Waxing all Nostalgic

Ben is really into singing lately. Suddenly all the songs I sang to him since birth, are coming out of him. My latest favorite thing that he does is try to sing along with the theme songs from various PBS shows. He knows a couple, has a hard time keeping up with the speed of them, but others, he doesn't know at all and has no problem trying to sing along. So it turns into this loud, sing-songy, burble. Which is something that I have enjoyed entirely, since my youth.

In high school, I had a friend who desperately wanted to have more in common with me than another friend. I'm not just saying, that, there was actually a 4 day fight, complete with folded notes to support this claim, of who was a better friend with more in common. I was a goddess among my peers. I still vividly remember sitting at the cafeteria table and a song came on the jukebox (yes, in Independence Missouri, we had a "jukebox" in our cafeteria. It came complete with weekly letters to the school paper from the "cowboys" that not enough country was played to represent, and objections from the "freaks" that Metallica wasn't blasted often enough). I exclaimed how I loved this song and started singing along. She immediately chimed in that she loved it too and started "singing" along. It was much like Ben's attempts to sing along with the sloth from Big Big World. She always nailed the last word, and did so with gusto. To this day, I enjoy such performances immensely.

The stages of our lives are marked by songs of the time. Many of them we can still feel how we felt the first time we heard them. What is it about music that can prompt such intense feelings of nostalgia? One strain of Eric Carmen suggesting I turn my radio up and it Makes Me Lose Control. I'm back at 17, the weather is always perfect and my spirits are high. George Strait Crossing his Heart and promising too, takes me back to my greasy job at Pizza Hut where the pay was low and the pick-up lines were lower, but I didn't have a car payment, or a weight problem, or $3 gas, or guilt about whether I'm doing enough because I was FABULOUS. I'd give anything on some days for Jon Bon Jovi to lay me down in a Bed of Roses. That has nothing to do with music nostalgia, I'd really just like that.

So, I've thought of a few songs that mark different stages in my life.
My first year of college I decided to research Neil Diamond, my sister had always loved him and I wanted to see what all the fuss was. I discovered quickly. That sexy low-voice of Sweet Caroline fame won me over almost immediately. It was a double bonus that he sang my favorite UB40 song, long before they did. Who knew? I went to the library the last few weeks of my freshman year and brought home like 7 Neil Diamond CDs and listened to them all in one day. To this day, any Neil Diamond song takes me back to that ranch house basement apartment that helped create so many fond memories. I also listened to Air Supply Makin' Love outta nothin' at all like 72 thousand times in a period of a month. I still love that song. I often sound like Ben when I try to sing along cuz some of those words just don't make sense. Freshman year of college is where I met one of my dearest friends and so those songs take me back to a happy place where a cherished friendship began. She wasn't necessarily involved in all this marathon music listening, but the two are inextricably connected in my mind.

I first heard Celine Dion's Because You Loved Me on my mission. For some reason, that song moved me. We weren't supposed to listen to the radio, but one naughty day driving around in a minivan someone turned it on and that song was on. I begged to leave it playing. I was unaware of the new technology of putting radio controls in the back of vans and the girls in the back had a blast at my expense. My Aussie friend started messing with the tuner and the volume, and after switching it back 2 or 3 times I wondered aloud what was wrong with the radio. Analiese suggested it was a sign from God and I couldn't explain it, so I fell for it and turned it off. She kept a straight face for quite some time; but lost it when I became visibly distressed by this sign that God didn't want me listening to Celine on my mission. That song can still take me back to those days of strict discipline and pining for a "forbidden" song, and how much fun we could have with just the simplest thing.

James Taylor---reminds me of my brother Jonathan
DMX Up In Here---reminds me of my roommate Fanua, she said I brought whole new meaning to that song when I sang it. I only know the refrain.
Belinda Carlisle brings back all my teen angst.
Nobody by Sylvia reminds me of my sister Sara because 20 years later, we can still belt it word for word on command. Nobody ever actually commands it though. Your loss folks.
Any 2000-2003 good country song reminds me of my friend Dawn. I don't know why Dawn, they just do. We used to decipher strange lyrics for each other. I was once completely stumped by Kenny Chesney's "In our rock and roll t-shirts and our tipping at the bat at the youth" Dawn kindly informed it was "In our rock and roll t-shirts and our typically bad attitudes". That's what friends are for.
And the song that still melts my heart and just makes me feel everything is as it should be, no matter where I am in life, Shawn Colvin's "Never Saw Blue Like That".
The first time Jay reached over and took my hand, the words of that song flooded my mind. If there were ever a movie about me and Julianne Moore is me and Noah Wyle is Jay and they play this scene at a church fireside and both our moms are just a few seats away and he subtly, gently, and naturally takes my hand in his, we'll hear....And it feels like now, And it feels always, And it feels like coming home...
It still does.