Disclaimer: I hate basketball so if you think this is a post about that, you would be wrong!
Last night my emotions were played. It was heart wrenching and exhausting. One minute I was laughing and the next I was sobbing. Although it was hard, I sang through it all.
The beloved husband played a CD he downloaded. He is trying to get rid of his vinyl records, downloading into an easier to store version. The CD was a weird mix of all different kinds of music.
The CD was two hours long and included tunes from the 1950s to the early 1990s in no particular order. There was nothing from the last two decades although we have lots of those songs too, just not in vinyl.
Many songs made me nostalgic. They reminded me of another time and place. A song, just like a scent, can take me to a particular event or incident. I can feel the emotion I was feeling then.
Sometimes the memory is fun and I am laughing. The oldest songs remind me of my family. (Remember Abilene by George Hamilton IV? Or On The Road Again by Willie Nelson?)
For some I was just a little kid and my mother used to sing them to the radio or record player (no MP3 players then).
The songs from the 1960s remind me of school – dances, riding in my girlfriend’s parent’s car driving way too fast singing as loud as we can (there are a lot of Beatles’ tunes that fit this one), and some are romantic memories. Every couple has their special song (You Were Always On My Mind).
When I hear Neil Sedaka’s “Calendar Girl” I remember getting up for school in the morning because they always played it just as I was getting out of bed. I can’t think of a better way to start the day than singing at the top of your lungs (well, the family may not think so….).
One song will take me to a particularly tumultuous relationship and my heart will be breaking (Killing Me Softly With His Song). The next will be something upbeat and remind me of summer picnics (Sweet Music Man).
My emotions were bounced around. One minute there are deep sobs in my throat and the next I am laughing. One song reminds me of a guy friend swaying and singing in a bar. I don’t know why. He was just a friend but every time I hear it, I can close my eyes a see a 30-year-old version of him sashaying to the tune in a popular bar that no longer exists.
Sometimes I don’t remember the singer or the song title but I knew every word and every beat. How does your mind do that? I can’t remember what I ate yesterday?
At the end of that CD, I was physically spent. Exhausted. Tired.
So what did we do to follow that? We watched the Johnny Carson clips on PBS. It was a nostalgic kind of night. We are one swinging couple!
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
The one that almost always makes me cry is James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend.” And like you, I know a lot of the words to those old songs. I still remember a lot of “The Purple People Eater”!
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Oh I remember the people eater too. Somehow silly songs stick in your head!
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Music does this to me as well, Kate. They do have a way of resurfacing memories. Beatle tunes – practically all of them, the Righteous Brothers “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” Bobby Darrin’s “Mack the Knife,” Carole King’s music … aahhh!
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And I loved “Angel in the Morning.” 😀
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I have a very wide range of musical tastes from Opera to the Rolling stones, but being an old fart with young children it amazes me just how much good music is still being produced. My children intorduce me to their music and some of it is great. Lilly Allen, Mumford & Sons, and the fantatsic Bruno Mars.
Here’s his lazy song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLexgOxsZu0
Remember, the songs we hate today, are the songs our children will reminisce with.
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That is the truth! My mother hated the rock of the 60s and 70s. She thought it all sounded the same.
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Music always does it to me too. REM’s “Everybody Hurts” always gets me going. I love that music moves me, but I prefer toe tapping over the tears.
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Toe tapping is always better!
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Music can be such a potent storer of our recollections, can’t it, Kate? Your music list is full of numbers which bring many emotions flooding back.
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I was still humming some today! It may take a couple of days to get them out of my head!
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Memories came flooding in when I listened to the song. They are of the sweet sorrow kind. If I knew then what I know now things might have been different. Getting all philosophical here. And it’s all your fault!
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I think we all have some regrets and wish we would have known things then. We are who we are now and Teddy says you’re pretty awesome!
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Oh Kate, I know how those feelings get dredged up with the sound of music. You covered the full range perfectly – from sobs to laughter. 🙂
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It makes you realize how fast the time flies. Why I was just a kid yesterday!
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That’s it! When I am living to songs from the 70’s, I’m back in HS with my whole life ahead of me. And then I blink and realize how much water has passed over the damn since then.
Thanks for a lovely post.
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oops . . . listening to songs
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You took music therapy and turned it into music whiplash. I too have emotions and situations attached to specific songs. I like when the grandkiddos (14 & 12) are trapped in the car with me, I change the channel and sing the oldies at the top of my lungs. They LOVE this!!!
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Whiplash! That’s it! You have a way of finding the right words!
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Fun evening. I’m not a fan of March Madness, so your evening sounds much better to me. Lucky you.
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It was way more fun than it sounds.
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I couldn’t even name a popular song of today. They all sound alike and I can’t understand the words.
I love all the old tunes because you can sing along with them. They have a tune. You can understand what they are talking about. I guess that’s why most of the songs I sing on my blog are the oldies.
A big DITTO about basketball. lol
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My husband told me this morning that March Madness extends into April! Hopefully the weather will get better and I will be outside and won’t care!
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Well, it’s all your fault, nostalgia came flooding in and I can’t stop playing this music and it’s now in my head!!!
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I can’t think of a better way to spend a cloudy cold Sunday waiting for our last winter snowstorm!
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You are an Angel for posting this beautiful music, Miss Kate. Nobody seems to make this kind of music.
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one that always gets to me, in a very deep and illogical way, is Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay (originally by Otis Redding) … here’s a link to a compilation of the song by playingforchange dot com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es3Vsfzdr14
you’re right; music can take us all over the place, and squeeze our emotions in every direction
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Great tune!
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