Anyone who knows me can tell you that there are 2 things that I associate highly time and time again with recollections. Food and music. I recall major and minor life changing events from these two things.
I often joke that I need a movie soundtrack dubbed overhead everywhere I go playing my own personal soundtrack to my life. The ironic and yes, perhaps somewhat psychotic thing is in my own head there is. I just always thought music along with other arts has always been able to express the poetic beauty and tragedy of life so much more eloquently then I ever could.
Tonight driving a song popped up on my playlist and took me back. I’ll get to that in a moment, but suddenly I realized I do have a soundtrack to my life. Its been built over the years and is numerous gigabytes worth of melodic expressions. Each one tied to specific moments, feelings and forever will be associated with such. So tonight, we revisit a few of them.
The reason spurring tonight’s post:
Obadiah Parker- Hey Ya
I heard this song before Mr. Big, but it was never associated with anything. Now suddenly I am transported back to his house, eating breakfast; bacon and pancakes. He always made the most amazing pancakes, he has a love affair with breakfast, lol. It was nearing the end of our relationship, but things weren’t bad, it was one of the few days where we got to spend the entire night and day together. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning, but at that moment, in the comfortable silence of breakfast while this song played, it didn’t matter. I was content and full, those were good pancakes.
Nat King Cole- When I Fall in Love
I had been dating Harry or Hairy (whichever you prefer) for 2 years, we were planning a wedding. That in itself is a long tragic story. I was sitting on the couch in our place, trying to find what I now realize was MY perfect wedding song. See this song was not Harry at all, yet I adore this song. I had listened to it about 15 times on repeat knowing this was my song, wanting it to be “The” song. Getting lost in the words it was then that I made the first realization: I could never use it with him, it would not be, nor ever would be “our song”. Because I was not, nor would I ever be in love with him….. The lyrics rang more true at that moment than any other time I have ever listened to it, yet it always brings me back to that day.
Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back
Haha gotta throw in the hilarious for a moment. This song recalls a few events. I remember “cruising” with my best friend of almost 10+ years in high school and this song would come on, oh the insanity that followed, hehe…. I was sworn to secrecy on most of it though :p But because of it this next memory was made.
It was the first time I was working a professional line in the kitchen. It’s a hard place for a woman, you automatically are on the disadvantage and are subjected to sexual harassment of levels that I can’t even begin to tell you. Until you prove your worth. I’ve hit guys, thrown pans at them for grabbing my ass, it’s where I earned my sailors mouth, a lot of my hard-nosed, fast paced, no-nonsense professionalism, had to drink whiskey at 3 am in the morning to start off the day with the head chef and other insanity that eventually in one way or another proved I was a force to be reckoned with.
One of those times was with a cocky, womanizing, oogling other chef who thought I was nothing but another stupid female from the sticks. Somehow a bet was made that I didn’t know that song, let along could sing it. I quipped back that not only could I, but I could also do it while working 2 sections at once and not skip a beat. Needless to say, most would pay to be on the line that night to watch me rapping “Baby Got Back” and working the grill and pantry. Thank God it was a smaller line & for all those late night cruises, for I didn’t miss a beat and cranked out perfect execution on every fire that came in and as stupid as it was, from that moment on out I had the respect of every man in that kitchen.
Joe Cocker- With a Little Help From My Friends
This is one of the very first records aside from Billy Joel’s Glass Houses that I vividly remember listening to over and over again. So much so that to this day I hear songs off of the record and I visualize the record covers clear as day. I remember sitting in our Eames style chair in front of the record player, in the classroom that was converted into a kitchen (we lived in a huge 3 story brick school we were renovating) surrounded by chalk boards, tons of pure unfiltered light and the voice of Joe Cocker. My legs over the side of the chair, my head languidly off the other side, the stereo so loud my father would come up from his workshop downstairs by our gym and yell at me. Which was hypocritical because he always insisted I have a good upbringing in music and gave me the records to begin with, haha.
Brad Paisley, Dolly Parton- When I Get Where I’m Going
My ipod has a weird way of freaking out at opportune moments. It had been a really rough few months, my Papa was sick, couldn’t walk, in the hospital for months after being perfectly healthy. Another family member at the time had just died and I had made the 10 hour trek to Wyoming for the funeral. A week after my return back to Boise we got the call where I had to tell my Papa how much I loved him but it was ok for him to let go. After a 13+ hour drive back to Wyoming we were on the return trip home from the funeral. I was sick and tired and driving a rental mini van full of family back up this way when at the spot where my Papa worked for the state, the spot where he would always stop and call to tell the family he was exactly ___ hours from being home (and was always right within minutes) my ipod freaked out, shuffled songs sporadically, stopped and started playing this song. The van erupted in silent tears and we all knew that our Papa was there still with us.
Queen- Bohemian Rhapsody
So I was going through a very dark difficult time and to cheer me up one of my friends and her hubby drug me out. We ended up at some weird ass dive bar with some of their friends playing darts. The kind of bar where if you aren’t a regular they look at you funny. Well we took command of the jukebox and after 5 or 6 shots and quite a few beers later this song came on. What happened was our entire group then standing up and doing impromptu acting/ karaoke to the entire bar with this song. Which then turned into the entire bar singing. It was one of the more hilarious, albeit I’m so glad a video camera wasn’t present moments of my life. To this day we still joke about reenacting it.
I could go on and on…. but for my last song I’m going to give you my theme song. Everyone has their own personal theme song. The one that opens the movie and closes out the credits. This, this is mine:
Billy Joel- You May Be Right
