music memory

[lizziebelle]

Some people have muscle memory, some have smell memory; I have music memory. There are songs that can bring up vivid memories tied to people, places, and times for me.

I remember the very first time I heard Queen's "Killer Queen": we were in the car, somewhere south of Albany, on the way to visit my grandparents. I was maybe 12 or 13. I thought it was the coolest song I'd ever heard.

Every time I hear "Higher" by Creed, I'm transported back to the parking garage in Las Vegas where I first heard it with Jim and JP after going to the classic car show. It always makes me a little sad when I hear it now, because it reminds me how much I miss JP.

I still think of the guy I had a crush on in college when I hear Jackson Browne. Then I think of his brother, and what could have been... he had a crush on me, and as it turns out, he was a much better person.

Dido always makes me think of a friend I used to work with, and I wonder what she's up to now.

Beethoven's 9th makes me think of my dad, and the time we were at Saratoga and the Philadelphia Orchestra was playing it (with soloists and full chorus), and we looked at each other to say "this is my favorite part" at the same time.

There are many, many more. What music memories do you have?

Comments

[firespirit1.livejournal.com]

One of my strongest music memories is listening to Sargent Peppers at a party the night I graduated from high school in 1967. The album had just been released. It was also the night I took my first Acid trip.

[sea-dark-wine.livejournal.com]

Queen had that kind of effect! The first time I heard "Bohemian Rhapsody" was on the clock radio I had next to my bed, sometime in high school (when the song first came out). I don't remember whether it was first thing in the morning or last thing at night, but I was totally stunned and riveted to the radio -- OMIGOD, WHAT IS THIS!! Totally unlike anything else I'd ever heard.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I remember the first time I heard that one, too. Also in a car. :)

[chalkhorse.livejournal.com]

I also recall the fist tie I heard "Somebody to Love" when I was working a a pizza place in Rochester....Queen ROCKED!

[firespirit1.livejournal.com]

When you said Somebody to Love, I thought Jefferson Airplane.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and certain other songs of his remind me of my mother, doing yoga. She used to listen to Leonard Cohen and do yoga when I was little.

Peter Paul and Mary singing "500 miles" reminds me of sitting with my sister, listen to their record on a plastic record player.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

"Puff the Magic Dragon" reminds me of my childhood, especially when I was little. :)

[joanofarchetype.livejournal.com]

I remember my dad singing "Puff the Magic Dragon" to me. He also bought me a Three Dog Night album that had the song "Joy To The World" on it because his name was Jeremiah.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

We used to sing "Joy to the World" on the bus on the way to school. :)

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Oh, so many!

Often people; often places.

I think this was one of the first posts I did on LJ... one, two, three!

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

:)

I think you've seen more of my country than I have! ;)

[morvenwestfield.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. There's one song in particular that brings me back to riding my bike on a side street the summer before my mother died. I can see the street, the houses, the "woods" off to the side (really just overgrowth, but it looked like the wild woods to a kid) and feel the wind against my skin as I rode.

[sandwell.livejournal.com]

i hear exactly where you're coming from with this. my earliest memory is of music - of a band playing on TV - and many of my memories are music related. These are either songs or, more oddly, TV theme tunes, jingles and station idents.

I did actually once make a note of them, or start making a note of them, which i thought i'd posted to LJ but i can't seem to find it. it was several years ago that i started it ...

there are two that immediately come to mind tho - both British, I'm afraid so I don't know if they will have made it over there!

1) This is the One - Stone Roses (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXfnZ7HYD_k), or, specifically, the guitar introduction to it, will forever remind me of the end of secondary school (i'd have been 17). A friend lent me a few music tapes of stuff he liked and i used to lie in bed listening to it, and this particular track just seems to have resonated most in my memory.

There's a lot of tunes from around the same time (1992/93) that will always take me back; the local TV news jingle, and a couple of (bizarrely, as i didn't like them at the time) dance music tune (eg "Ebeneezer Goode" by The Shamen), but this one reminds me more than most I think.

2) New Song - Howard Jones (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgsSVQfho4o), which oddly enough takes me back to *two* different times! When it was first released, around 1983, I was at primary school, and when you're around 8 years old you'll tend to pick up on the dancy-pop music that's around more than most. so whenever i hear it i'll have a flash of running through the school buildings on a summer's day with classmates :)

10 years later, in my first year at university, a series of music compilation albums were released and i bought the one related to 1983 - this song was on it. So it *also* reminds me of long boring days in the dorm room, procrastinating! [Other songs of this time include "Everything Counts" by Depeche Mode, and "Hold Me Now" by Thompson Twins].

oooh i seem to have wittered a bit much :p

[ami-1.livejournal.com]

All I know is I miss you lots. Can we plan to get together sometime? It can be in SH if it's more convenient for you.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sure. If next weekend is decent, I don't have any plans. Call me!