Music and Memories

Why is it that music can bring you back to a specific moment in a split second?  To a memory so crystal clear that it feels like yesterday.  It's happened a lot lately. More than usual.  Mostly great memories, some bittersweet, some sad, and only a few I'd rather forget.

 I'm  fascinated by music and memory.  I struggle to remember the name of an acquaintance before she gets to my end of the grocery aisle, and most of the time I can't remember why I went upstairs by the time I get there, but if I hear the first few notes, I can sing almost any song from the 50's and 60's (complete with dance moves too) and that isn't even the music of my generation. Those were well spent Saturday nights listening to WHDH's Saturday Night Live at the Oldies on the radio with my family. Clearly I would be able to remember where I left my iPhone (twenty times a day) if I didn't have two decades of oldies cataloged in my head.  But I'm glad I do. I love that the first few bars of  Mack the Knife make my heart overflow with love for my dad. What I wouldn't give to hear him sing it just one more time.

Carolina in my Mind will always be a sweet memory of my friend, TJ, and the soundtrack to a story he shared many years ago. He's an amazing man now, but I see that sweet college boy whenever the song starts to play.

I can't hear Rocky Mountain High without thinking of my brother, Donny. It always made me think of him and of his struggles, but after we lost him, it became my anthem to him.

I have a million more, but you get the idea.


The song that gets me these days (and probably every time I hear it for the rest of my life) is Brad Paisley's Letter To Me. This song makes me think of Cole, where he's been, and the great future he has ahead of him.

The tears have started again. So I'll stop for now.

What are your songs and the memories they bring back in an instant? I'd love to hear.

Denise