As you grow older memories become a greater part of your life. This makes perfect sense as you have a greater pool
of topics to pull memories from. But the more important part of this phenomena is that as you increase in years there are certain moments that you cling to. And music pulls these out into your conscious. Many of the song stories that are being shared at Song Journals deal with the events of youth. In our week-long study of how songs move people, we are going to look at the musical memories of youth:
Alison Blackman, Publisher/Writer-AdviceSisters Publications :
When I was a pre-teen, I attended an unusual Summer camp in New York called Camp Trywoodie. The owners were friends of many creative people, including Pete Seeger. I didn’t know who the skinny man with the banjo was (at least I didn’t know he was famous) but I’d sit right at his knee, and listen to him play and sing. Not surprisingly, of all the songs I learned (and sang with the other kids at the top of my lungs) from Mr. Seeger “We Shall Overcome” is the one that brings me right back to the smell of grass and earth, and sunshine…and Pete Seeger.
Naomi Starsiak:
In 2000, at the age of 17, I took a trip to San Francisco. When we got to the rental car I was surprised to see it had a CD player – I had only brought cassettes. Later that day while I was in a second-hand shop I noticed a Doris Day CD at the counter for only $1.00.
Any time I put that CD on I can see the whiter than white sands of the beach, hear the sounds of the cable cars and remember the smell of Chinatown in the evening.
Mark Pappas:
Music is definitely transportive for me, easily taking me to a place or time from my past. One song that seemed to have that ability the first time I heard it was Alphaville’s Forever Young. A bit cheesy, yes, and vintage ’80s one-hit-wonder pop for sure, but it always brings me fond memories with a melancholic twist. I first remember the song being played like clockwork at the end of each high school year during the Senior Slide Show. I attended a small, private school and the 10th, 11th and 12th grade classes would gather right before finals and view a photographic essay that focused on the graduating class. It was an exciting yet sad time, something I realized more and more as I approached my own graduation in 1989 (that in and of itself is depressing). We were quickly growing up and this world that we had inhabited for the past 3-6 years (the school was k-12, so many of us had been together since junior high or longer), that we all thought was the center of the universe, was quickly vanishing, along with so many first loves, friendships and rivalries. The song “Forever Young” definitely evokes vivid memories of that time, when I first realized that growing up and all of the great things that come with that – freedom in its varied shapes and forms being the most obvious for me – also meant that we were stepping away from our youth as well. I knew at the time that was a sad but inevitable reality, and that song seemed to amplify those feelings. It wasn’t till later in life that I came to grips with the idea that sad music can make you feel good; I hadn’t yet discovered Tom Waits while in high school, LOL.
As a self proclaimed music aficionado, I am a bit embarrassed that this is the song I would offer up (I could go on for too long about a hundred other songs), but this one always hits home for me. It’s almost voyeuristic in that it always depresses me, but I can’t not listen, and I savor the pain that comes with it. As the song says, “Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip. The music’s for the sad men.“
I have a very strong memory of hearing a song called “My Grandfather’s Clock” when I was about 3 years old; the song was played on one of those record players that came in a little suitcase (with a hinged top and a handle for easy carrying). It was winter and I was living in a rental house with my parents on a spit of land called “Saugatuck Shores” in Westport, CT. I remember finding great comfort in the song; I remember simultaneously being made to feel uneasy by the cold winter winds and the sound of the sail hooks (cleats?) banging against the masts and the seagulls screaming along the Long Island Sound. Now, 44 years later, I’ve recorded my own version of “My Grandfather’s Clock” and I get many, many comments from people who loved that song. I’m so glad I recorded it.
Note: You can buy Suzanne’s version of “My Grandfather’s Clock” on iTunes.
Tim Patterson:
Beatles – Sgt. Pepper album. My older brother told me he got a chance to listen to it at school in the library with headphones on the day it came out. We bought it a few days later and listened to it nonstop for days.
Rolling Stones – “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” – I was about 10 when this came out and was really interested in being a cartoonist. I used to sit and draw cartoons and listen to this song.
Paul Revere and the Raiders – “Let Me” – I was a young drummer when this came out – and I thought the middle part of the song had one of the coolest drum parts ever. I used to try and play it along with the record.
We always think of the “good old times”. But what is interesting is that the songs of the days gone past carry those memories forward to the present and wake up our inner souls every time we hear them.
