Thanks For The Memories

It happens from time to time: you'll walk down the street or through a store and suddenly a particular scent will waft by and you're momentarily transported to a place long ago and far away. That one corner of the grocery store radiates a potato-and-cabbage smell that just screams Aunt Helen's house. A line of idling cars gets the diesel and garbage smell of Central London just right; it's 1997 all over again and I'm walking down the lanes off Leicester Square.

They say scent and memory have the strongest bond in terms of instant recall, be it to places or people or even states of mind. (Pine Sol always puts me on edge, reminiscent of the summer I worked cleaning bathrooms in a dilapidated movie theater.) But I've found music has a similar effect. I can pop in an old record, throw on the headphones, and for those initial few minutes I've stepped in a time machine, those old familiar feelings and thoughts sweeping over me.

As I go through my old CDs and tapes in an effort to digitize my music collection, I've been overjoyed to travel back to my teenage years and earlier. ("The Humpty Dance" brought back elementary school thugs, long walks around the neighborhood, getting jumped... Let's forget that particular one.) Each LP has its own intersection with my life: the R.E.M. record I happened on at Record Bar in 6th grade that opened my ears to Michael Stipe and the delicate brilliance of their southern rock, the Notorious B.I.G. debut that blew away everything about rap that had previously alienated me and took the genre to realistic, awe-inspiring levels. Each one of these records was in a way a step further down the path, leading me towards the music I seek out today.

It's also interesting to me how this sort of time travel works on a macro and micro scale, depending on the selection.

Esthero's Breath From Another will forever remind me of cool fall nights my freshman year of college, and with them, the invigorating feel of a first taste of freedom, exposure to people and places previously unexplored, and best of all, long nights playing cards with my roommates by lamplight. Conversely, Explosions In The Sky have been overplayed in my iPod, and the memories seemingly blend together. But there will always be that one track that I first heard jogging down Connecticut Avenue in the brutal August heat in Washington, DC on a Saturday afternoon. As the crashing cymbals and booming bass drum subsided, a wave of lush guitar sparkled to the surface and there I was, sweating my ass off and feeling euphoric.

For this reason I tend to be conservative with my music. If I happen to listen to an album during an uneventful period of my life, it will get played to death. If a particular record coincides with sweeping changes, monumental events or experiences, then it's shelved and only dusted off when I'm feeling nostalgic. I like that about music, that it can take the form and character of a fine wine or a photo album. I love knowing that when these opening chords begin, I will see that old living room, those faces long since departed, I'll remember that in the end, our memories are the most important thing we've got.

I wonder what particular records resonate with you? Feel free to share. No traumatic Humpty Dance tales, please. I'm still recovering.

Comments

[loril]

For me it is 80s alternative...The Smiths, Joy Division/New Order, Bauhaus, the Cure, Japan, Echo and the Bunnymen. This stuff still gets played to death in my house and it reminds me of my younger self, more carefree days (despite the moody music) and people whom I will always remember as being in their teens/20s although we are all middle aged now!

Oh how I enjoyed dressing up in the club clothes and dancing until the wee hours of the morning...and then sleeping in!

[average joe]

wALKIN MY CAT NAMED DOG

[garman]

mmwooohaaahaaa!!!
a post right up my alley.
old Van Halen, Sex Pistols, the Ramones, X, and all the old LA punk rock take me right back to those times, cruising in friends' cars, party hopping, or simply hanging out in Hollyweird.
i also destinctly remember much younger times, camping with the family all over North America.
AM radio playing 'Rainy Days and Mondays' by the Carpenters, or 'Obla-di, Obla-da' by the Beatles constantly. Later, the main connection (and after all the punk rock) became and still is... the Grateful Dead. Those were roadtrips on my own, with other friends or my younger sister. Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle, San Diego and all points in between.
So many roads.
So many roads.
THANK YOU JERRY!!!

[frozenskeeter]

Listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers BloodSugarSexMagic over and over in 7th grade (I actually wore out the tape). I identified with Breaking the Girl but I oh so wanted to meet Sir Psycho Sexy.

I listened to Collective Soul's Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid over and over while I read Stephen Kings Eyes of a Dragon, so whenever I hear one of those songs, I transport right there. I swear if they ever make that book into a movie, that better have that as the soundtrack.

Whenever I hear "You Oughtta Know" I think of my friend Goose and how we turned this song into a drinking game while road tripping on vacant country gravel roads.

Pretty much any time I hear Bob Dylan I flashback to my senior year and trips I would take to see the friends that had already graduated. It reminds me of freedom and stress free times. We would sit in the dank college apartment and talk about life and our futures.

Now, when ever I hear the Killers, "All these things that I've done", I think of my children and me screaming it from the top of our lungs while we wait for the bus to take them to school. I hope that it won't be the only song we ever bond over.

[funtime42]

I can't think of more than a couple songs in my collection (5000 of them on my iPod) that DON'T have an association of some kind. My songlists are pretty much mood indicators - It took me months to realize my secretary never interrupted me when Neil Young was playing, or that time off requests coincided with Jimmy Buffet.

I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy while listening to the Moody Blues. Every time I hear anything by them I expect to see Frodo...

[Indiana]

What a wonderful post! I love classic rock, R & B, disco/dance and other kinds of music from the late 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's up to 1995 or so. There are umpteen popular "oldies" I now enjoy listening to. This is true even if when they were hits, I either hadn't liked them or had become sick of hearing them because they'd been played to death on the radio--because of the way they take me back.

[JoDeeVa]

Trader Joe's carries a lemon-scented kitchen soap, transporting me to hugging my Nana..I swear it smells just like her cologne of those happy days. I happily do my dishes these days, with those memories!

Memories in sync with music:
~Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, brings memories of a summer trip my sister & I spent travelling to California from Kansas, with our grandparents. Having just graduated from high school, listening to that new release mirrored my own!
~Madonna's "Like a Virgin" takes me back to my house in Latigo Canyon. She was a fav of my niece who was spending the night. (Myself, I was a bit disdainful of the material girl) Waking up in the morning, hearing music I really enjoyed, I suddenly realized.."OMG!, it's Madonna!" To this day, when I hear it, I feel happily awakened to find whatever is new, out there waiting for me!
~What's New Pussycat?..Cherry-bomb, July 4th, the drive-in..causing a perforated eardrum & permanent diminished hearing in that ear. Hard to forget, living with it everyday!
~Purple Haze..Devonshire Downs, when Jimi berated those in the crowd chanting "the hell with Jesus, we want Jimi!" during the performance of The Edwin Hawkins Singers. Telling us to f**k-off!!, he left the stage. Still today, when I hear it, I feel the anger he expressed & the shame incurred.
~Don't Worry, Be Happy/Bobby McFerrin..love it! Watching him receive a emmy, I realized his producer was an old friend from hazy daze of late 60's Venice! Now, when I hear it I am transported to those magical days, rather than the 80's, when I first heard it.
~Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Roxy Music, The Police invariably bring me together, in spirit, with my sisters, just like we were back in the day, travelling city-to-city to find our own meccas of musical kindrance!

For me, that is the great thing about the paths music takes us on..the journey through streams of time, space and contrasts in life and experiences!
Thanks, Paul for rekindling my musical journey!

[mommadona]

Books.
Older, the better.