Recently, I listened again to Al Green's "Back Up Train."

I bought it from a Los Angeles record store when I was about 14 and brought it along with a small record player when I visited an aunt in Chattanooga. She was busy around the house, as always, scurrying from one task to another, never pausing for a moment. Then I played the record.

She nodded and listened to the whole song.

The moment it ended, she got up and went right back to work.

For over two minutes, the song caused Aunt Juanita to take a break and just sort of drift off. It was beautiful to watch.

I've seen Al Green several times in concert, yet he never performed "Back Up Train." I never understood why. To me, it was one of the most gripping songs he ever recorded. Maybe he does not understand what his song did to my aunt.

For more than three decades, listeners — and now viewers — have approached me to tell me how something I said affected them. Often, they quote a line, a story or an observation that I often barely remember making.

Yet they remember it........

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