Friday 16 May 2008

Songs that remind you of ...

Songs bring back memories for most people, and these memories can vary greatly. One song at my music quiz last night was Craig David's Walking Away. A team member remarked that he loved the song and remembered hearing it while he was living in London and it was a great stage in his life. I commented that my memories of it were quite the opposite; he did walk away, and it took a long time to get over him. Oh well.

There are three songs permanently etched in my memory from my childhood. I remember hearing them while waiting in the van for my father while he was inside at Mitre 10, behind Wellington Airport. (It was just called plain old Edward's in those days.) I had nothing for company but whatever I could find in the glovebox, the roar of planes taking off and landing, and an AM radio. Nowadays, Dad would be branded a negligent father and hauled in front of the media and goodness knows who else, for leaving a 7(ish)-year-old in a vehicle for what seemed like forever at the time, but in reality was probably about 10 minutes. Going by the years the songs were released, I think I might have been about 7, but can't be sure. So what did I listen to?
  • Baker Street (1978) - Gerry Rafferty: Gotta love that intro and sax riff. It haunts me to this day. Little bit of trivia here: the sax player lives near Wellington now. Many years later at university, it was playing on the radio and someone said "get that old crap off". I wasn't about to admit that I have fond memories of it keeping me company in the van, but someone else (who was older than us) said "well, you might think that now, but it was all the rage once". I've never forgotten that, lol.
  • The Other Guy (1982) - Little River Band: I didn't understand anything about what this song meant, but liked the vocal work in it. I grew up with a soft spot for LRB; they're one of my musical guilty pleasures (along with Dr Hook).
  • Sometimes When We Touch (1978) - Dan Hill: soppy and sentimental, but I have always remembered that piano riff and enjoyed playing it myself when I stumbled across the sheet music as a pianist in my teens. It's still part of my solo repertoire today.
Ah, memories are made of this. :-)

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