Thursday, June 30, 2005

audio groove

it never ceases to amaze me how you can associate a particular song with a particular time of your life. for me, music is a very strong stimulant for my memory and times gove past. i'm not talking about yonks liek 20 years ago or anywhere near that far back (am not that ancient).

the songs i remember take me back to college or at most, secondary school days. anything more than that and the years tend to blur together. i could hear a certain song on the radio and my goosebumps are activated and i'm hurled back 10 years ago into A-levels days. I can even remember what occassions they were, who was there and what i was feeling then. It's uncanny and can be quite frightening, i admit.

here's a list of songs that jive my goosebumps:

Simply Red:
For Your Babies
A-levels, WMU sunway days. Hanging out with the guys and especially, there was one particular night we were out clubbing with eugene (fatty) and they played the dance version of this song. i remember fatty saying something about mick hucknall's eyes and how they were the most exceptionally blue eyes there are. and i remember myself wondering, 'why is he talking about mick hucknall's eyes? is this a guy thing that i don't know anything about?'.

Stars
reminds me of A-levels and the guys. more of the guys and derrick in particular. have no idea why but i think someone mentioned it was one of his favourite songs...

Breathe: Hands to Heaven
A major goosebumper, this one. winter of '95. we'd just begun hanging around with the guys: loong, kit, derrick, chee chuan, rizal, david, et al. it was on the way to the movies near crossroads mall at westnedge. i can't recall who was driving but i was stuck in the back with the guys and almost scrunched into a corner. then the song came on and i moaned and announced to everyone that i absolutely loved the song and had this feeling in the pit of my stomach. almost like a stomach ache. i remember coz the guys liked the song too (they were into the boyband, a cappella stage).

Gin Blossoms: Hey Jealousy, Allison Road, Found Out About You
will take me back to when i first arrived at Western in Kalamazoo. especially living in the dorms and the crisp, cold air of winter. of having mtv on the tv most of the time, of visiting the then-boyfriend and staying over in his room. of trudging from the halls to classes in the freezing cold. of camaraderie with the gals in our rooms. mostly recollections of mtv.

Cranberries:
Dreams & Linger
ditto the above. it was during that same time that mtv and the local stations were blasting gin blossoms that cranberries was getting as much airtime. ackley-schilling hall (wait a minute, was ackley schilling the then-boyfriend's hall??). bernhard centre.

Ode to My Family
practicing and then singing back-up for eve on ... what was that performance night??? urgh, can't remember but that's also where things sorta kinda started getting messed up in the relationship department.

GNR: Sweet Child of Mine, November Rain
WMU at the new campus of sunway college at sunway. at that time, it was so new, we could smell the paint and breathe the dust. november rain especially reminds me of the madd club performance we did at the british council. i didn't perform. i helped organize but i remember timothy & band performing november rain and ms. andrea and her drama people doing harry connick jr.'s heavenly. it was less than, but i've loved that song ever since.

Art Garfunkel's So in Love
evie, sheila and me doing renditions of that song on guitar with the madd club at the old sunway campus. i can't remember what for, but we were raising funds. and we were going around the canteen area holding up victims and subjecting them to our harmonised version of that song. "so in love are we two, we just don't know what to do, so in love, so much in looooooove....!!" and of course, eve and sheila fighting to do seconds while me with the less than perfect voice singing lead.

UB40:
Kingston Town
my first crush in college: kingston. urgh, it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. he was skinny and pale and...well, kinda arrogant. but i was young then...

Red Red Wine
party at honey's place in d'sara kim. first time i met...shit! what's his name??? anyway, we were dancing to red red wine and took a break to have a piece of b'day cake. honey's uncle (for the life of me i don't know why) slipped a piece of candle into ???'s cake. so halfway eating and talking to me, ??? as graciously as he can spits out the candle and later that night i learned that honey's uncle had slipped the candle in on purpose to see if ??? would notice. he thought ??? was so into our conversation he may not notice. oh well...

Blind Melon: No Rain
another one of those countless songs that remind me of my early days at Western. Ackley-Schilling, my first winter, my first time out of the country for a long period of time without the parents and without supervision. FREEDOM!!!




there's more and as i go along or when any particular melodies strike me, i'll take the liberty of writing down those memories...

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