Albums
Everyone has music that transports him or her to a time and memory. These bits of music are the ‘where were you when you first heard X” ,and the “I was in this place, when I heard X for the first time”. They are never planned or anticipated. Converging factors of emotions, the moment, people, etc. come together like a perfect storm with a song or a piece of music. This puts the tune permanently into a special spot (some would say the heart; psychiatrists would say the limbic system).
It is a convenient ice breaker to ask a person what sort of music he is fond. Later, when you are closer, you can find out about these numinous songs, albums, or CDs. Often the music isn’t that important. It is the matter of being ‘in the right place at the right time’.
I have several. To hear them again and again brings me back to some time or state of being. When I feel disconnected or out of sorts, they can be soothing tonics. Here’s a few;
The Hello, Dolly! Soundtrack – My grandfather would play this 8 track tape as he steered the cabin cruiser out of Grand River harbor onto Lake Michigan. The overture is associated with the start of endless summers of adventures. Back then, Lake Michigan could have been the Pacific Ocean it seemed so vast and uncharted
Watermark - Enya. I was in Key West for my first time, I was in my 20s. I was young and the world and adulthood was before me; life was going to be so exciting.
This album was played a lot as background at the bed and breakfast. It takes me back to a magical week of joy and hope. I can still hear my B and B host talking to us over drinks at night, about glorious times past, and what it is like to live your life with someone.
I’d Like to teach the World to Sing by the New Seekers. I thought my parents rather sophisticated to have it – we didn’t know anyone with long hair like the four on the back cover. My brother and I would make rock and roll bands with our teddy bears, who would lip synch and play the drums to these tunes. Once when I came home in tears from a terrible day at school, my mother consoled me while “So Glad you are a child of mine” in the background.
Rigoletto – this recording finally ‘clicked on’ the opera gene. I stopped hearing foreigners screeching; I heard a beautiful splendid tragic story only music could convey.
Vier Letzte Lieder – sung by Jessye Norman. One morning I woke up at the home of one of my most dear friend. After a significant night, I woke to hear him playing this album. I sat right up; I was transported. I realized I was OK as I was. When I go deaf, this is the last piece of music I wish to hear, the song Beim Schlafengehen.
Tell me some of yours.
It is a convenient ice breaker to ask a person what sort of music he is fond. Later, when you are closer, you can find out about these numinous songs, albums, or CDs. Often the music isn’t that important. It is the matter of being ‘in the right place at the right time’.
I have several. To hear them again and again brings me back to some time or state of being. When I feel disconnected or out of sorts, they can be soothing tonics. Here’s a few;
The Hello, Dolly! Soundtrack – My grandfather would play this 8 track tape as he steered the cabin cruiser out of Grand River harbor onto Lake Michigan. The overture is associated with the start of endless summers of adventures. Back then, Lake Michigan could have been the Pacific Ocean it seemed so vast and uncharted
Watermark - Enya. I was in Key West for my first time, I was in my 20s. I was young and the world and adulthood was before me; life was going to be so exciting.
This album was played a lot as background at the bed and breakfast. It takes me back to a magical week of joy and hope. I can still hear my B and B host talking to us over drinks at night, about glorious times past, and what it is like to live your life with someone.
I’d Like to teach the World to Sing by the New Seekers. I thought my parents rather sophisticated to have it – we didn’t know anyone with long hair like the four on the back cover. My brother and I would make rock and roll bands with our teddy bears, who would lip synch and play the drums to these tunes. Once when I came home in tears from a terrible day at school, my mother consoled me while “So Glad you are a child of mine” in the background.
Rigoletto – this recording finally ‘clicked on’ the opera gene. I stopped hearing foreigners screeching; I heard a beautiful splendid tragic story only music could convey.
Vier Letzte Lieder – sung by Jessye Norman. One morning I woke up at the home of one of my most dear friend. After a significant night, I woke to hear him playing this album. I sat right up; I was transported. I realized I was OK as I was. When I go deaf, this is the last piece of music I wish to hear, the song Beim Schlafengehen.
Tell me some of yours.
posted by Ur-spo at 7:13 AM
1 Comments:
To Wong Fu soundtrack album, it was my coming out album, I just came back from a tour of Jesus Christ Superstar when I picked up the album on a whim, I loved it so much I would blast it in my car while driving very fast, it was a great time.
Grand Hotel: The Musical by Maury Yeston and Les Miserables by Claude Michel Schonberg and Alain Boubil, both started my passion for showtunes in high school, I didn't know they wrote music like that anymore, I fell in love with them and the theatre!
That's just a few of mine.
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