This is completely off-topic from the subject about which I’m about to write, but I feel compelled to mention that two of the grapes in my Sunkist Apples & Grapes Fun Fruit pack taste remarkably like red wine. I know that sounds a little “duh” but how often do grapes actually taste like wine tastes? They normally taste like grapes. In fact, in my Fun Fruit packs, they normally taste like grapes with a hint of apple. I think it’s weird and a little frightening, leading me to wonder how long those particular grapes have been around. It makes me uncomfortable. Grapes shouldn’t taste like wine. Unless it’s a white grape that tastes like champagne. Yum.
Anyway.
I’m going to say something you’ve heard a hundred times before but, much like everyone else, I think I mean it more than everyone else: I love music. We all – make that 3 strangely wine-tasting grapes – think we love music more than the next guy. I don’t feel like I have to state my case to prove that I love music more than all others, but suffice it to say that music plays an integral part of my ability to be happy and content throughout the day. If I’m driving, I want music. If I’m working on something around the house, I want music. If I’m wrapping presents, I want music. If I’m sitting at my desk, I want music. If given the choice between music and no music, I’m going to choose music in most situations. My brother is the same way, and I believe my dad is too. You can take away the TV, but do NOT take away things that make or play music. Or white noise. But that too is off-topic. Suffice it to say, let me keep my music and my fans.
Many of my memories are spurred by music. Some come from smells, some by similar circumstances as the memory itself and of course those spawned by someone else talking about a particular event. But oftentimes, it’s music that takes me back. My growing up has been so heavily associated with music that certain songs can literally transport me to a certain time and place. I’m not talking about songs that remind you of something or someone. We all have tons of those. Iconz’s “Get F*cked Up” reminds me of the sophomore beach week. LL Cool J’s “Doin It” reminds me of hanging out with my friend, Ashleigh who would sing “…matter ‘fact I can’t wait for ya cane to rain” with her eyes shut. Alanna Myles’s “Black Velvet” reminds me of my Mommie, Sensefield’s “Save Yourself” reminds me of my maid of honor, and Peter Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers” reminds me of making my cousin Amber laugh. I’ve listed only positive ones, but there are definitely the songs that remind you of unpleasant or uncomfortable things. Hearing George Strait’s “Carried Away,” Tim McGraw & Faith Hill’s “It’s Your Love” and Garth Brooks’s “The Red Strokes” give me incredible anxiety and I’ll change the song faster than you can say “poor teenage choices.” With a few exceptions, though, these are all great memories and I love the reminders.
That’s not QUITE what I’m talking about though. What I’m talking about are the songs that can instantly put you back in a certain place, sometimes even at a certain time. These are the songs that can make me forget what I’m doing and I can actually see the scene in my peripheral vision, I can hear sounds as they happened, and I can even smell where I am a lot times. I can’t tell you why certain songs seem to have stronger effects on me than others, but I get so happy when it happens. Most of the time, the song will whisk me away every single time. A few have to come up randomly without me choosing it. And much like the “minor reminder songs,” there are negatives ones as well. Those I usually have to change quite quickly AND put on a happy reminder song. You don’t ALWAYS want to be teleported (I'm looking at you, Spin Doctors's "Two Princes"). Thankfully, those are scarce and I have many more happy reminder songs.
Here are my strongest Teleportation Songs. These songs can make me feel like I'm in a completely different place and/or time from where I am for a second and they will do so every single time I hear them:
1. Genesis’s “Tonight, Tonight Tonight”: This one doesn’t have to come on randomly. I can make this one happen. When I want to be in the late 1980s, crossing the Wright Memorial Bridge to the Outer Banks on a Friday night, riding in Big Buddy with my still-married parents, being followed by my aunt, uncle and cousin, on the way to our first beach house, I put this song on. I can smell the salt air and I can hear and feel the rhythmic bumps that used to define that bridge (duh-dum, duh-dum, duh-dum…always woke up our cat, Peaches). I can feel that excitement of going to the beach for the weekend and hanging out with my most favorite cousin. I can feel the excitement of spending time with her and not having my brother pick on me as much. I can picture the windowless child molester van with wood paneling and a speaker wall behind the seatbelt-less seat all around me and I can see the cat fur in the hole at the top of the speaker wall from where the cats crawled through (seriously, how did they get up there from the back of the van?). I’m looking at the interior of the van around me from the carpeted floor, because that was cooler than sitting in the seat. This one is probably my strongest Teleportation Song and I have to fight myself from “using” it too often. It’s one of my favorite songs in the world because of its ability to put me back smack in the middle of the one of the happiest times in my childhood. And because it’s a great song.
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers’s “Scar Tissue”: This one’s a little less specific, but no less dramatic. This reminds me of first semester of freshman year of college. When this song comes on, I’m 18 years old and I’m either driving around my then-boyfriend’s dad’s little town while MOH sings about the “birds of Cher,” driving home from college on a late Friday afternoon as the sun is setting over the mountains behind our football stadium, or I’m sitting in Deet’s Place watching a friend of ours sing this song in a karaoke show. When I’m driving home, I can remember the colors of the sunset with incredible richness and I can remember the interior of my car and smelling the crisp fall mountain air while my 1988 Chevy Corsica's headliner sat about a quarter of an inch from the top of my head. I can remember that I’m looking at the football stadium and taking a right onto Southgate. When I’m in Deet’s Place, I can see the chocolate croissant in front of me and smell the place around me. I know exactly which table we’re at and I know I’m going to be getting some cookies & cream ice cream soon. I can also hear the Fugees’s “Killing Me Softly” for the 3rd time and see these stupid chicks doing this stupid dance that made no sense at all. Regardless of the exact memory, I can feel that discomfort of being away for the first time and the conflicted feelings I had of enjoying myself so much but also missing home…and thinking I wasn’t supposed to be enjoying myself because I was supposed to be missing my then-boyfriend who was terrifically mad at me for going to the school when he couldn’t yet. I know when I hear “Scar Tissue” I’m going to be a freshman in college again for a few minutes. I’m going to vividly remember my dorm room, move-in day, the sidewalks and “shallow” stairs of campus, and my friend Amanda singing the part of “Around the World” where Anthony Kiedis doesn’t actually sing real words and I’m laughing hysterically. I don’t love the song, but I will listen to every single second of it. With a smile on my face.
3. Metallica’s “Until it Sleeps”: Not my favorite Metallica song. Not even close. Not my favorite Metallica album (WTF, they cut their hair?!). But I usually will not change this song when it comes on. When “Until it Sleeps” starts, I’m across the street at my friend Mikey’s house and my brother is washing his early 80s Blazer when he starts to blare Metallica’s new single from their first album in years, which my brother and I have anxiously awaited. It’s almost the end of freshman year of high school and I’m so happy because I hate my high school and I’m starting the weekend with my best friend and I’m only a few weeks away from the most fun summer I ever had before college. That was a summer of endless nights hanging in Mikey’s box van, working on his dirtbike (a KTM piece of crap), and learning from Wes (who had a much nicer Suzuki 250) that you can’t have just one taco from Taco Bell. Nor can you fix a floppy rear fender with just a little duct tape. “Until it Sleeps” will take me right back there, in a horrible dress that I never should have been wearing and I totally should have listened to my mom about that one. I can even tell you that it’s late afternoon on a Friday, pretty sunny and warm. I’m also super-stoked that my brother is talking to me like a person and not an annoying little sister. It’s a good day.
4. 702’s “Steelo”: I’m a sophomore in high school, riding in my cousin’s dark grey Honda Prelude with the sunroof open and we’re taking a left out of the high school onto the main road. We’re going to sing this, Foxxy Brown’s “Ill Na Na” and Lil Kim’s “No Time” during the 7 minutes it takes to get me home. And we’re going to laugh. And I’m wearing a shimmery purple velvet turtleneck atrocity with short sleeves that I should have not have been wearing. I'm looking at my cousin's really pretty emerald class ring, thinking about how much I can't wait to order MY class ring because class rings are like so cool.
5. Enrique Iglesias’s “Hero”: Picture it: College town. 2002. It’s about one in the morning and you’re in the Wendy’s drive-thru getting chicken nuggets and fries that will leave you with roughly $6.00 in your checking account but you don’t care because you need to eat. You’re with your best friend and her roommate and you suddenly realize that you all know the words. And you’re all singing them. And you’re all putting the same heart and soul into the expression of song that Enrique himself pours into it, if not more so. You might end up with a sore throat later but you don’t care because you’re absolutely laughing your ass off. A few months later, you’re going to make a CD called “Fun to Sing Songs” to be played on your road trips home with your best friend and this will be song number one. You’ll never skip it. And you’ll never get tired of it. I know it doesn’t sound funny right now, but I promise it was hysterical at the time. When I hear it, I’m right there in the car in the drive thru at Wendy’s or I’m on 460 in Bedford, screaming the song at the top of my lungs between fits of laughter. And so is MOH, sitting in the front seat.
6. Toya’s “I Do”: This song is not good but I love it. When this song comes on, I’m dressed as Treat, leaving the 2nd or 3rd Halloween party that year, for which MOH and I dressed up as Trick and Treat (our best ever, by the way). It’s junior year in college and just the beginning of the most fun year of my life, following the best summer of my life. We’re being driven back to MOH’s apartment by Connecticut and remarking that that was not the best Halloween party of the year. It’s a little cool, a lot late and I’m ready to crash on the couch of pillows.
7. Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”: It’s summer of 7th grade and I’m wearing a babydoll dress with black lace-trimmed biker shorts and a pacifier necklace. I’m not lying. I think I’m dressed AWESOMELY. Just like every day before it and every day that will come after it, Mikey, Lee and Jake have come over to my dad’s house where I spent almost every day during the summers. I’m making grilled cheeses and we’re drinking massive amounts of Dr. Pepper and Mikey’s drinking his out of the mug with the see-through bottom. We’re going to watch MTV videos while playing Crazy 8s for a while and then we’ll go outside and play football. We might order pizza (why my dad gave us so much money for Papa Johns is beyond me—we ordered it a few times a week). As much as we love this song we know that our other favorite is coming up soon because MTV played the same videos all the time. With bated breath we awaited Warren G’s “Regulator.” When we saw one of these videos, we knew the next one was coming soon. For some reason though, “Black Hole Sun” actually takes me back, whereas “Regulator” more so just reminds me of the time.
They’re not necessarily the best songs (except for the number one, which just might be one of the best songs ever) but they can literally put me in a different time and place. I love these songs for that reason and at times they can truly be escape mechanisms. What I find so interesting about them is that they’re not specifically associated with an important or significant event during which these songs were played but for whatever reason, my brain latches on to them with tenacity. It’ll be interesting to see what songs do that in 20 years. Will I even like the song? Is it going to be that awful sky-full-of-lighters song I hate so much, but will remind me of the year I was engaged and I’m not going to want to change that stupid song, instead finding the need to torture myself with the song about fulfilling dreams that very few people will ever fulfill and never being the least bit inspired by listening to this guy singing about seeing a bunch of lighters from stage and how awesome life is now because I think the message is actually absolute crap and executed extremely poorly? I really hope it’s something cooler than that. I at least hope it’s like, Katy Perry, or something.
