Tuesday, October 19, 2010

52 Songs, Week 8: "Lights" by Journey

I know it is true, but I do not know what it is about us at that time of our lives that makes it so: ask anyone about a song they associate with their youth, and a whole host will come tumbling out.  Places, people, events, emotions, longings... it is easy to call them forth.  As we pass into our mid-20s, songs still matter, but the ones we remember perhaps we associate with a specific major event (the song we danced to at our wedding) or some extreme high or low point.  The kind of everyday definition, however, I think much less. 

My freshman year of college, I lived in Mudd-Blaisdell dorm, 2nd floor, to the left.  There were some folks I hung out with first floor, center.  I was down there one night, someone was playing music, or a radio, or something, and the song, "Lights" came on.  I'd never heard it before, but the guys I was hanging around had.  Suddenly they were all singing along, and there I was, being serenaded. 

When the lights go down in the city, I'm a freshman again, discovering what it means to live on your own. 

And really, is there anything better than Steve Perry's hair

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