Of music and memories

Music brings back memories. We have several CDs and/or tapes that I know I will not have truly "listened to" when we get back until I play them at the right time. There are two tapes that must be played on the road down to Portland, but if we get a car with a CD player, there is a CD that will never be truly listened to until it is played on that road. Roger Whittaker's "Love Will Be Our Home" tape has to be played either on the way up to Everett for a baseball game or down to Mt. Rainier. His "Last Farewell" is music to paint by with acrylics. "And Then I'm Going Home" is without a doubt something to listen to on a summer evening when the sunset slants through the house turning it to burnished gold. The list goes on and on...

Some music will never be able to be played at the place of memory. "Daily Growing", for example--that brings back memories of a January day in 2005 when I saw a very similar school program...what am I supposed to do? Go to that particular school and explain why I am playing a CD in their gym? Of course not. When you follow stuff like that you've got to be reasonable. Some of you might find that hard to believe, but I'm reasonable if I see the ludicrousness of it for my own self...

Memories...some of it just can't be put into words. Back when I had never seen Balkanarama and we only had their one CD I thought that some of them wore traditional dress, one of them looked like Abe Lincoln, and the rest had just stepped out of Calvin & Hobbes. :) And I was positive that the woman who sang the most had very long hair. Well, I found out that the woman who sings the most has about shoulder length hair and it used to be shorter, I'm positive! But I had this picture of the band that I still remember where a lot of them were dancing (?), including "Abe Lincoln". Well, now that I know what they really look like, is that a bad thing? No. "Nonstop" makes me think about that funny picture. "Black Sea" makes me think of the first time I saw them. I can still see the line of dancers. I remember about four of the dancers very clearly. And their new CD will make me think of all the times we saw them at Georgia's Greek Restaurant--one time the owner pulled me into a dance I had no idea how to do, and Mum made me do that because she was the owner and what did I do? stomped all over her feet!

And how am I supposed to describe what I hear and see in my head when I hear the song, "The Road to Drumleman"? Well, I just can't. Just like my description of what I thought Balkanarama was will make you laugh and you won't be able to see the special-ness of it (though now I know that the lead singer does not look like that at all!) if I told you it wouldn't happen. I believe that probably a lot of people have things that are perfectly wonderful and special, but ludicrous to the rest of the world. Even grown-ups!

Well, music and memories are so closely intertwined (in my heart, at least) that I do believe that I can't have one without the other. If I hear "Angel Gabriel", for example, I'll remember the time I walked into a concert, not realizing that more groups than Atwater-Donnelly were performing there, and thought that they'd really changed when I was looking at another (much older, too!) group. Of course, the CD was old and so when I saw them for real it took me a moment to figure it out (Elwood Donnelly had grown a beard since then, and while I might've recognized Aubrey Atwater, I wouldn't have figured him out until he started to sing, had it not been for my mum). Actually, they never did play Angel Gabriel that time, but that's what I remember when I hear that song.

I have more examples but can't post them online so I will close now. I hope I didn't bore you.
Saro