So I randomly get a topic to write about and today’s prompt is
Write about the three most important songs in your life — what do they mean to you
Goodness gracious me… my first thought is I don’t have any songs that are important in my life… I close my eyes and all of a sudden songs flood into my mind. I am in a completely quiet room yet all I can hear is songs. Music is a pretty powerful tool and seems to be a memory enhancer…..
I am in my old local supermarket in the aisles and I hear our wedding song, well one of our wedding songs. It is on our wedding video and I see the guests arrive, some of the people who came to our wedding have passed away, some are no longer in our lives because of circumstances over the last eight years have changed all of us so much. I never remember the song, but I do remember it as soon as it comes on the radio. It always stops me in my tracks. It is a reflective song for me and takes me to a deep moment of thinking. It reminds me to be grateful and also to remember that we have come so far and faced so much. The church we married in claimed lives in the February earthquake.
The next song is Angel – it is Mandy Pickering version that takes has me running my story of the Christchurch Earthquakes like a video photo album in my head. It was the song that played on the anniversary of the earthquakes and Mum, Nana and I were outside with our plants and turtles, I had just returned from Outward Bound, and had also attended an Jason Pickerings launch of his beautiful guitars crafted from recycled wood from the Chch Earthquakes. It was a moving night, a moving month and this song touched me deeply and still does. Anniversary day mum, me and Nana went to Raspberry Café for dessert, Riwai and Dad were working and Kirsty was celebrating her birthday in Wellington. Gosh now my head is full of Que Sera Sera, it was Nans choice for her funeral. I am now full of childhood memories of Prossers Road, us running around playing with the consumer magazines, cars and the orange box of buttons that I made into families and communities on the floor of the bedrooms. Now I am in the lounge with my sister, we are in dresses that I know we wore and wore but I can’t quite see the colour, I just see us marching, and dancing to the King and I, singing at the top of our voices, now we are singing, You’re a pink toothbrush, I’m a blue toothbrush…… Now we are in the back of the old Vauxhall Victor singing as a family, Over land or sea or foam…. I think we had the words wrong all these years…. Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile smile… Oh when the saints, go marching in oh when the saints go marching in…. now we are round the piano and dad has his school songs book out, it is blue with marching girls on it and we love it when he plays. Ha, now we are playing the Platters on very slow LP – we call it the Pig song. I am transported to the Avon River, Christmas Eve, with our old car blankets, and tapers burning away as we sing Christmas Carols, Dad has disappeared and I remember that this memory was because he disappeared to buy Mum the album for Christmas.
If someone had asked me if music was part of my life, I would have said No, the truth is music has been a huge part of my life. Music is a great memory provoker and can take you on a journey if you clear your mind and let the music take over……
Van Morrison was mine and Riwai’s wedding dance but then this music takes me to painting a house in the snow in Scotland in 1999. Lemon Tree takes me to Oludeniz, Turkey where they played the song for happy hour, Clowns to the Left of me, Jokers to the right and I am with Donna and Anne drinking one quid sambuka at an Aussie Bar in Covent Garden. Maddison Square Garden is singing Murder on the Dance Floor and I am in Jacksons on George…. Now Khe San is playing and I am at the Vegemite Bar in Channakale before Anzac Day 1999…. And then in my suit and sneakers coming out of Sailor Thai with Mary and someone is playing it live at the Observer in the Rocks…. What a trip down memory lane and it only feels like the beginning… I have Red Hot Chilli Peppers and I am in Virgin near Piccadilly Circus with Emma and all our bonus money to spend on CD;s…. Californication is my first CD … I remember asking the Aussie Boys on Level 9 of IBD Goldmans Sachs what to buy as I was not a music buff……… What a lifetime ago… I have Secret Garden playing in my tape recorder as I travel around my Top Deck Tour through the Eastern Block and now we are on a bus and The African Jazz Band is playing as we drive the Garden Route in South Africa… I am now singing at the top of my lungs (a little intoxicated) MY WAY…. As we come out of a random bar in Istanbul…. Which is replayed years later at the dodgy bar around the grand piano up the ever so grand stairs at the bar that I can not remember the name in Crows Nest. With cockles and mussels alive alive oh! Gosh Molly Malone…..would you beleive it! Ha…. I was suppose to be looking for three songs and half an hour later I have been half way around the world….Now I am sitting under the stars listing to Vanessa Amarosi Live at Hyde Park in Sydney… Oh gosh what a memory – I am just You Tubed it! I wasn’t at this concert but I did hear her sing live – It was my divorce song…. Absolutely Everyone….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cpDu3B6cYs
WOW! My life took a pretty great turn because three years later I met my soul mate…and the song matches us perfectly!!!
Oh look at that I just remembered our wedding song memory .. Deciphering Me – Brook Fraser. The mind is a very powerful tool. This song evokes such beautiful memories, love and a sense of happiness and calm for both of us. I have found the YouTube for this song too and she is stunning with a pure voice…. What a perfect memory to finish on and the day after our eight years anniversary. So what are your three songs? I hope you have as much fun and a great trip down memory lane like I did… Enjoy
C x