My Gen X Playlist: And It Stoned Me – Van Morrison

We didn’t grow up with a computer in the house. It’s not because we couldn’t afford one. It’s because they simply did not exist. This fact probably would shock the young folks that I work with because their lives have revolved around technology since they can remember.

Growing up, we had to play the old school way. We’d run around outside, ride our big wheels or bicycles, shoot hoops at the school basketball courts, play with army men in the sand box or simply just run around. I remember my mom telling us to go out and play and we left the house for hours and didn’t come home until dinner time.

Sometimes we would go to the ditch. The ditch was a big dirt drainage runout for the rainwater to run from our neighborhood ultimately to the ocean. We had to hop a fence and then scale down the rocky dirt wall to the bottom of the ditch. We’d play tag, catch lizards, dig holes and throw rocks as far as we could. Technically the ditch was off limits, but that added to the fun. We’d return home filthy from head to toe. My parents didn’t blink as eye. This is just what kids did back then. Technology wasn’t even a thought.

I first used a computer in college, but didn’t own a computer until I graduated and started working. Growing up without a computer in my childhood had a few drawbacks, I see that now. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Running around, catching lizards and throwing rocks as far as we could see was a good childhood.

Thinking about rocks and stones made me think of Van Morrison’s song And It Stoned Me. I knew this wasn’t about a physical rock, but I didn’t expect this.

The song is about an experience Morrison had when he was 12 years old. After a day of fishing outside a village named Ballystockart in his native Ireland, Morrison and his friends stopped in one of the village’s houses, where they saw an old man sitting inside. In Steven Turner’s Van Morrison: Too Late to Stop Now, Morrison describes him as “dark weather-beaten.”

Morrison and his friends asked the man for water, and he gave them some he’d gotten from a nearby stream. As Morrison drank the stream water he slipped into mystical experience. “Time stood still,” he says in Too Late to Stop Now. “For five minutes everything was really quiet and I was in this other dimension. “That’s what the song is about.”

– Songfacts

Well, we didn’t have that kind of childhood as kids. But I will say, it sure makes good inspiration for a song.

–

For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Half a mile from the county fair
And the rain came pourin' down
Me and Billy standin' there
With a silver half a crown
Hands are full of a fishin' rod
And the tackle on our backs
We just stood there gettin' wet
With our backs against the fence

Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Hope it don't rain all day

And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin' home
And it stoned me

Then the rain let up and the sun came up
And we were gettin' dry
Almost let a pick-up truck nearly pass us by
So we jumped right in and the driver grinned
And he dropped us up the road
We looked at the swim and we jumped right in
Not to mention fishing poles

Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Let it run all over me

And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin' home
And it stoned me

On the way back home we sang a song
But our throats were getting dry
Then we saw the man from across the road
With the sunshine in his eyes
Well he lived all alone in his own little home
With a great big gallon jar
There were bottles too, one for me and you
And he said Hey! There you are

Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Get it myself from the mountain stream

Yeah, it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin' home
And it stoned me

Yeah, it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin' home
And it stoned me