Musical Memories

Recently in my search for musical entertainment, I have experienced a drought of sorts in the "new music" area. I've only downloaded maybe 2 or 3 songs over the last month, and after an initial interest in them discovered that they weren't the kind you can listen to over and over again without getting tired of them. iTunes latest offerings in the top 100, which is really all I look at have not generally inspired much clicking on my part. I loathe rap (I like eminem and will smith, that's basically it. Too much cursing and slang in the others that I don't get), heavy metal, and I have a strong bias against most country (life's depressing enough, I don't want to hear your problems too). Although, artists like Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift which keep enough of a "pop" sensibility to their music that I don't start to gag. Since the Black eyed peas aren't my cup of tea either, i haven't found much to download. Yes yes, I know I should delve deeper, and discover artists that I haven't heard of that are really good. I do this occasionally (generally at 4am when I can't sleep), but by the by I just don't feel like fishing for tunes that often.

This led me to look at my itunes library which has alot of songs and say "Y'know, I bet there are alot of these songs that I haven't listened to in a long time.", I went about combining all my playlists, excluding audiobooks, comedy albums and xmas music. I hit shuffle and just picked one. It was a trippy ride to work, let me tell you. I went from Hanna Montana (yes I have 3 of her songs, thier catchy so sue me) to Rob Zombie, then shifted into Billy Joel.

What I really love about music, is the ability for some simple notes and sometimes lyrics to ellict powerful emotional responses from us. I've seen mass crowds of people moved by music. I've been brought to tears by it myself. But I think the thing I enjoy most, are the memories that music evokes in me. Every song on my playlist of over 1400 has a moment or memory associated with it, so I thought that it would be a fun idea to go through a list of 10 or so, and share my memories of random songs that come up. So here goes...1...2..1.2.3.4!

Hinder-"Born to be wild"
This remake of the classic song was produced for the TNT commercials advertising that NASCAR was coming to their station. I'd seen the commerical a few times, and thought the song would make a great driving song, and it is! This song led me to download "Bad to the bone", which along with "Born to be Wild" was featured in "rock n roll racing" for the SNES and Gameboy advanced game systems which was a favorite of mine back in the day.

Ben Folds-"Still Fighting It"
I discovered this song when searching for an "alternative" father-daughter dance song for my wife, since it was a tough spot during the picking and choosing of the wedding stuff. I would find all these websites and these brides would swear by these songs, but my workplace having then recently banned youtube, I couldn't listen to them. I got previews on itunes, but they only go so far. So since the preview was good, I downloaded it to my Iphone. Once I heard the whole song, I knew it wouldn't be right for the dance, but it was mine now, so I kept it in my playlist. A few months after I was already married, this popped up, and listening to the song just for the sake of listening it spoke to me. I could really relate to the message, and I listened to it all the way home. I let my wife listen to it again, and she liked it too. This led to me purchasing the entire album it was part of, and has given me hours of listening enjoyment, and a new artist to call myself a fan of.

The Legend Soundtrack-"Cottage"

Whoa...memory overload! This has been used in any and all of my Dungeons and Dragons campaigns that I've ran or played in. It's what was called "Happy Town music", basically this was the music that told you that you and your party were safe for now. I've also used it for character creation music to get people into the medieval settings for the stories as it does it without much effort.It was the first background music I heard for playing Dungeons and Dragons, and it will always have a multitude of memories attached to it.

High School Musical 3 Soundtrack- High School Musical

Honestly, I didn't enjoy this song much at the end of the film, and thought it was just annoying. it's on the playlist because well i didn't edit anything from my purchased songs out (cept the comedy albums), and I purchased the entire albums as I along with my wife liked most of the soundtrack.

Fall Out Boy (featuring John Mayer)- "Beat It"

This Micheal Jackson remake got added because "Beat It" was one of the first songs that I liked as a kid. When I was 6, this music video was everywhere, and I remember my cousin Tam made me a tape of it, and I loved listening to it. So when Fall Out Boy made a remake, I had to see if it was good. I actually do enjoy the remake, and think it's a fine tribute to the original.

Rick Springfield-"Jessie's Girl"
I use to listen to this in the late 80's when my Mom use to listen to the radio in the car. It came back to me when I saw the movie 13 going on 30. I remembered how much I had liked the song, and downloaded it immediately. I don't listen to it often anymore (I have my own girl. :)), but when the mood for some classic 80's tunes pops up, I scroll around my iPhone for this song right here.

Powerman 5000-"When worlds collide"

I heard this in a comic shop where I bought Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and I downloaded it cause at the time I was writing a Dungeons and Dragons game and thought it would have been a good fight music song. I eventually did run that game, and the song served it's original purpose, but since then it is a fun "I hate the world" song to listen to now and again when your having a bad day.

blink 182- "Untitled"

A great band that I wish was still around, "Untitled" is a great break up song to help you try and get over someone. I love the lyrics to this song, and sung them repeatedly to myself trying to get over a particularly bad break-up.
"But what do I get 'cause I just seem to lose
You make me regret those times I spent with you
And playing those games as I wait for your call
And now I give up, so goodbye and so long"

Of course this is in between some great guitar and drum riffs. A great song for any recently dumped on person.

Disney's Hercules soundtrack-"I Won't say I'm in Love"

Wow, lotsa memories here. When I first met my wife, I was reeling from several dissapointing first dates, a coniving ex gf who had tried to baby trap me, rethinking my decision to move to New York, and then I met the love of my life. I was smitten from day one, but I had been down that "fall in love way to fast" roller coaster before, and I didn't want this relationship to end up like the others. The more time I spent with her though, I kept wanting to say it more and more. I listened to this song as kind of therapy to stem my growing need to express what every ounce of me was bursting to say. "I can say it in my head all I want". Yeah, that held for about 3 weeks, lol. After I had revealed all this to my wife, the song became kind of an inside joke with us, and we use to sing it in the car. We haven't heard it in a while, but hearing it again makes me remember what a great first month we had together.

Eminem- "Lose Yourself"

I had been a fan of this song for a while, but never downloaded it. When an iTunes featured it on a commercial, I remembered how much I liked it and downloaded it. At the time I was in a job I loathed, and this song helped in a kind of motivational way to help me cope and get through it, to do what I had to do to get where I am today.