I've had my iPod on shuffle for the last while, which I don't normally do. As songs I don't usually play come up, it's been interesting what memories have been called forth as to time & place. I think there's a time when we enter into music that the associations are very strong - through junior high, high school, probably college - and then music forms a background more, but can still be strongly associated with a time, place, or person (or all three).
Modest Mouse is a band from Issaquah, Washington. When I was in Dublin, Ireland in 2004, we were walking down one of the main streets downtown, and a music store was blasting "Float On" from Modest Mouse. Hunh, here I am in Dublin, listening to a local band. Everytime I hear that song, I think of Ireland.
John Fahrnam - You're the Voice - Australia, 1987
George Michael - I want your sex - Australia, 1987
And a few other songs from a tape I've since lost (Australia 1987 Hits!). The George Michael tune was one we sang, every chance we got... I have no idea why. Not really the song I'd choose, after all. John Fahrnam was "major" down under at the time, though he never really broke through here. There were some other cheeky songs from that tape - Midnight Blue, Boom Boom Boom (let's go back to my room) and Male Stripper... hmm. I suppose some evidence that just because the songs are about sex, doesn't mean the kids are, at least not for me.
There's a whole lotta songs from my road trip last summer, but I think the one that most summed it up was Death Cab for Cutie's "Summer Skin." The distinctive drum line, and the tale of a romance that ended with the summer... it wasn't a romance, but definitely a transition point in my life.
"Walk Out to Winter" by Aztec Camera
8th grade. A moment of strength. An awesome teacher who helped us be ourselves. Walking around the North End of Tacoma in a plaid shirt my aunt had sent me and a blue jean mini-skirt in November. And listening to Aztec Camera!
"A Sort of Homecoming" by U2
Senior year basketball, driving myself to games in the dark, last song I'd listen to before I'd go in.
"Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club
Seeing Boy George in Budapest in 1993. Singing Culture Club songs the rest of the weekend with Mike George. The snow finally melting and it warming up. One of the happiest weekends of my life.
"I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz
This summer at Goldmine. Even if it's more of a romantic bent, it still was a good summary of what we all meant to one another.
Any song off of the Blue Nile's Hats
A rather romantic rainy afternoon in central London with a nursing student I'd met in a Dresden youth hostel...
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler
A youth hostel in Tubingen, Germany, on a very hot night (windows open) with a bunch of drunk Germans singing this song incessantly across the river.
"Say Hey I Love You" by Michael Franti
Dancing with my niece in May, and her looking at my like I'm slightly nuts, but dancing along anyway and having fun.
Counting Crows, August & Everything After
Indigo Girls, Swamp Ophelia
Prague, 1994-1995. We had a Discman; listened to both of these albums way, way, way too much. (Choices were limited.)
"Come to Jesus" by Mindy Smith.
"Mindy Smith? You know Mindy Smith?" "Yeah - you know Mindy Smith?"
Depeche Mode, 101 (live)
Germany, 1990, the wall was down, Germany won the World Cup, and it was a really good time to be there.
"Stand or Fall" by the Fixx
"Russians" by Sting
A jumble of things... the 80s, and a certain socio-political outlook. The first concert I ever went to (The Fixx/Moody Blues).
"Lights" by Journey
Freshman year of college, everyone else knew it except me, and they were all singing along... it was like being serenaded.
"No Souvenirs" by Melissa Etheridge
Coming home from Zion just before graduating college in 1994.
"Red Rain" by Peter Gabriel
Bratislava, July 1994. What a concert!
"Come Sail Away" by Styx
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
Strange combo, yes, but both shouted loudly by drunk people in my dorm room sophomore year. I definitely didn't know the latter song (then), and only vaguely knew the former...
"Gone Daddy Gone" by the Violent Femmes
What little punk's life would have been complete without the Violent Femmes?... how I miss the new wave era.
By no means complete; just a small sampling. Right now John Denver's "On the Road" is playing, another song from last summer's journey. The wanderlust is high, and the associations rampant... probably why I'm thinking about this so much.
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