The Soundtrack of My Life

What is it about music that is so evocative of particular times in our life? More than anything else, when I hear certain songs, I am immediately drawn back to a certain place, with specific people. And more than just the memories, songs bring back the dramatic feelings of those experiences.

Interestingly enough, there is a song that brings me back to BYU, 1997, living with Polly (a big country fan), trying to get on with my life post-Brian, which has this idea as its topic.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Tricia Yearwood's The Song Remembers When:

I was standing at the counter
I was waiting for the change
When I heard that old familiar music start...

After driving out the memory
Of the way things might have been
After I'd forgotten all about us
The song remembers when

We were rolling through the Rockies
We were up above the clouds
When a station out of Jackson played that song
And it seemed to fit the moment
And the moment seemed to freeze
When we turned the music up and sang along...

We were headed straight for Eden
It was just around the bend
And though I have forgotten all about it
The song remembers when

This afternoon, I had a conversation with a friend about Latin music and I was immediately transported back to Mexico and Bolivia. Since then, I have been brainstorming songs that are strongly tied to place and memory. Here are some of them:

1984: Journey's Faithfully, sixth grade dance. For some reason--I think mostly to avoid Def Leppard--the teachers played this song over and over

Valentine's Day 1985: Chicago's You're the Inspiration. Everyone dedicated this song to their girl/boy friend in the Valentine's Day edition of the East Middle School newspaper

1990: They Might Be Giant's Flood

1991: Beauty and the Beast "I want much more than this provincial life". Sophomore year of college, crushing on James

1993-1994: We couldn't listen to much music on the mission. One hymn that was sung in Spanish wards with extreme vigor was "Rendire' mi corazon, en secreta oracion." It sounded so much better in Spanish than in English.

1995-1996: The Eagle's Peaceful Easy Feeling. This is inextricably linked with a lot of memories around the guy I thought I was going to marry. A whole group of us listened to The Eagles Greatest Hits album over and over and over. In my apartment with roommates. On a road trip to Vegas. Brian was the Desperado who didn't know what was in front of him. I wanted to be this: "And I'm feelin' strong. I will sing this vict'ry song, woo, hoo,hoo,woo, hoo, woo hoo hoo."

1996: Mana's Donde Jugaran Los Ninos The group of BYU students that I went to Mexico with for the literacy study abroad there listened to this one over and and over. Anytime I hear any song from this album, I am sitting in a restaurante eating a torta in Guanajuato. Unless it's Te Llore' un Rio. Which reminds me of Brian. I sang along with this song so passionately quite a few times. "I cried a river for you, now you can cry an ocean for me." I wanted him to come back to me, telling me he was wrong, begging me to take him back.

No tienes corazon
No te vuelvo a amar
Te llore' todo un rio
Ahora llorame un mar

1997: Shakira's Estoy Aqui. I hear this and I am in Bolivia at a barbeque.

1998: James Taylor's How Sweet It Is. A new group of roommates, and a new greatest hits album. The year I finished my master's, I also met AJ. One evening, I was using my advisor's office to work on my thesis and AJ came up to visit me and bring me delicious death by chocolate cake from an event he had been to. We "hung out" and listened to James Taylor.

2001: Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma's version of Hush Little Baby. MJ was born in October of that year. We sang Hush Little Baby to her every night for years. When she got older, she begged us to make up lyrics with strange gifts: "Daddy's going to bring you pink unicorn."

2002: Enrique Iglesias' Escape. My sister M came to stay with us this summer. Right before we moved to NYC, Enrique was on the Today show. M was obsessed with him, so she and MJ and I stayed in a hotel overnight so that she could stake out the outdoor performance venue and watch him perform. MJ and I walked over close to the time of the performance so we could hear (from a distance) "you can run, you can hide, but you can't escape my love." MJ loved dancing to it, and for months afterward, we would get excited when we heard it in the grocery store and dance to it at home.

2004: The Lion Sleeps Tonight. This is what we sang to T every night. He has recently been asking us to sing it to him at night again.