Did you ever hear a song and you were instantly transported to a different time and place, where emotions you thought were in the past come flooding back and a smile breaks out on you face or tears roll down you cheeks?
I was sitting at my desk yesterday when shuffle on the iPod gave me an old Eagles song I hadn’t heard in years. Take It To The Limit. Flashback to singing along to that song in my sisters old Starlet as we drove from Fishguard to Oxford when I was about 11. And then another flash to my first real concert, seeing the Eagles play the RDS on the Hell Freezes Over tour, and getting back to my uncle’s house to sleep on his floor and not being able to figure what that ringing noise in my ears was. The memories made me smile at first, but then a teary moment, missing simplier times I suppose….
I get these moments all the time. Almost all songs that I know well come with memories attached. Some memories are simple, remembering a place or a face. Some can lift my mood instantly and some can take me the other way. A few years ago I was standing at the sink washing the ware on a dark winters evening. A song by Crowded House called Silent House came on. It was written by the Neil Finn about his mother who had passed away. I suppose I had never really listened to the lyrics before, but in quiet of the kitchen that night they struck me, memories of my grandmother and my brother, goosebumps prick up on my arms and the tear ducts kicked in.
You might think I’m a complete weeper altogether, but it’s not all sad. I hear Leaving On A Jet Plane and I remember being in Singapore, and Jason sending me an email with a link to the song on Youtube. His little way of saying that he was on his way and to hold tight.
I here Close To You by The Carpenters and I’m whisked back to a square somewhere in New Zealand on a drizzly night. I relive the memory of giving some money to a busker with a flute and asking for something we could dance to, and the flute starting up with the tune and I start singing along….’why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near…’.
That is why I love music so much. Music is not just notes and words. It’s memories.
