"Name That Tune" or "Name That Memory"

A song can begin play and in that moment I recognize it, I can be blown back in time, to some place in my childhood or adolescence (or sometime last year).

On the way to work, ZZ Top's "Legs" played on the radio... and I found myself getting teary-eyed as I turned up the volume and sang along loudly. This song instantly throws me back to a moment in my childhood when I was eight years old, living in Salt Lake City at the time, and I was sitting in the passenger seat beside my father, who was driving our white Volvo through some canyon, and "Legs" was blaring over the car stereo system, and we were singing all the words as my father twisted the steering wheel back and forth to the beat of the music.

My honey-man and I, we had called my father this morning to sing him 'Happy Birthday,' so he was on my mind this morning... Even still, sometimes when a song I strongly associate to my father plays on the radio, I'll call him and leave him a message with the song still audibly playing in the background, to let him know Journey's "Wheel in The Sky" is on and that I'm thinking of him... or whatever the song may be at the time.

And a few songs later, still on my way in to work this morning, Madonna's "Get Into the Groove" began to play... and I was thrown back to a moment when I was nine years old. A childhood friend and I, after spending a day on the ski slopes, and hours thereafter, swimming in a heated outdoor pool, we performed the song together in our swimsuits for our adoring parents in the warmth of a sitting room in a condo our parents were renting in Park City, UT. We also 'performed' a routine for "Material Girl" that night, complete with playing cards tossed about room and the wearing of costume jewelry...

Five minutes ago, "Bad" by U2 cycled through my iTunes player... and I remember late January 1995, I was sitting atop my tall, cinder-block lifted twin size bed in my Ricks College apartment, Harmony House, #302, with my portable CD player in hand, headphones set in my ears, having skipped to the track # I'd been told I had to listen to once he'd left, just minutes after who would eventually become my first-husband-to-be (2 yrs later) had hit the road eastward bound, back home to Iowa. And I remember the conflicted tears.

If I went through a list of all the music I own and some more, I could probably list nearly a hundred people or more, all of whom I've associated to some song(s) or some music artist(s). Hmmm, lemme' try something here:

ABBA: My mum and Johanna and Melissa Lyn
Squirrel Nut Zippers: Brin & Stephen
America: My father, aunt Radeane, uncle Kevin and Tyler
"Learning to Fly" by Tom Petty: Martens
James Taylor: My mum and dad, Grammie Joanie, my aunt Mary, my uncle Peter and Dillion...
NIN: Mikal, Marshall, Brad, Tina, Jeff, Jenni, and Marcus
Frente: Marcus, always
"New Beginning" by Tracy Chapman: Korose
The Grease Soundtrack: Whitney
"The Girl from Ipanema": Jake
The Cult: Sebastian
Cowboy Junkies: Mitch
"All I Want" by Toad the Wet Sprocket: Sandra Jean
The Yaz: Erik, Suzanne at Ricks, and Suzanne in Iowa
"Cannonball" by the Breeders: Trevor
The Smiths: Andy (plus too many others to name the all)
The Dixie Chicks: Emmett and Kimmy
Emmy Lou Harris: My step-mum
Beastie Boys: Poppy & James, and a whole bunch of 5th grade playmates
Hothouse Flowers: Lindsey
Cake: Foremost, Melissa Lyn, and then Seth & Karena
Stan Getz: my father and my honey-man
Shawn Colvin: My aunt Brenda
Erasure: Erik, Mikal and Demetri
Indigo Girls: Lara, Annie, aunt Mary, Suzanne, and my sister
"Red Wine" by UB40: My aunt Sarah, always
"Are You Gunna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravitz: Jasey
Nanci Griffin: Suzanne and my honey-man
Fugazi: Suzanne
Candlebox: Shelan
Southern Culture on the Skids: Johanna, Brin & Stephen
Jane's Addiction: Brandon, Ray, Jerry, Dillion, Amber, Mira, Micah, Matthew... and my Jacobson cousins

That was just an experiment... I could go on and on and on.