Memories Inspired by Music

As I approach my final days of my college career, I have found myself highly reflective of my past. Not only am I reflecting on my experiences in college over the past five years, but I'm looking back on my general secondary education as a whole: from the beginning of high school in 1999 through present day 2008.

Like many people, I'm sure, I relate memories to specific senses quite often. Although touch, smell, and sight are pretty big sensory flags for me, without a doubt hearing is the most powerful reminder of memories in my life. In fact, I'll cut the crap and get right to it: music is insanely powerful at marking specific landmarks in my life, and there's no other feeling quite like getting caught up in a song no sooner than I get caught up in a great memory from my past.

To this end, I have taken the time to conduct a little experiment. I loaded every song I own (about 2600 total) onto a Winamp playlist, randomized the list a few times, then took the first 20 songs on the list and related them to the most powerful memories that I have tied to each song. Below is that list. Enjoy the randomness, listed in no particular order.

Eminem - "My Name Is"
I originally purchased The Marshall Mathers LP in early 2000, and became an instant fan of Eminem. This was all the more amazing since I hated rap (I still do...). However, I instantly loved the album, and promptly pursued any of his other work, including The Slim Shady LP, which introduced me to this wonderful little song. I most remember this song as just that: a song that I really, really loved.

Steely Dan - "Bodhisttva"
This track takes me back better than ten years. My parents were big fans of Steely Dan, and when we got out first CD player in the early 90's (1992 maybe?), A Decade of Steely Dan was one of the first compact discs that we owned. It was played over and over and over in my house all through the decade. I personally fell in love with the album much later, around 1998. My strongest memory with this song brings back my Nintendo 64: I played lots of Top Gear Rally that year, and I always had this album playing nearby me for the duration that I perfected my power sliding technique.

Fuel - "Bittersweet"
I don't have any particularly strong memory attached to this song, although it did rotate on my playlist quite strongly throughout my later high school years, and I do recall humming it quite a bit during my computer science classes in high school. Oh, the looks I got.

Allman Brothers - "Jessica"
Of course I remember my dad playing this song in our CD player and bit on his guitar when I was a younger kid, and although I remember enjoying it back then, it wasn't until I first hammered out this song in Guitar Hero II that I became permanently attached to that little plastic guitar. Quite a recent memory by comparison to some, but certainly as everlasting as any.

Switchfoot - "Gone"
I enjoy Switchfoot quite a bit, and a couple of years ago I enjoyed this song particularly - quite bouncy and not very threatening. Oddly enough, I had a great idea for a music video, and really wanted to embark on a personal video project... so I tried to. I wrote up a complete script, designed sets on paper, crafted a full line of characters, and even went as far as to post "job openings" for anyone interested in helping make the video. Within a three months of this process, my interest waned and I moved on to other things. I'll always have the original script, though... so maybe someday it'll get made!

The Killers - "Mr. Brightside"
If my Top 5 list of my favorite songs was expanded, this would be just about Number 6 or 7. I. Simply. Love. It. My only strong memory attached to this song is just what's been said: I have always loved this song, and I can not get over how great it actually is. Okay, I can't cheat like that... I do have one memory attached: one day atMeijer it started playing, and Peggy (our Grocery Orderwriter ) heard it and was like "what the hell kind of music is this?" I sat in silence, staring at her for a few minutes... kind of saddened. Damn generational gap.

Limp Bizkit - "No Sex"
Before I ever enjoyed making love to anyone, sex was an enigma to me: and as a teenager at Otsego High, therefore it was also highly desired. So long before I ever dove into sex, I listened to this song and frequently wondered if this would ever happen to me: the over sex-ed relationship that had little other meaning. Luckily, it hasn't happened yet with any of my past girlfriends.

Buckcherry - "You"
I've been tempted to write about Lacey here: after all, she was the number-one reason for me loving this song. Although Buckcherry have always generally been hard rockers, this song was a rather soothing change of pace. My most vivid recall of this song: the Towpath Bike Trail. Buckcherry was a regular in my CD player during all those months in 2002 that I lost a ton of weight.

Reba McEntire - "Fancy"
Nowadays I look at this song as a guilty pleasure. I'm not a big fan of modern day country music (terribly unoriginal), but some older late-80's and early-90's country always perked my interests, and I do remember that this song was one of the first to help me paint very vivid images of the so called "plot" in my head during every listen. Not much of a memory, I know, but nonetheless a memory.

Avril Lavigne - "Naked"
Hello! Brittany!? Point in case, I was obsessed with Avril back in my late high school years, and I particularly remember listening this song repeatedly on my way to my nightly 5pm shift atMeijer after school during the late spring of my senior year at Otsego . I also remember hearing how much an old friend of mine, Brittany, loved this song as much as myself, and I have always attached our wonderful friendship to this song.

Steely Dan - "Deacon Blues"
Just like Bodhisttva above, I have many fond memories of racing about Top Gear Rally on the N64 while listening to this song, among many others. In particular, the desert racetrack stands out in my mind... I found the smooth, calming curves of that particular track to be a solid match to the creamy exterior jazz rock of this song.

Candlebox - "Far Behind"
Seriously? See here. Oh, and also see here, circa 2007. This song has always been one of my all-time favorite rock tracks, and my strongest memory is that of Lacey: moving on and moving out from a bitter and unwanted break-up. Was I left far behind by her? I certainly think so, but I'm all the better for it. Lame.

The Slip - "Children of December"
I discovered The Slip thanks to their inclusion of the song Even Rats in Guitar Hero, and bought their album Eisenhower shortly thereafter. The first track off this CD, Children of December, was instantly tied to my best friend at that point, Colleen - now my girlfriend, of course. She certainly is a child of December, and she's the first thing I think of whenever I hear this song.

Bush - "Little Things"
Two big memories here: I discovered this song long after I had become intimately familiar with all that Bush had to offer from my earlier years with their music. So when I finally discovered this song, I listened to it incessantly for weeks on end. My other memory? Laura Kolpien - I remember very vividly the day that she was at my house last summer going through my music collection for songs to pick out, and when she discovered this song, her face lit up as brightly as I've ever seen it - she was quite excited about this song. Random? Surely!

Tom Petty - "Mary Jane's Last Dance"
Oddly enough, this song brings back memories of the Fuel concert that I went to at Headliners in 2004. They covered this song somewhere near the middle of their set, and while I was unfamiliar with it then, my girlfriend was thrilled to hear it... I distinctly remember being made fun of for not knowing this song. I downloaded it the next day.

Eric Johnson - "Cliffs of Dover"
A rather new song in my list of "all time favorites" but certainly important to me: Cliffs of Dover is to my Guitar Hero III experiences asFreebird is to my Guitar Hero II experiences. Everyone has to have a favorite song to play on each game, and this was it for GHIII.

Saint Dragon - "Misato"
My strongest memory with this song is hearing it for the first time. Saint Dragon is a rock band out of South Africa with a unique sound to them, and after a two year hiatus without getting any new tracks from them, Misato came out of no where and proved to me that Saint Dragon is ranked among some of my favorite bands.

Elton John - "Tiny Dancer"
Ah yes, 1998. What a year. Maybe it was 1997. Doesn't matter. My family and I took a vacation to Washington DC one of those summers (I was definitely in middle school, so make that 1998). I was just beginning an obsession with girls that I did not quite yet understand. I had a ton of crushes at school, but this family vacation let me get on the road and meet all kinds of people, and for all of the car ride Elton John's Greatest Hits I and II were my albums of choice, and Tiny Dancer got played more than any other track. In particular, I remember one of our hotels had a swimming pool on the roof of the building, and I remember very specifically swimming for several hours with a cute blond girl who was irresistible at the time. FOr a few hours in that pool, a total stranger was my tiny dancer. I've since become a little less dramatic when I meet total strangers.

Nickelback - "Woke Up This Morning"
I was in love with Nickelback's album Silver Side Up just in time for my EverQuest obsession to pick up in my early years of high school. That said, I have tied particular songs to particular zones of EQ, and this song is particular to the Butcher Block Mountains zone. Ah yes, giant spiders are fun.

Oleander - Why I'm Here
I don't know much about Oleander now and knew even less about them in 2000 when I saw them open for my first concert, Tantric, in Detroit. I do remember this song, however, and whenever I play it I'm instantly reminded of the pot-filled, candle-lit, moshing hole that was The Majestic in downtown Detroit. Oleander was awesome, but Tantric rocked quite well that night.

And that's it. I choose 20 songs because I knew 10 would not be enough. Now that I've worked my way through 20, I wish I could have done 30. Or maybe 50. Or maybe 500, or all 2600-ish songs in my collection. Some songs have better memories tied to them than others, but the random-nature of this particular list made it interesting to dig back in my past. I look forward to trying lists like this in the future, so stay tuned.

B3 out.