Memory Evoking Music
 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...vivid-memories

I hear Paul Simon's 'Kodachrome' and immediately i'm transported to a tree fort i had when i was 11.

I can smell the tee and the wood shelves i built - and the comics i kept there.


What songs take you back to a very specific time and place ?

Love it, I really do. Whilst we perhaps recollect images and facts clearer, I find sound and smell really remind you of an entire feeling. You can find your being transported back, feeling so many vibes all at once.

For me, to name but a few:

Kate Bush = Walking through the snow last January in Warwick.

Glen Hansard = Spring 2012 when David was off travelling and I was finishing up A Levels.

Nick Cave = Morning jogs through the countryside with my friend Rhiannon last summer.

smells have never done it for me - except mothballs - which remind me of my grandparents :D

The Everly Brothers' Wake Up Little Suzy and The Beatles' Yesterday reminds me of driving round with my dad as a kid. Actually those two are some of the first music I remember hearing.

Music is a constant soundtrack to my life so there's quite a few songs that remind me of certain periods of my life... both bad and good.

TUBULAR BELLS 1973ish

When I hear the familiar beginning (The Exorcist ), my heart aches at the haunting beauty of it. I picture scenes of bleak autumnal brownstones with black gothic fences and Father Karras surrounded in swirling fog. I saw that movie when I was 16. There was so much hype about it at the time. I remember the long vinyl black trench coat I wore. Eeeeek.

That is a great song, for sure and I always thought it was cool. Had the album and just amazed at how complex it was with some awesome guitar work.
"Close to You" by The Carpenters takes me back to the summer of 1970 when I was 8...had a new bike that I was always using and it just seemed like the summer was endless with every day a treat.

This story is hilarious to hear in person but - here goes:

Right after this album came out (October '96), the boss's son with 3 or 4 of his friends brought me this track. (They were all either in 8th grade or freshmen.)

They were super-excited cause they knew I knew some German and they were convinced this track was either a satanic ritual or a quote from Hitler or at least a spell if not something occultic. And Halloween was right around the corner blah blah blah...

It was ten minutes of the "who farted" expression when I told them it was a cookie recipe. I started laughing at their reaction so they thought I was lying. (I mean, it really is a creepy-ish track.)

The more I translated, the more angered they became, the more I laughed. I told them a line from Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves had to be recited before baking and they lost it.

They sincerely thought I was hiding something sinister & I couldn't stop laughing at them which only made things worse. You had to see the incredulity on their faces, it was hysterical. Everything single thing I said at that encounter made those guys hate me.

I've never been 100% on the Ali Baba reference. I told them as much but it was too late. Man that was a great morning - thanks for the reminder! ::big grin::

On a side note; this is how I discovered - and fell in love with - Tool.



(P.S. They did eventually find out I was not lying to them.)

Next year, I will have been a Boy George fan for 30 years - his music has been in my life since I was 8 years old, so I would say that his whole catalogue is like the soundtrack to my life, and many of his songs takes me back to specific times or events in my past, or reminds me of certain people.

I'm actually getting a tattoo in his honour soon... I think 30 years is enough time to know that I WON'T "grow out of it", no matter what my mom said when I was 10 ::big grin:: I'm simply addicted to that voice, it touches my soul like nothing else.

This is one of those songs that I've grown up and grown older with...