona, I hear the mission bells above
Ramona, they’re ringing out our song of love
I press you, caress you
And Bless the day you taught me to care
I’ll always remember
The rambling rose you wore in your hair.
Ramona, when the day is done you’ll hear my call
Ramona, we’ll meet beside the waterfall
I dread the dawn
When I awake to find you gone
Ramona, I need you, my own.
I know the tune and sing the song in the shower, followed by a rendition of "By a Waterfall" (...I'm calling You.)
ReplyDeleteI know the song quite well. There used to be a children's book series about a Ramona Quimby; somehow the song came into it, and when my sister was reading the books I heard the song many, many times.
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