Does everyone have songs that in a significant way attach them to their past?
When I was about ten I had a t-shirt (that I’m pretty sure was an op shop special – my mother was the Queen of op shops) which read on the front: Orange Music – the Voice of the World. Now, at the time and even to this day I have no clue what “orange” music is/was, so over the decades in my mind I’ve dropped the orange bit, and discovered that music is indeed the voice of the world. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say it is the voice of the universe.
“Music is the soul’s primitive and primary speech” (Allan Bloom), and in order to “take the spiritual temperature of an individual or a society”, Plato suggests one should check out the music.
I am firmly in the school which says “popular music” has seriously undermined the integrity of human civilisation. It’s part of a catalogue of things that have contributed to the degradation we are faced with every day in the news and on the Internet at which we continually, and naively, shake our collective head and ask how did we ever come to this?
The contradiction for me, however, is that I have bought into it hook, line and sinker. I was born in the sixties by which time popular music was so indelibly entrenched (is that redundant?) in the human psyche that it was inevitable I be born addicted. TV was boring; movies were expensive; books were for the elite; but music… music was everywhere, and free to the masses 24/7 on the radio and on the record player (free to me because my parents and siblings were well addicted before I arrived).
Music touches something deep and alogon within us. We know it, but more significantly advertisers know it and music industry entrepreneurs (musicians and executives alike) know it.
It is their agenda we have unwittingly become the prime movers of. At one level we have made music industry icons incredibly rich; at another level we have handed over what should be the most precious parts of ourselves and bought into a lifestyle, even a psychology that is ultimately more destructive to us than wars, famines, terrorism, cancers or pollution could ever be.
Now, all this (and more in the future) is said to introduce, and preface, one of several themes I want to introduce in my blog this year. The theme is far less lofty than the philosophy that underpins it.
When I asked if everyone has songs (music) that attach them to their past, it was mostly rhetorical. I'm (almost) sure they do. We pinpoint times in our lives, people we’ve loved and mourn, special moments with tunes that instantly transport us back in time. Music reaches into the recesses of our soul and reminds us of what is ultimately most important to us (even if we don't recognise it as such).
So, in the spirit of online journaling (of old?) and shameless self-revelation (the point of blogging), one of the themes I want to address in my blog are those special moments, times, and people in the recesses of my soul and the songs/music that touch them.
What I would love more is to hear your thoughts on the matter, and what songs touch your soul and why.
To kick off I thought I’d go to summer of 1989. We were cruising I-65 with the skyline of Nashville, Tennessee in the distance before us, and Cool Change came on the radio.
I’d heard it many many times before, but at this particular instant I heard it in a way I had never heard it before. Suddenly it seemed to be talking to me at a much deeper level, and telling me it was indeed time for a change. And all the better if the change could result in a “cooler” me…or at least, someone I could feel better about.
I’m not sure it worked. Things have certainly changed, but I’m not even close to being cooler (but that’s a whole other revelation). But every time I hear the song (it’s on my iPod – which, Allan Bloom and probably Plato, would say is evidence of my complete destruction) it’s as if I’m back in that car on I-65 with two of the (then) dearest people to me and I am resolved to make in my life a Cool Change.
8 comments:
Know what? I can't even think of a specific song. Certain artists do it for me, and I guess I could narrow it down to a song that way. For example, David Bowie. I went to a couple of his concerts in the 80s. At one of them, me and a couple of friends were down the back, and my flatmate Janita was at the front with free tickets which were given to models at the agency which represented her. It kinds of makes me feel sad to think of how our lives have turned out though - we were so full of dreams and promise back then. But David Bowie was kind of the embodiment of the posy, glamourous existances we thought we had back then. Thanks for the memories.
thanks for sharing...yesterday and today RadioLive has been playing songs with various meaning, and today it's "cheesiest" songs ever written LOL. Right now Paper Lace is on with Billy Don't Be a Hero. Not on my list to talk about in future, but another song that reminds me of my childhood. Bowie's a good one, too. Space Oddity still haunts my memories.
for me its gotta be "On My Own" from Les Miserables but for me it was Elaine Paige CD Memories. I played it over and over and even when i hear it today it takes me back to a much more innocent time when i had my first major heartbreak! So much so my mother commented when driving to work with me. She must have heard it as many times as I had - very patient women. A little piece of me will for all eternity be "on my own" but i kinda like it like that. The other one and really obscure is "Little Children" BILLY J. KRAMER AND THE DAKOTAS(Schuman and McFarlan) also on my current Ipod! Yeah the same guy who broke my heart used to sing it to me.
Ok enough nostalgia!
Was it the 80s or youth that gave us our most intense memories of self?
For me, and I guess a lot of people, music is the constant in life that carries us through but also holds the memories of the past together. Just reading other peoples'comments talking about music significant to them evokes memories for me. As soon as I think of Elaine Page I think of "Don't cry for me Argentina" which always seemed to be playing on the radio when Mother took me to the hospital to visit my Dad when he was sick. For years afterward neither Mother nor I could bear to hear it. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was getting airplay at the time a close family friend was involved in a tragic shooting. Still can't hear the line "Mama just killed a man" without a shiver running down my spine. Also I identified with Art Mama's comments about Bowie. I got into his music in the 80's too and then delved into his earlier stuff. I remember feeling heartbroken aged 15 when the hairdresser refused to dye my hair pink and cut it like Ziggy Stardust.
Feels like time to revisit the soundtrack of my life. That's an interesting thing about music too, the way certain bands, or albums or composers, come and go in our lives. For some reason I have been listening to Patti Smith Group's "Easter" again lately. Maybe there is some parallel in my life now to what was going on last time I was into it.
Always loved Jeannie Lewis's version of this song too:
"When the mode of the music changes,
When the mode of the music is changed,
When the mode of the music changes,
The walls of the city shake."
PS Anonymous Pip again because Google does not like me!
Surely Google loves you ... they would "do no evil" would they?
I have found I am able to access your blog at work and yesterday afternoon, 5 of us were reading it. (It was our teabreak!)It was interesting the amount of discussion it raised - a sign of a good & interesting blog. What I found interesting is that 3 of them, in their early twenties all had songs that reminded them of the past .. mostly to do with their parents having played this particular song. The 4th has a song that was her wedding song. And then there is me - I am an avid listener of Coast Radio, which plays music from the 50s up. As I read the blog, for about the third time, I found myself getting more upset as certain songs I hear bring back past memories - non of them good. I could not think of one song that dredges up a happy memory. My memory songs also seem decade based. It is like I have one song for each decade I have been alive. I even have a theme song.. but will leave that for when you ask the question in some up and coming blog.
I have to say, one of the most poignant and moving songs from my childhood is Songbird by Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac. Music does touch aspects of the soul that no other medium can reach. I think that is why it is so vital to spiritual expression. When I hear this song, I feel connected to loved ones from the past and the present. This is a song you would share with a lover or an intimate friend to whom you do not mind baring your soul.
Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZNvQMJ7N0s
For you, there'll be no more crying,
For you, the sun will be shining,
And I feel that when I'm with you,
It's alright, I know it's right
To you, I'll give the world
to you, I'll never be cold
'Cause I feel that when I'm with you,
It's alright, I know it's right.
And the songbirds are singing,
Like they know the score,
And I love you, I love you, I love you,
Like never before.
And I wish you all the love in the world,
But most of all, I wish it from myself.
And the songbirds keep singing,
Like they know the score,
And I love you, I love you, I love you,
Like never before, like never before.
Meathead :)
we just watched (a few times) a doco on the making of Rumours and Songbird is one of Jackie's favourites too.
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