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10 Comments Love Is a Mixtape: Reverb Broads 2011 #29
Reverb Broads 2011, December 29: What was the soundtrack of your year? Of your life? Which songs most strongly represent the various eras of your life? What songs were playing for the most crucial, formative moments of your life? Or, if the chronological approach doesn’t work for you, which songs best capture the different facets of your life? (Childhood, Love Life, Adulthood, Loss, Growth, Career, Happiness, Sadness, etc.) Please elaborate. (courtesy of Bethany/Katie)
These are just a few of my songs. I know, the list is unbelievably long as it is, but it feels so incomplete. Some of them, I don’t even like, but most of them I always have and always will. And, for better or for worse, they’re like little hyperlinks to my memory. I did the best I could with the actual links; there’s supposed to be a YouTube clip attached to each. If it doesn’t go where it’s supposed to, you can Google as well as (or better than) I can. And how could I do it in anything other than mixtape form?
Side A: Child and Teen Jess
“The Bare Necessities” from Disney’s The Jungle Book — my favorite movie, age 2
The Star Wars theme — my new favorite movie, age 2.5
“Stardust” by Willie Nelson — my first concert, age about 2
“Help!” by The Beatles — Mom is a Beatlemaniac, and she started us young
“The Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie — my new favorite movie, age 4; also excellent for showing off at the rollerskating rink
“Tomorrow” from Annie — my new favorite movie, age 7, and a good audition piece
“Mickey” by Toni Basil — those first heady days of MTV and the roller-rink
“Thriller” by Michael Jackson — the cassette I got with my first walkman
“Purple Rain” by Prince — my first R-rated movie (I still stop to watch it whenever it’s on VH1)
“The One I Love” by R.E.M. — my first taste of college radio in my stepbrother’s room
“All Cried Out” by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam — my first junior high dance drama
“(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” by Bill Medley and Gloria Loring from Dirty Dancing — my new favorite movie, age 13
“Watermark” by Enya — mission trip to Appalachia, and my first taste of New Age music
“Everyday Is Like Sunday” by Morrissey — my first kiss
“So Alive” by Love and Rockets — my first chaperone-less concert
“With Or Without You” by U2 — my first high school dance drama, and the beginning of a 10-month abusive relationship
“Three Little Maids from School Are We” from The Mikado — my first college-level theater experience, as a HS sophomore in the chorus
“Skid Row (Downtown)” from Little Shop of Horrors — music from the soundtrack I sang with my girlfriends as they took me in and protected me after the abuse
“Blue Monday” by New Order — falling in love at music camp
“Cuts You Up” by Peter Murphy — first (voluntary) you-know-what
“In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel — first big breakup
“You Are The Everything” by R.E.M. — falling in love at World Affairs Seminar
“Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd — senior year long-distance relationship
“Blister in the Sun” by Violent Femmes — senioritis and graduation
“Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers — school trip to France
Side 2 — College and Old Jess
“These Are Days” by 10,000 Maniacs — first semester of college
“One Night in Bangkok” from Chess — first off-campus apartment with a boyfriend
“Supervixen” by Garbage — AmberMUSH and the start of so many good things
“Possession” by Sarah McLachlan — end of an engagement; freedom
40-Part Motet by Thomas Tallis — singing in my fantastic college choir
“Linger” by The Cranberries — study abroad in France, and the beginning of a courtship
“Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden — dating by phone call and mix tape
“Je t’aimais, je t’aime, et je t’aimerai” by Francis Cabrel — life in France
“Ngaire” by The Mutton Birds — planning a wedding, half a world away
“The Macarena” by Los del Rio — coming home, and the ’96 Olympics in Atlanta
“The Lark in the Clear Air” (trad. Irish) — the song I sang at our wedding
“Darling Nikki” by Prince — working at the record store, the song we had to sprint the length of the floor to skip before he sang the word “masturbating”
“He Watching Over Israel” from Mendelssohn’s Elijah — staging the oratorio as an opera, with my fantastic college choir again
“Candle In The Wind” by Elton John — moving to Pennsylvania
“Tubthumping” by Chumbawumba — first semester of grad school
“The Trick Is To Keep Breathing” by Garbage — my fibromyalgia diagnosis, and the depression that followed
“Du Hast” by Rammstein — so very sick during my first pregnancy, but the baby loved this song, before and after birth
“The Night” by Morphine — the song playing while I was in labor with my first son
“Woke Up This Morning” by Alabama 3, from The Sopranos— that first long summer of motherhood
“Fix You” by Coldplay — my second son arrives
“American Idiot” by Green Day — mad, mad motherhood
“Business Time” by Flight of the Conchords — moving to Wisconsin, and gaming conventions
“What’s Left of the Flag” by Flogging Molly — life in Wisconsin among my Irish family
“I Will Follow You Into The Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie — teaching at Carroll and getting by
“We Used to Be Friends” by The Dandy Warhols, from Veronica Mars — moving to Minnesota, and depression I almost didn’t survive
“Bad Things” by Jace Everett, from True Blood — rediscovering joy
“Paparazzi” by Lady Gaga — the long, hard winter, and children old enough to start influencing their parents’ listening habits
“The Parting Glass” by The High Kings — a much better summer
“Firework” by Katy Perry — the Next Big Thing arrives for my Darling Husband
“I Still Believe” by Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls — back to school, and the best concert I can remember
I have to say I think this is the best post you’ve made so far. I am so astonished by it. Also left teary-eyed. And yes, I will bring home a loaf of bread.
I don’t get it–what’s so astonishing? Teary-eyed, I get; there’s so much memory and sentiment wrapped up in those songs. But music is one of my touchstones, so it was a pleasure. Glad you liked it. Thanks for the bread.
Speaking for me: It’s so broad, is the thing. Some of these I recognize. Some of them I get why I don’t recognize. Some of these I say, ‘bwuh?’ when I peer at them, which isn’t unlikely – just whoa.
Also, some of them, just by going down the list, tell a story in and of themselves. I know, intellectually, how much music resonates for and from you, but realize that there is a song here, shortlisted, for nuances of moments and themes and feelings. That’s pretty astonishing to folks who don’t think with music the way you do.
At any rate: awesome post.
That’s a really good explanation. Thanks, dear. 🙂
I love how detailed you are with this list & how you are able to assign a song to moments in your life, going back to age 2! I would very much treasure this mixtape, were it an actual tape 🙂 I may have to attempt this post I my blog. I don’t know if I could go as far back into my childhood as you but it would be fun to try! 🙂
You totally should. And my own freaky memory should never be a yardstick for anyone else–I can actually remember lying in the crib, looking up at the wallpaper and window in my nursery. I fed my mom whole sections of dialogue from Star Wars after having seeing in precisely once, as a 2.5 yr old. Yeah, total freak.
I did it! It was a lot of fun and a lot harder to do than I thought it would be!!! 🙂
Post the link!
Wow, such detail!
[…] But my brain is also highly sensitive to sensory memory, so the touch of a CD jewel box, or the sound of a mixtape, or a porcelain statue, or the silky pages of a graphic novel evoke an even stronger sense of time […]