music

Have you ever heard a song…..and been instantly transported back to another time and another place?  Does music evoke memories and emotions for you?     Perhaps a first kiss,  your first dance, your first boyfriend?  Your favorite song from high school, the song you played on repeat when you first learned to drive….the songs you listened to when you had your first heartbreak.   The songs you listened to with your friends as you hung out after school, the songs you sang at church as a child, the songs your family sang together.  Songs from summer camp or vacation Bible School, songs you sang to your children when they were babies.

How many, many words are there for songs or music?  Must be hundreds, maybe thousands!!   Songs, lullabies, ditties, nursery rhymes, slow jams, groovy dance hits, fight songs, inspirational hymns, Psalms, spirituals, anthems, arias, drinking songs and shanties, rounds, incantations, ballads, carols, chorales, ditties, chants, refrains, verses, odes, lyricals, poems, pieces, strains, melodies, numbers, tunes, choruses, madrigals, carillons, arrangements, cantatas, concertos, operettas, works, scores, etudes, stanzas, symphonies, opus,  rhapsodies, sonatas, cavatinas, pastorales, cadence, standards, compositions…..

And types of music?  There is just something for everybody!!  Golden oldies, country, western, rock and roll, rap, opera, soul, r & b, hard rock, punk, grunge, indie rock, new wave, progressive, blues, gospel,  contemporary Christian, dubstep, acoustic, bebop, chamber music, choir, folk, fusion, heavy metal, instrumental, marches, lounge lizard, techno, soundtracks, tv themes, jingles, bluegrass, honky-tonk, surfing music, harmony, modern, ragtime, swing, acapella, classical, pastorale, Motown, reggae, ska, art rock, grind core, hip-hop, barber-shop quartet, celtic, zydeco, pop, standards, world-beat, electronic, Gregorian Chants, nature tracks, ballads, soft-rock, symphony, marching band, and music from every decade from the roaring 20’s to the present.  

I can hear a few strains of a song from a pivotal time in my life and it is instant time-travel for me.  I’m taken back to the time, the feelings, the emotions, the smells, the sights, and the memories…...

"I got the Joy-Joy-Joy-Joy-Down in my heart!" or "Jesus Loves me" or "There was a Wise Old King" or "Father Abraham" takes me right back to a happy little Sunday school classroom with a flannel board and tiny short plastic chairs and tables low to the ground where the room smells like grape Kool-Aide and animal crackers and paste and crayons.  


Another music memory:  My first Kiss ever!  On the dance floor at Church of the Nativity during my 8^th grade dance during the Kenny Rogers song, “Lady” with my very first boyfriend, David.  It was dim, slightly smoky (from the fog-machine), and all together magical!!  His lips were so soft and my heart was beating so fast I thought it would jump out of my chest!  We had just won a dance contest (for dancing our hearts out and doing the splits during the song, “Celebration.”   It was in 1981 and I was in the 8^th grade.  If I hear that song now, I’m instantly taken back to that night and I’m swaying and swooning in that church gymnasium.   

Songs from the movie soundtrack “Top Gun” takes me back to my high school dating years……as does any song from “Fame” or “St Elmo’s Fire" or "Sixteen Candles"   Ditto for anything by the Police, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Steve Perry, Wham, Boy George and Duran-Duran. Basically, if I tune into any good 80’s radio station and I turn into a teenager again.

Any songs from Petra or Greg X Voltz takes me back to the very early days of my marriage and to the time when my daughter was born. We attended a Petra concert when I was about 8 months pregnant and then played their albums on repeat for the next year or so.  It was a magical, difficult, exciting time in my life.  Those memories are very sweet now. 

If I hear Lawrence Welk type music, I’m transported back to Saturday nights of my childhood……my grandparents enjoying watching “And-a-one-and-a-two….” And the same goes for Hee-Haw.  Tammy Wynette standing by her man, or Loretta Lynn being a Coal-Miners daughter makes me very nostalgic.  

Hearing the opening tune from the TV theme song for the Walton's almost makes me cry….remembering watching it with my Mamaw.   I still love watching the corny reruns of “The Love Boat” and even though I never watched the show, I even get a bit nostalgic  hearing the theme song from “Dallas” which was a big deal back in those days.   

I  wasn’t allowed to watch Sonny and Cher because my grandparents truly believed that youngsters shouldn’t be exposed to Cher because she didn’t wear decent clothes, showing way too much skin-which meant she was a fast-loose-woman of ill-repute.....but I longed to watch it like my friends did.  I wanted to sing "I got you Babe" too!    But I watched Donny and Marie Osmond.  Faithfully.  Every Friday night.  And to this very day, I’m still a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll!!!!

Wee-Sing Bible Songs or the "Goin Quackers" songs  take me back to long car rides with my kiddos in their car seats, smashing cheerios into the seat cushions and asking if we are "There Yet"

I have a few "trigger songs" that I just can't listen to any more because of painful emotional associations....."Red River Valley" and "Blue Eyes Cryin In the Rain" because of my Papaw and how he used to play them on his harmonica....."Amazing Grace my Chains are Gone" because my husband sang it at my sweet Mamaw's funeral and  "Lord I'm Coming Home" because it was one of her favorites and "I Can Only Imagine" because Steve sang it at his aunt's funeral.

I hate some songs just on principle.  I absolutely REFUSE to listen to "Christmas Shoes" and "Butterfly Kisses" for obvious reasons and after the untimely death of Stephen Curtis Chapman's little daughter, I can't her the song "Cinderella" or his song "Heaven is the Face" without ugly crying.

Some songs make me feel melancholy - "Summer Breeze" by Seals and Crofts  and "Longer" (and pretty much anything else)  by Dan Fogelberg. Landslide by Fleetwood Mac...Careless Whisper......Bridge over Troubled Water.....and it's not a sad feeling really.....just kind of mellow and reflective.

Some songs make me feel happy and energetic! "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince....."Walking on Sunshine" and Livin On a Prayer by JBJ......Bohemian Rhapsody.....Centerfold....Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go...….. and Don't Stop Believing…..Dancing Queen.....Born to be Wild....Hot-Hot-Hot!   I just have to dance when I hear these songs!

Some songs take me to a specific time or place in my memory - The original Hill Songs (Shout To the Lord or Revival in Belfast) whisk me away to North Carolina.....as does "Vitamin C"

Petra's "Beat the System" and Sandi Patti's "Morning Like This" and Leslie Phillips "Dancing with Danger" all transport me to my senior year of high school and my first car, that 1976 Camero with faded silver paint and a cassette player!

Music really is the soundtrack of our lives - it touches us and transports us and transforms us every day.