Music Marks Our Lives

[EC]

So this morning we left for work early because we had to take the dog to the vet.  It's kind of cool out, and the rain is misty.  And I was sitting in the car drinking coffee from my pink carry-mug that I bought at Mammoth Cave national park last year thinking about how much it felt like I was on my road trip.  Anybody who's been on this board for a while will remember that me and Jen went on a big 3 week road/camping trip that ended in Bonnaroo last year.  

So I'm thinkin' about that.  We left about this time last year.  And then it makes you think about all the stuff that's happened in the year since then.  And what's weird is that I decided to bring all my mmj records to work today.  I mean, that's not so weird, but it's all kind of really making me think.

So we just put At Dawn on, and I can literally see the southern highways in front of me with that way that they are with all the trees and roundness on the edges.  Music makes me have the most vivid memories.  I think music affects me more than smell does, and smell's supposed to recall the most vivid memories.

I'm also thinking about how mmj has been the backdrop to a lot of major events in my life for the past couple of years.  That's just the way it's happened.  And maybe that's why I love this band so much.  I mean, I love the music.  That's how it all started.  But now it's all inside me because it's connected to so many memories and milestones.  

Anyhow.  I sure am thinking about a lot of things this morning.  Man alive.

[EC]

Sorry.  I meant to be more inclusive here.  As strangulation is drawing to a close, what kind of things do y'all notice about music and how you feel.  Not necessarily with this band (although, I'm sure everyone has neat individual connections), but..  what am I saying...

Don't you love music?

articulation has jumped out the window this morning.  I miss Jen.

[primushead]

Don't you love music?

I DIG MUSIC!!!!!

[marktwain]

My wife and I were just talking last night about that horrible song, "I just died in your arms tonight..." and how, despite its crappiness, she likes to hear it because it reminds her of a vacation she took with her family when she was a kid.

[Chills]

what kind of things do y'all notice about music and how you feel.  

Mmm. Just watched Van Morrison singing Caravan in The Last Waltz. That put a smile on my face.

[tomEisenbraun]

probably one of my most vivid memories associated with the jacket, oh woah, there's two of em. but the first i had was from It Still Moves. okay, three now that i think of it.

but the end of that album, the Steam Engine/One In The Same combo.

the first memory is from this time i went out to meet this promoter in somewhere i'd never been. she was i think a year older than me in high school (i was a junior, and i had just gotten my license) and since i had justg gotten my license, i wasn't o great at navigating, much less just general driving experience.

so i go out to meet her and her friends at this show they put on, and decide to go get food with em afterwards. my mother told me distinctly to come home after the show, and i think she didn't like the whole scenario. i met this girl online and she got kind of attached to me. i just wanted a promoter in the area who could help me play music places. so i follow these people. and we have to go drop someone off and we put the girl who has apparently formed an online crush on me in my car. which is awkward. and i keep following them through towns i've never seen with unfamliar streetlights (i just threw that in because it just presented itself, and i think it will make a good lyric, if i remember it). and anyways, we wind up at a white castle in a place i've never even heard of.

i realize it's much later than when the show ended, and i have no idea how to get home. so i follow this girl to her house and she mapquests me how to get back to my house, and i leave (quite awkwardly) and try to get through this town i've never been through in the chicago suburbs.  i can't even remember the name right now. but i can remember the curves of the road and getting lost trying to find the right turn to take because mapquest said the wrong thing or something or i just sucked at driving. anyways, i take a turn in what i think might be the right direction, just praying i'll find a cop so i can ask him how to get back to 55 and i'm on the verge of tears because i have no clue where i am or how to get back to anywhere i know and i don't have a cell phone to call my mother and no way to get a hold of anyone who might be able to get me out.

it still moves had been playing in the background this whole time.

so i take this turn to where i think i should be going and as i'm freaking out, i see a cop, just parked behind a stop sign and sitting. i think i cheered out loud. i pulled in behind him and got out and asked him how to get to 55 and he told me i was on the right road and i thanked him profusely and got back in my car and at least half my fear was alleviated.

but then i began realizing that it was 12:15 or so and my curfew was definitely midnight, and i was certainly at least 45 minutes from home and i have no cell phone to tell my mom i'm not dead and that i'm on my way home. and as i'm in the middle of all of this...

...take your money and your druuuuuugs...

and steam engine carried me away (suffice to say, i still don't know if that was the first time i "got" that song) and it carried me away into One In The Same, and feeling as sick and scared and utterly lonely (that night with some really weird people got me feeling quite lonely)...and that night One In The Same made complete sense to me. it's that loneliness. some people hate this song, but there times when it makes complete sense, and it is in that complete defeat and scared loneliness where it makes that sense. and i will always think of that dark stretch of highway where i first really "heard" that song whenever i hear it now. steam engine sometimes too, but

"all the way back home
how long did it seeeeeeeem?"

resonated with me right then and there, and kind of defines that song for me now...

just my 2 cents, give or take a dollar.

[sweatboard]

Getting Lost is like the best way to find yourself sometimes.  When music makes sense out of everything that doesn't make any sense at all.........it starts doing it's job, and then we cry and shiver and feel like, "Fuck, mabey I'm not so bad after all."........... and the relationship that someone like Jim has with us is so important in both directions that we keep each other afloat, and that is beautiful and special.  We wake up the next morning and feel stronger........both of us.  ;)  I'm sure Jim smiles at Tom's story and it means as much to him as it did Tom.  I'm going to cry now.

[TEO]

Music gives me a sense of focus that brings my energy up. Listened to Dondante NWU version while in shower this morning and I try to see the guys totally absorbed in their performance. When I report to work, the first thing I do is get my I-tunes going. All that I hear reminds me of who I really am outside of work and that gives me the strength to encounter the problems with a more positive outlook. Hard to put into words, but I listen to music that brings me up and makes me feel good.
When I am focusing on that one song, daily problems that bug me go away!

[Chills]

probably one of my most vivid memories associated with the jacket, oh woah, there's two of em. but the first i had was from It Still Moves. okay, three now that i think of it.

but the end of that album, the Steam Engine/One In The Same combo.

the first memory is from this time i went out to meet this promoter in somewhere i'd never been. she was i think a year older than me in high school (i was a junior, and i had just gotten my license) and since i had justg gotten my license, i wasn't o great at navigating, much less just general driving experience.

so i go out to meet her and her friends at this show they put on, and decide to go get food with em afterwards. my mother told me distinctly to come home after the show, and i think she didn't like the whole scenario. i met this girl online and she got kind of attached to me. i just wanted a promoter in the area who could help me play music places. so i follow these people. and we have to go drop someone off and we put the girl who has apparently formed an online crush on me in my car. which is awkward. and i keep following them through towns i've never seen with unfamliar streetlights (i just threw that in because it just presented itself, and i think it will make a good lyric, if i remember it). and anyways, we wind up at a white castle in a place i've never even heard of.

i realize it's much later than when the show ended, and i have no idea how to get home. so i follow this girl to her house and she mapquests me how to get back to my house, and i leave (quite awkwardly) and try to get through this town i've never been through in the chicago suburbs.  i can't even remember the name right now. but i can remember the curves of the road and getting lost trying to find the right turn to take because mapquest said the wrong thing or something or i just sucked at driving. anyways, i take a turn in what i think might be the right direction, just praying i'll find a cop so i can ask him how to get back to 55 and i'm on the verge of tears because i have no clue where i am or how to get back to anywhere i know and i don't have a cell phone to call my mother and no way to get a hold of anyone who might be able to get me out.

it still moves had been playing in the background this whole time.

so i take this turn to where i think i should be going and as i'm freaking out, i see a cop, just parked behind a stop sign and sitting. i think i cheered out loud. i pulled in behind him and got out and asked him how to get to 55 and he told me i was on the right road and i thanked him profusely and got back in my car and at least half my fear was alleviated.

but then i began realizing that it was 12:15 or so and my curfew was definitely midnight, and i was certainly at least 45 minutes from home and i have no cell phone to tell my mom i'm not dead and that i'm on my way home. and as i'm in the middle of all of this...

...take your money and your druuuuuugs...

and steam engine carried me away (suffice to say, i still don't know if that was the first time i "got" that song) and it carried me away into One In The Same, and feeling as sick and scared and utterly lonely (that night with some really weird people got me feeling quite lonely)...and that night One In The Same made complete sense to me. it's that loneliness. some people hate this song, but there times when it makes complete sense, and it is in that complete defeat and scared loneliness where it makes that sense. and i will always think of that dark stretch of highway where i first really "heard" that song whenever i hear it now. steam engine sometimes too, but

"all the way back home
how long did it seeeeeeeem?"

resonated with me right then and there, and kind of defines that song for me now...

just my 2 cents, give or take a dollar.

Great story.

[EC]

Music gives me a sense of focus that brings my energy up. Listened to Dondante NWU version while in shower this morning and I try to see the guys totally absorbed in their performance. When I report to work, the first thing I do is get my I-tunes going. All that I hear reminds me of who I really am outside of work and that gives me the strength to encounter the problems with a more positive outlook. Hard to put into words, but I listen to music that brings me up and makes me feel good.
When I am focusing on that one song, daily problems that bug me go away!

i totally hear you on the reminding you who you are outside of work part.  i also find that when my brain is spinning out of control and won't let me be quiet, i have to put on the headphones, and it drowns out the noise.  

[wellfleet]

there are some songs and defintely some smells that bring me right back to some very strong memories. they say that smell is strongly attached to memories.

every time i listen to neil young's "this town" i think about meeting my husband for the first time in person (we met on-line) and sharing our first ever kiss to that song.

paul simon's Graceland in its entirety reminds me of being about 6 or 7 because i was obsessed with the tape and played it a million times.

[TEO]

i totally hear you on the reminding you who you are outside of work part.  i also find that when my brain is spinning out of control and won't let me be quiet, i have to put on the headphones, and it drowns out the noise.  

A good set of headphones always helps!

[MMJ_fanatic]

It is so easy for a song to come on and take me to a time and place other than now and it happens so seamlessly and instantaneously that its often surprising and disorienting... 8)

[ycartrob]

there'a a teeny weeny part of my brain that recalls listening to Hey Jude on a 45 back when I was like 5 years old. I can remember watching the apple label go 'round and 'round...and when I hear that song now I am transported back to 1969 and spend milliseconds in these thoughts and feelings that quickly collapse into nothing and are instantly stored back away.

Very neat.

[wellfleet]

that's a way cool memory...

[EC]

there'a a teeny weeny part of my brain that recalls listening to Hey Jude on a 45 back when I was like 5 years old. I can remember watching the apple label go 'round and 'round...and when I hear that song now I am transported back to 1969 and spend milliseconds in these thoughts and feelings that quickly collapse into nothing and are instantly stored back away.

Very neat.

I'm one of those weird people who has early, early memories.  Like crib memories.  It could very well be that I made them up, but I kind of don't think so.  I definitely remember the time my Mom brought a box home from my Grandma and Grandpa's with all her old 45's in it.  I had just got a little red record player from Santa.  I think I was four.  Hey Jude was definitely on there.  Can't remember what the b-side was.  Fats Domino, lots of 50's slowdance songs, He's a Rebel, Ahab the Arab, The Wanderer, man.  I think that's why I love the MMJ pre-show music so much.  That, and it gets you in a light dancey mood.