Music and Memories
“We all have songs that really mean something to us. Often just hearing it can take us right back to that place and we are able to re-experience the memory associated with the song. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but either way music has the ability to really draw things out of us and evoke deep emotion. Choose a song that has a particular meaning to you. Tell the story of the memory associated with the song, sharing as much detail as you can. Take us there; let us experience it with you.”
– Danielle at Sometimes Sweet
I saw this online and I thought wow, what a cool question. It's so true, right? You hear a song and you're taken back to an experience or a period of time in an instant.
http://rd.io/x/QRzV0TdzFiI/
Mrs Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel. I remember listening to that record (literally a vinyl record) while eating dinner. My Dad's record player had this function where you could speed up songs and it sounded like the Chipmunks were singing it. It made my Dad's music really fun all of a sudden. Every time I hear that song I'm back at the dinner table begging to put the record player on chipmunk mode and flinging peas at my brothers.
http://rd.io/x/QRzV0TdzaHg/
I distinctly remember the first time I heard Britney's ...Baby One More Time. I was watching Top of the Pops and the song was number one. So apparently I was a little slow on the uptake. But hey, I must have been like 10. I remember playing Four Square with my sister in the driveway and singing it.
http://rd.io/x/QRzV0Td0DnE/
Blink 182 takes me straight back to high school. I think my favourite song ever was The Rock Show. I seriously loved them. Wow. Anyway. Hearing this song, or really any Blink 182 stuff brings up all kinds of high school stuff. Like how I used to deliver circulars while trying listening to my Dad's CD Walkman but it didn't really work because it would skip as I jogged along. And then getting an iPod and going on super long walks at the beach so I could listen to it. And my Mum asking if the song was about people who collect rocks and then show them off at rock shows. Good joke, Mum. While these songs remind me of things that happened and things I did, I also get vague, free-floating high school feelings back. Feeling insecure, feeling dumb, feeling young, feeling free.
http://rd.io/x/QRzV0Td-qo8/
When I hear anything from the Shins' first three albums I think about my fourth year at uni and writing my dissertation from the second floor of the Otago library. I listened to the three albums over and over while writing and following patches of sun around the library. And it was hard and I loved it.
http://rd.io/x/QRzV0Tcboqk/
When I hear Katy Perry's Firework I think of this time when I was running a lot. I remember Saturday morning runs in the sun. I remember feeling powerful. Powerful because I was running and powerful because how can you listen to that song and not feel powerful.
http://rd.io/x/QRzV0TcwmDg/
Whenever I hear Belle and Sebastian's Ghost of Rock school I think of the first time I lived alone. I had been living with my boyfriend and my childhood friend for my sixth year at university. My friend left to go on exchange after first semester and my boyfriend left to start his PhD in the US. So it was my first time living alone and the house was huge and I was out in the suburbs after having lived in town for the past five years and I was kind of lonely. So I'd go to bed super early and get up super early, which helped for some reason. But anyway I'd drive into uni at seven in the morning and blast this song. And then I'd make sure it would play when I started the car to go home again to give me a pick-me-up on the way home.
http://rd.io/x/QRzV0TdzFVQ/
Simon and Garfunkel's Cecilia. Have you seen that episode of How I Met Your Mother where Marshall gets obsessed with charts? Anyway, I've known that song forever, but I never got that the lyrics were “you're shaking my confidence daily” and I've seen that episode a bunch of times but I still never got it. And then one day the song came on the radio and I just clicked and omygod I can't believe it took me this long. Also, I fricken love joke graphs (“This is a pie chart describing my favourite bars. And this is a bar graphs describing my favourite pies” – HIMYM). Listening to this song just makes me laugh. Which is always a good thing.
http://rd.io/x/QRzV0TdNeYI/
When I hear the Postal Service's Nothing Better (which is a lot; I still think this song's amazing) I'm transported back to the hotel room I was staying in while I taught some classes away from home. I played Nothing Better over and over. I propped up my laptop and played it on repeat while I was in the shower. I remember thinking about the lyrics a lot. I thought it was so beautiful and real. I was about to get married and this song was so honest about how love can go wrong. And when I hear this song I think about my feelings on love and relationships and getting married and life.
This was a really fun question. Like kinda deep. But fun. Do you have any songs that take you places?
