I first heard the song "Everlasting
Love" in the fall of 1967 while returning to Blacksburg to begin my junior year at
Virginia Tech. Blissfully tooling along Route 460 in my 1955 Chevy Bel Air, I
suddenly found myself straining to hear a distant AM radio station. The sound of
"Everlasting Love" was fading in and out, but I could hear just enough to know
it would become one of my all-time favorite songs. A week later, and with much
excitement, I told classmate Bruce Long about the song. Bruce was originally from
New Jersey, and a member of the "Soulsations" band that performed regularly at
dances in Blacksburg and Radford. He played the electric guitar, and I had spent
many hours in his dorm room listening to music, playing and singing, and rehearsing songs
for his band. He even talked me into singing lead at one of their Radford dances.
However, I was so embarrassed I never did it again. Anyway, Bruce agreed
enthusiastically that "Everlasting Love" was a great song, and suggested his
band might add it to their play list. We then kicked back and listened to music the
rest of the afternoon. Was "college life" cool or what!
Sadly, another year would slip away before the harsh realities of
"college life" finally caught up with me in the summer of 1968. As
academic probation and mounting debt from educational loans took their respective strangle
holds, I reluctantly dropped out of school, and began the arduous task of trying to
determine what went wrong. In September, after my second draft notice arrived in the
mail (the first one came in 1965 but was deferred), things changed dramatically. By
November I had signed on for a 3-year tour of duty in the U.S. Army. And several
months later at Fort Benning, GA, I finally awoke from my stunned stupor. Sitting on
a hard Army bunk, staring across the barracks at 30 other young recruits, I began to
wonder how the hell I got there? Disillusioned and demoralized, I tearfully
recognized that my 3 years at Virginia Tech, from 1965 to 1968, had been frittered away,
squandered--wasted in mindless, adolescent folley, like the above "Soulsation"
story so clearly illustrates. This would become my life-changing moment, the extreme
"kick-in-the-butt" wakup call I so desparately needed.
The above story, along with many similar tales, helps explain why
I did so poorly as a student at Tech. Between the music, beer, girls, and Radford
dances, its no mystery why I had to drop out of school. However, I did have a lot of
fun. The memories of all those crazy, rebel-rousing antics, the hysterical,
breathtaking laughter, and the good times that never seemed to end, are now only faint
remnants that evoke an occaisional grin or chuckle. Uncle Sam ended the frolicking
quickly in 1968, and replaced it with painful grunts and solemn frowns. It took
quite awhile for those memories to return, and when they did, they were never quite as
funny.
The mark of a great song is how many times it has been recorded
by other artists. The following are some of my favorite versions of
"Everlasting Love."
Robert Knight--original
version in 1967.
Love Affair--a
UK band with a very popular version from 1968.
Sandra--a
German singer whose first version was done in 1987.
Worlds Apart--a UK group with a
version from 1993.
Sandra-Cretu-Remix--one
of her several Remix versions.
Sandra NICLAV
Remix--another Sandra Remix version. |