Music

I love music.  All kinds.  I grew up with a dad who loved 70s rock (think Meatloaf and Aerosmith) and a mom who loved Top 40 radio.  My aunts?  Huge Beatles fans.  Huge.  I was also a dancer and was exposed to all different kinds of music through my dance classes. One summer I worked for the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival.  I walked away with such an appreciation for classical music.  And I can't forget to mention my time at the Boston Conservatory.  So much talent.  For some people photographs bring back memories and feelings.  For me, it's music.  I hear a particular song and I am immediately brought back to a memory.  My earliest music memory?  Big Girls Don't Cry

My dad's youngest sister, my Auntie Lorri, would play this while she used to baby sit me.  I was probably around 3 years old at the time. 

Jumping ahead a few years...my cousin Ally is a creative type.  She was always thinking of a game or a dance or something for us to do.  So when my Auntie Lorri was moving away to Vermont, she came up with a song and dance routine to the tune of "Let's Hear It For the Boy" but we sang "Let's Hear it For Auntie Lor"...

We jumped and sang around the backyard. For the record, I was not as enamored with these goings on as my other cousins were.  Even though I was a dancer and danced on-stage, my threshold for public embarrassment is incredibly low and I hate doing things like this in front of other people.  This is why I also don't participate in karaoke.  Except once...we'll get to that in a minute...


High school...the hallowed halls of BayView Academy.  I was one of those over-involved students.  One of my activities was CYO and we would have dances.  I loved those.  A favorite song to dance to was "In Your Eyes".  Not a great slow song to dance to, the tempo is a bit off.  But we were teenagers.

I never got in trouble.  I was (and still am) the oldest child in my family.  I was a rule follower.  So I went to school, did my activities, worked, babysat, took dance lessons.  I never sassed my parents.  I can remember 2 times in the whole of my high school years that I got in trouble.  Both were senior year.  The first incident my dad caught me.  My mom was asleep and my dad was out.  It was late, late enough that Letterman was on.  I had been on the phone with a guy.  We had been talking for awhile.  Then I saw the headlights from my dad's car.  I quickly hung up the phone and leaped into bed.  I'll be damned if he didn't notice the phone cord swinging back and forth when he walked through the door.  Since I was never in trouble, I wasn't grounded or anything, but he gave me "the look" and said, "don't ever let me catch you on the phone this late again".  Sigh.


I also didn't have a curfew.  Even before cell phones, my parents always knew where I was and who I was with.  As long as I told them when I would be home, I could stay out as late as I wanted, within reason.  Well, one early summer night I was hanging out with some friends (including the young man who caused me trouble by being on the phone so late in that prior incident) and I didn't want to go home.  We weren't doing anything except talking and hanging out, but I blew through the time I said I would be home.  My mother was furious with me when I got home.  So every time I hear "End of the Innocence", I think of that particular moment in high school, as well as that particular guy (he deserves his own post some day, but I'm not ready to write that one yet).  I even remember what I was wearing that day, which is why I think this song has stuck with me for so long. 

Oh college.  College, college, college.  My freshman year I wore out my Alanis Morristte CD.  I played that over and over and over again.  I don't know why, apart from it being good music.  It's not like the Angry Girl Thing spoke to me on some level.  I wasn't an Angry Girl.  I wasn't even Confused Girl.  I just really liked the music.  "You Oughta Know"

"Come on Barbie, let's go party".  Always, always, always reminds me of the summer before Junior year.  I was on the Orientation Committee and we had so much fun that summer.  we had a really great group of people on the committee and we just clicked so well.  Whenever I hear "Barbie Girl", I can still hear Mark singing "Come on Barbie, let's go party."

 

My senior year.  TLC, "No Scrubs".  We played this on BLAST while we would get ready to go out.  This and "Bust a Move".  And "The Safety Dance".  I hear "No Scrubs" and I go back to those nights in TH 121.

So, the karaoke moment.  I was in grad school.  At the time I was the NACURH chairperson.  We were in Colorado for our winter site visit and meeting.  We stayed at the hotel on campus. (Which was totally gorgeous and being the top female exec, and my two ADs being guys, I had my own en suite lodging.  It was huge and glorious, and D and Patrick were jealous.  I think my bathroom was bigger than their whole room.  Sigh.)  One of the nights we were there the conference staff arranged a karaoke night.  I really dislike karaoke.  Really dislike it.  I don't like being "out there".  I know people who are musical performers and they have the perfect personality for it.  It is completely them.  I'm just not that person.  But in the spirit of team building, I allowed myself to be coerced to play the role of Posh Spice.  Yes dear friends, I sang "Wannabe" with four other girls.

If given the choice, I will always choose music over anything else while driving.  Music>NPR.  Music>Audio books.  Music>Silence.  Long car rides?  I'm hoarse by the time I get where I'm going because I sing-a-long to everything.  And if I'm alone in the car?  It's loud.  My playlist is as eclectic as the songs here - Fleetwood Mac, Britney Spears, Limp Bizkit, April Smith, and Nicki Minaj are currently in rotation along with Gotye, Bill Haley, Katy Perry, and One Direction.  I still listen to the Beatles.  And Meatloaf.  And all the music of my childhood.  It's almost like a mood ring sometimes. If I'm feeling nostalgic or angry or happy.  Usually my current music selection speaks to what I'm feeling.  


What are some of your music memories?