28 January 2017

Music and Memories

I've written before about how music can stay with you.  Songs can bring up memories and stories that you can't help but share with others.  Whether it's a fun story about riding in a car with a bunch of friends or using music to help get through a tough time in your life, music will always be there for you.  That fact has been clear to me in my adult life and I had another instance of this yesterday morning with a co-worker. 

It was just the two of us at work yesterday morning.  I brought my ipod to listen to before the store opened.  My wife bought me this cool little speaker that looks like a guitar amp that you plug your phone or ipod into and it plays music for all to hear.  We were there for four hours before we opened and not having anything to listen to just makes the hours pass so slowly.  Normally the team listens to the radio, but I wanted to listen to music that doesn't suck.  So I made up a playlist of music that is work appropriate and just hit the shuffle button.  

When a David Bowie song was playing, her head popped up and she practically shouted 'Ziggy Stardust!  Oh, we use to listen to him when we were in Berlin when my husband was stationed there.'  And then we talked about her living there and how my parents lived in Germany when my dad was stationed there when he was in the army.  See people, connections!  And memories!  So we talked about Bowie and Germany for a bit. 

A few hours later, a Led Zeppelin song came on.  As it turned out, she saw them in St. Paul when she was younger.  She shared a story about waiting in line for hours because it was a first come first seated type of show where everyone rushed once the doors opened.  Lots of people standing around, drinking, smoking, dropping acid.  All that fun stuff.  They would go use the bathroom and there were people everywhere.  Puking, drinking more, passed out.  Not a luxurious scene or memory, but a memory nonetheless.  And she said they were amazing.  (of course because LED ZEPPELIN!)  She laughed about it because it was fun to think back on.  I'm assuming that all the puking that was witnessed wasn't fun, but still the rest of it must have been pretty awesome. 

So, if anyone ever tells you that music is just songs and notes or musicians are nothing more than rich, pampered, self centered, self destructive people that are doing their job just because they want to be popular feel free to throat punch them.  Because it is more than that.  Anyone that says different just doesn't get it. 

No comments:

Post a Comment