soundtrack of my life

Cannot Be Trusted's recents posts have had me reflecting on my own music tastes lately. I'm pretty eclectic in my tastes - I love songs, melodies and words that stir my heart and awaken my emotions. Rock, pop, classic tunes, and yes, country and (gasp) classical music including opera - music from various ages all make the cut for me.

In amongst all this wierd taste there's a group of music that I hold particularly close to my heart, and that is the music which reawakens the memories from times gone by in my history, that triggers the memories in the same way that smell can. These songs or tunes need not be the best in the world, or the most awe-inspiring - they may even be the songs of a past era that are now scorned or ridiculed. No matter what they are, however, there is something about these songs which cause my whole being to go back to a particular memory, recapturing the sense of a place or an emotion.

1. One of my earliest memories are of my dad playing the Beatles or Don Williams in his white Beetle. Songs like I've Got A Winner In You, or It Must Be Love just triggers the rides in the Beetle to school or driving somewhere with my dad and my middle sister.
2. When I was a little older (in the eighties), Mango Groove became popular in South Africa - anytime I pop in a Mango Groove CD or it pops up on my iPod it takes me straight back to primary school.
3. Another artist which takes me back is Johnny Clegg and his song Great Heart of Africa. This was a song from the soundtrack of the movie Jock of the Bushveld, a well known South African tale about the relationship between a dog and his owner.
4. ABBA brings back winter nights lying in front of the fire, reading a book or doing some other little play-project we had concoted, the smells of an african fire to which there is no comparison.
5. Queen - their Greatest Hits I was the first tape I got for Christmas, right after Freddie Mecury died.
6. Once I hit high school, I found Roxette (Joyride, Fading Like A Flower and How Do You Do) and Bon Jovi (Bad Medicine), the groups I associate the most with that short period in my life. Also the soundtrack from Dirty Dancing.
7. Moving to the States. Hearing Bryan Adams brings back feelings of homesickness and the complete state of los that I felt in those first few months. The complete disconnect that I experienced emotionally is rampant for me in this music. Wierd, huh? Yes, you can make fun of me for that.
8. High school in the States was definitely a broader mix including Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise, Ace of Base (The Sign), Blues Traveler (Run Around), and Dave Matthews Band (Satellite).
9. College years can be summoned back with Ella Fitzgerald or the opera Elixir of Love by Donizetti.
10. My relationship with my husband - definitely too hard to pin down to a few. He made me four tapes during the first year of our relationship, the first song on the first tape being Chicago (You're the Inspiration). We used this for our first dance at our wedding
11. We broke up for three months after two years and with the sort of humor that my husband has, he compiled a break-up CD for my birthday. I can hardly bear to listen to this CD as it brings back the emotions of that period all too well. I know he is very proud of this collection he put together - and he should be, it's a great collection. It just makes me sad. The songs on it include Adam Sandler's Somebody Kill Me Please from the The Wedding Singer (way to open with a sucker punch!) and some Chicago songs about breaking up that hit me to the core. It does end on a hopeful note, however.
12. Summer 2000 - On a family trip in Namibia, my uncle was held at gunpoint before he was saved by strangers driving by. The song playing on my CD player at the time was I Think God Can Explain by Splendor.
13. Summer 2001 - Mike and I took a road trip out to the Four Corners area together after graduation. We listened to Dave Matthews Band's Lillywhite Sessions, which ultimately became Busted.
14. Just before my sister's graduation we sat around the kitchen table and watched her belt out Toby Keith's I Wanna Talk About Me.
15. Our friends' weddings - Fat Little Pug and ForeverTick's wedding dance was Ben Folds' The Luckiest, Monk and Lingall's dance was If You Could See What I See by Geoff Moore and the Distance.

This is like dipping a hook into a jar of more hooks - you pull out another, and then that one hooks onto another, and then another... I'll stop here. But I find it fascinating that my life can be remembered through song. It's like smell - a certain note, a certain chord or line brings back memories instantly. Every now and then I’ll be driving somewhere listening to the radio, and I’ll hear a song on the TV which will bring up a long-forgotten memory.

All hail the power of song!