Music, Memories & Prompts
How does music grab you and why?
Music has a place in most people’s lives. It stirs up memories, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly pun intended. As a child, music wasn’t a massive part of my life. White Horses was my limit and was the first and possibly only vinyl single I ever brought. I was far more interested in being on a horse than inside listening to music. I progressed in my teenage years, frequenting a few clubs such as Dingwalls and The Marquee Club. I met John, my husband, because, with a group of friends, we helped run Jackson’s Lane Rock Club. Happy, carefree days.
Our ability to listen to music was very restricted when I was younger. Record players, TV or the radio were the only options. When we spent Sundays with my father, we listened to the top ten for the week in the car on the way home, waiting until we knew who was number 1 before he let us out at the station. The Pick of The Pops tune was recognisable in its own right. We didn’t have mobile phones or MP3 players for streaming. I remember my very first portable device, a cassette player, a red Sony Walkman - the tapes kept getting chewed. You would often see chewed up tape from cassettes on the side of the road, from frustrated drivers slinging it out of the window. Hunt & Hawk has a good article, The History of Portable Music, which I will leave there. Who remembers Ghetto Blasters? CDS and CD players were a short lived phenomena.
My music tastes have always been eclectic, random, and eccentric, like the rest of me. I am convinced John thought I was a musical heathen. I loved Tubular Bells, Family, Simon & Garfunkel and The Bee Gees in their very early days. Recently, I have been listening to Taylor Swift as she blasts out of my car. Music is my go to in the car. Two James Blunt songs get me every time. No Bravery and Dark Thoughts. The theme music from Platoon, Adagio for Strings is another one.
There are so many songs and musicians l love, Melody Gadot, Jim Croce, Rag n Bone Man, Bruce Springsteen, Anastasia, Sheryl Crow, Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, ZZ Top, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Keane, The Killers, Tori Amos, The Foo Fighters, STOP 🛑 Linney……
Music gets my memory brain cells firing. One is Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma. We were all travelling up to see friends in Sheffield. Sarah and George were bickering in the back full blast. John threatened them with Nessun Dorma unless the shut up. They didn’t. He did, on loop at full volume, until they did. It only took two goes. I was happy I loved the song. Yet, I am not a great classical music person.
They are songs that make me sad for reasons Time in a Bottle, Jim Croce. Songs that take me right back Puppet on a String Sandie Shaw - Sandie Shaw started me off on my bare foot career. I’d still rather be shoeless. Songs that make me happy and feel carefree Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen.
If the rabbits hadn't been a bit annoyed about my recent incursion into their warren this would be a full blown article, rather than a springboard for journaling prompts. I will leave you with this academic article Music-Evoked Emotions—Current Studies from the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience. It is a subject I will put away for a future Substack, when the rabbits are open for business again.
What is the first song you can remember? What emotions does it create?
What are your teenage memories of music?
What does music mean to you? - not an easy question this one.
What is your favourite piece/s of music and why?
There are loads more I suggest as prompts but I will leave it there. You may think of your own. You can always add them to comments.
If you have enjoyed my pondering and haven’t already please subscribe and share with others. My posts are free to all.
I can't play any instruments but listening to music has been my greatest passion for as long as I can remember.
By the time I became a teenager I must have owned about 100 45 RPM records. My friends gathered at my house and we would play records and dance for hours. I was still living just outside Detroit when Motown began producing fantastic music.
As I made my way to becoming an elderly gentleman I gathered, especially saving favorites I filed online, a great history of various genres of American music with a good bit of British talents mixed in.
I loved dancing, too.
I had to click on Puppet on a String! What memories. My matriculation years - my first efforts at growing up, readying for university. First steady boyfriend. Morphing from child to woman.
I have such an eclectic music love - so much of my parents' music from the 40's and 50's is loved, classics, pop, anything and everything. And yes, it will often press buttons and memories will flood in.