Personal Musical Tags
We’ve all heard about, and likely experienced, the sensation of a scent triggering certain memories. Perhaps freshly baked chocolate chip cookies remind you of a favorite aunt, or a particular perfume will always be associated with your mother or grandmother. For me, tea roses always brings my attention to my grandmother, Mary. In fact, whenever I smell it I’m certain her spirit is nearby (but that’s another discussion for another time).
Even more than scent, however, I’ve discovered that songs or types of music are forever linked to people in my life. Some examples:
“Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa will always remind me of my friend, Kim, who loved that song when we were in college, even more so because it was banned from the radio in SLC unless it was very, very late at night (I guess because the only people awake that late at night were already “corrupt” so there was no saving us; might as well let us listen to this “risque” song).
Kim also gets Peter Gabriel’s entire album “So” because she introduced it to me and it is awesome.
Every time I hear George Michael’s “Faith,” in pops my friend Karen – we had a few sing-alongs in her car to that song.
My friends Dianna and Kelly come to mind when I hear “It’s My Life” by Talk Talk because they dedicated that song to me long ago when they had a guest dee-jaying stint on some radio station, I think in Oregon? I don’t know. I didn’t hear it; they just told me about it. And it stuck.
Anything by the Jackson Five brings Ana to mind. She loooooves them, even still today, I think.
Opera, just anything opera, reminds me of Eapen. He is my brother-in-law and he is an opera singer. Yes, really.
His wife, Kathleen, has been known to use the word “creature” to describe some people in the world. And now there is a song called “Creature” by Kim Ann Foxman and Andy Butler that I have on my workout playlist. And into my head pops Kathleen every time it cycles on.
My husband is a Rolling Stones SUPER fan (and damn good Jagger impersonator, btw) so any song by them brings Kevin to mind.
My mom’s is “Fernando” by Abba. Oh, she used to play that song over and over and over… (Oh great, now it’s playing in my head.)
My dad has several but my first memory of him with a song is “Light My Fire” by The Doors because I remember him cranking it up when it came on the radio in our VW Bug.
My brother, Billy, has more than one song associated with him as well but here I’ll share how much he loved the album “Minute by Minute” by the Doobie Brothers. It’s true. He was young. And now it reminds me of him.
My cousin Lisa’s song is “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin, though I’m not sure exactly why that one stuck…
And my in-laws? “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce. They’re from the south side of Chicago which just says enough.
I could go on because these musical tags really are a prevalent part of my history, but this is probably more than enough for now.
How about you? Do you have songs or soundtracks attached to people in your life or is this just some crazy thing that my brain finds entertaining? Please share!