Listening to music on my mp3 player recently, I got to thinking about how certain bands and certain songs brought me back to certain times in my life. Reminiscing is fun, and I'll list here five of the albums that entered my thoughts.
Listening to any of the tunes on Journey's Greatest Hits immediately brings high school, when I wore out that casette tape listening to it in my walkman. Journey's songs were some of the first I ever learned on the piano, and in fact were part of what got me started playing the piano. I should go home tonight and see if I still remember how to play Open Arms.
They Might Be Giants' album Lincoln also makes me think of high school, of the times I spent hanging out with Steve King, Doug Kalwat, and Paul Dumin. Our mischief principally involved recording everything in sight with a camcorder, but we did have fun building a snowman and putting a firecracker in its head one time.
The album Third Stage by Boston brings to mind driving to my senior prom. I'd borrowed my dad's black Mazda RX6, which I'd lovingly washed and waxed the previous day, and I drove up to Enfield to pick up Renee. I had a lot of fun at that prom, hanging out with the crew from my music theory class.
Pretty much anything from The Bobs makes me think of my time working at Skooters just after high school. Skooters was basically an arcade, although I did run a LazerTron league for a while, which was fun. Nick the manager and I became friends and went to so many Bobs concerts together that I worried the band would think us gay. But we did have a good time, and I'm willing to bet that The Bobs - Joe Finetti at the very least - would still recognise me. I'm determined to bring Linda to a Bobs concert if the band ever tours within driving distance.
Lastly, The Indigo Girls. A friend in College introduced me to them with the album Rites of Passage, and I couldn't help but love the harmonies. Now, these songs bring to mind cramming for exams and singing in my car on the commute in to school, back when gas only cost $1.19.
Funny how memory and music are so closely tied. I'm sure that years in the future, I'll look back and associate my first few years in Colorado with The Barenaked Ladies.
I need to start listening to more music.
Lately, I'm listening to:
-Damien Rice
-Josh Rouse
-Black Eyed Peas - lol - the one unlike the others