Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The Fire Inside

One and a half years ago, I was driving across Washington state towards Spokane, listening to the MP3 player and I discovered a new-to-me song, The Fire Inside, by Bob Seger. I was just back from Europe, unemployed, living with my mother in Oregon. I had no idea where my life would go. But I was enjoying the time exploring the Pacific Northwest very much. I loved that Bob Seger song so much that I played it over and over, and now when I hear that song, like I did this morning, it takes me right back to Washington state and my footloose exploring days that weren't that long ago.

I do that with music. I look for new music to "discover," and then play a song or an album I like over and over - I never get sick of it. It attaches the music to a time, and since I've been around a bit, a place. Here are some of those songs and their attachments.

Lyle Lovett, Road to Ensenada - driving through southern Utah, some of the most stunning scenery I've ever seen
The Weakerthans, Left and Leaving - 2004, playing golf in Myrtle beach with wonderful friends
Holly Cole, River - getting divorced in 1998
The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow - getting comfortable in Washington DC
Lucinda Williams, Those Three Days - Miami Beach
Cowboy Junkies, Rock and Bird - April 1995 in Cleveland
Joni Mitchell, Coyote - late summer, 1988 in Cleveland
Drive-By Truckers, Sounds Better in the Song - coming out of winter 2009

I've discovered a new way to discover music - Pandora - and now I've discovered a bunch of new songs. In heavy rotation now are: Evangeline by the Lost Immigrants, Gringo Honeymoon and What I Really Mean by Robert Earl Keen, Jr, and Checkout Time in Vegas by the Drive-By Truckers. I looked up the style for some of these songs, and common words applied to most of these is 'bittersweet,' and 'melancholy'. I've always been attracted to music in a minor key! Not sure which one is going to get that lifetime "attachment," but I think I'm going to thoroughly enjoy the listening while I find that out.

Edit: A few people contacted me off-list about this. Just because I like melancholy, minor key music doesn't make me a melancholy person! Far from it! My natural state is happy. I'm normally an upbeat type of person. No worries folks, OK?

8 comments:

  1. I still love The Eagles. I've a husband that pays for the tickets and that's totally cool! I never would justify the cash. But 30+ years later they are still SO GOOD! And when I listen, I,too,slip back to the younger years. There are some Doobie Brothers, BTO, those HS & College age songs that take you back. Then there is KT Oslin & Mary Chapin Carpenter that take me to another age of attitude. Mostly I stick with the tried and true...don't get out much to the lesser knowns, but I just can't get into my son's rap crap!! Have a good one. If I wasn't so far away, I'd jump in the car with a girlfriend or two and we'd come over and mess up your place..I mean, have some female bonding and get some stuff done...

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  2. That's so funny! I've been thinking that a girls night in would be a great time. First - find some girls!

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  3. Wish I was closer to you, Jordan, for that Girls' Night In! :) Anybody else on FB? Maybe we should set a night aside and do it that way! Or, better yet, get a chat room. (Anyone know how to do that?)

    Music for me in relation to "time of life" more relates to "times of the year" or weather. For example, on those first cold, wet (rainy or snowy) days of fall, the Christmas music comes out. For major Pine-Sol scrubbing cleaning in the spring when you can open the windows for the first time? Good ol' country. And, TOTALLY random: for painting (walls, not canvases), Levon Helm's 'Dirt Farmer'.

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  4. Whenever I hear Springsteen sing, "barefoot girl on the hood of a Dodge, drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain" I'm 16 again!

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  5. OK..I just mapquested my house in way-western NY state to Troy NY and it's 6 hours+10min one way. And I don't want to you feel like strange people are trying to invade your space...We are tax people, so tax season is out for me. But can we still think about this? I'm so ready for an adventure...I feel like my mom is going to call and yell at me any minute for inviting myself. :o)

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  6. Wow! A long-distance girls night in! Sure, we can think about it! So, where are you in western NY? I was born in Hornell (but we didn't live there lone - the wandering started early!)

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  7. I'm in Findley Lake, which is the last exit on I-86 before you pass into PA on your way to Erie PA. I'm WAY over here!

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  8. Pretty much the exact opposite end of the state! You're welcome for a girls night in, and some 'messing up the place', but you have to bring the girls!

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