According to science it is the sense of smell that is most closely associated with memory but to me it is sound...the sound of music. Apparently the hills are alive with it. Every stage of my life has its own soundtrack and when I hear a song from a particular era it immediately returns me to that time as well as the emotions I associate with it.

My parents tell me I was singing along with Charley Pride songs before I could talk, I still know all of them by heart...I Never Picked Cotton, Kiss an Angel Good Morning, Kaw-liga etc. It was what my parents were listening to at the time. Charley helped my MIL and I to bond. She is in love with him and has seen him in concert many times (my MIL the groupie) and she was beyond thrilled to discover that I knew all of his songs... any friend of Charley was a friend of hers, it made me an acceptable catch for her baby despite the fact that he doesn't approve of Charley at all.

I discovered boys in the seventies. I was young but that didn't stop me from noticing the cuteness of Leif Garrett, Derek (the child molester?!) from The Bay City Rollers and Shaun Cassidy. It was posters of these guys that first adorned the walls of my bedroom. It wasn't long after that my friend Jack and I discovered her brothers albums and our tastes matured with the likes of REO Speedwagon, Sweet, Chicago, Supertramp and Toto. By the end of the decade it was all about disco and I have to admit I loved Leo Sayer, KC and the Sunshine Band. "Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight!"

It was also in the seventies that I was introduced to three men whose music would be a big part of my next several musical decades.
- Billy Joel, the piano man looking for an uptown girl to tell her about the pressure of my life.
- Sir Elton before he was knighted and before he took himself too seriously. I still love Elton but he's come a long way from Crocodile Rock, the Bitch is Back and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
- Rod Stewart. The Scot seemed to be able to see into my teenybopper angst ridden diary and he understood me, he put into words the things that I felt. He knew that the first cut was indeed the deepest even if I was only joking. When I write mush to my husband I often quote Rod the bod...
You're in my heart
you're in my soul
you'll be my breath should I grow old
you are my lover you're my best friend
you're in my soul.

I believe I have mentioned it before but I once was a recording artist. When I was in sixth grade the two music teachers at my school put together a group of seven of us who liked to sing and who didn't completely suck. We wrote our own songs and performed at other schools and at every town function. Our music was simple and folky but the locals loved it. The next year we went to Vancouver to a real studio and recorded an entire album. The single came out on 45 and a short time later the record was released. There was only a limited pressing but they sold out... our album went aluminum. People even asked for our autographs which was a big deal to a bunch of 13 year old girls. It was my very dim fifteen minutes of local fame.

Because my formative years were the 80's there is a squishy warm spot in my heart for the music of that time. I listened to all of it, hair metal (Def Leppard, Poison, Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Cinderella, AC DC etc.) new wave (Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Skinny Puppy), pop/rock (Bon Jovi, Billy, Elton, Pat Benatar, Prince, Police, Huey Lewis). etcetera etcetera. When I hear Radar Love-Golden Earring and ROCK You - Helix and so many other songs of that era it transports me back to the Bamboo Inn Chinese Restaurant where we spent many days after school (and I worked for a short time) plunking quarters into the jukebox and eating the best fries and gravy in the world.

My husband is notorious for making up his own words to songs. In all the time we have been together there is only one song he ever sang that he indeed knows all of the lyrics to. Life's Been Good - Joe Walsh. I bet there are few women who can say they've been serenaded with "I go to parties sometimes until four, it's hard to leave when you can't find the door." On a more romantic note there are some mushy songs (as if it gets mushier than Joe Walsh!!) that make me think of him too. One night we happened to stumble on a Garth Brooks concert on TV and when he sang Unanswered Prayers my husband began to cry. It is about being grateful that he didn't get what he wished for because what he has is so much more. I was incredibly touched by it and now the song affects me the same way. We were never much for country music but our wedding song was Randy Travis' Forever and Ever Amen. It was less about the genre or the artist and more about the lyrics for me. It's sweet and sappy just like us.

There are songs that remind me of past loves too.
Lost in Love - Air Supply (nobody did sap like they did)
I used to dedicate it on the radio to a boy I was head over heels for in high school.
Slide It In - Whitesnake
Minds out of gutter! I borrowed the cassette tape from a boyfriend and never gave it back after we broke up... so technically he stole my heart and I stole his tape.

There are many songs I associate with my kid. I like to think I instilled in him the same love for music that I have.

All My Lovin' - The Beatles
I was never much of a fan of the fab four but I used to sing this song to my son when he was little.
"Close your eyes and i'll kiss you,
Tomorrow i'll miss you;
Remember i'll always be true.
And then while i'm away,
I'll write home ev'ry day,
And i'll send all my loving to you."

Kryptonite - Three Doors Down
I held my breath as my sixth grader danced to and lip sync'd this song for a contest at school. My stomach was in complete turmoil as I projected my stage fright onto him. He was a frickin' rockstar, his performance was brilliant and hilarious and it was at that moment that I realized that despite the fact that he was of my loins he thankfully did not inherit my self consciousness, anxiety and stage fright. He danced to his own drummer...in the Superman shirt I painted for him...and won first prize in the contest.

I won't dance - Frank Sinatra
In tenth grade as a Phys. Ed project the students were forced (under duress and penalty of failure) to do an interpretive dance. My boy was away the day the assignment was issued so by the time he found out about it everyone else had already gotten themselves into groups. I was furious that the PE teachers would put teenagers (who already feel awkward enough) on display and judge them and worse yet allow their peers to judge them as well. My son stressed about it for a day or two, it was one thing to voluntarily put oneself on display, it was quite another to be forced into it in the form of interpretive dance.
I offered to battle the PE teachers. I was willing to be THAT mom and go in to the school and demand that there be an alternative to the public humiliation. My son said he'd do it but he was going to do it his way. I then suggested he do his dance to Phil Collins' - I Can't Dance and just stand there the entire time. It was then that we recalled Mel Gibson's moves in What Women Want to the Sinatra classic and we choreographed a similar cutting of the rug, complete with some tricky hat moves and a step up and over a chair. The kid was the only student to perform alone and he knocked their collective socks off.

I spent seven years working in a record (CD) store. Any other retail job would not have made me want to kick puppies but the music is what kept me there and kept me (reasonably) sane. I listened to everything... even jazz.. which I still don't like. I was introduced to some of my favorite artists that I might never have otherwise discovered. It was during these years that I fell in love with Collective Soul, The Trews, Finger Eleven, Matchbox Twenty, Seether, Tonic, Fall Out Boy, Live, Nickelback, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, Metallica, Jay Z, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, Steeple Chaser and so many more.

My current playlist...

Anything and everything Goo Goo Dolls (Johnny Rzeznik can sing to me... or do anything else to me for that matter... anytime)
Money Honey - State of Shock
Fake it - Seether
Adored - Collective Soul
Into the Night - Santana featuring Chad Kroeger (though I prefer their song Why Don't you and I)
Chelsea Daggar - The Fratellis
I'll Keep your Memory Vague - Finger Eleven

This is a long entry. I won't apologize for that, nor will I apologize for my taste in tunes. My brother and sil have long chided me on my preferences but music is subjective and there are so many genres and artists that nobody has to agree on what is good or what sucks. I could have a whole other entry on what I dislike and another one yet on my thoughts regarding the pirating of music. I am very passionate about this subject and as I have said before, you can take the girl out of the music store but you can't take the music store out of the girl.