Okay, so I was watching "Glee" the other night, and they did "To Sir, With Love". As soon as those first notes started up, I knew what song it was, and I remembered the jolt I got the very first time I heard the song on the radio - I must have been five or six at the time. That song was like nothing else on the radio, like nothing I'd ever even heard before, and I remember that every time it played, I'd sit, transfixed, until the final notes. Some time after that, the movie that the song is from played on one of the local TV stations, and I remember seeing it in the listings, and FREAKING OUT, because, well ...... THAT SONG!!, and I remember begging my mom to let me stay up to watch it, because obviously it must be the best movie EVER if it had THAT SONG in it.
It's happened for me with other music, too. I have a sister who is eight years older than me, and I got exposed to a lot of cool stuff as a kid. When "Fragile" by Yes came out, my sister was eighteen and I was ten, and that song "Roundabout"? BLEW MY MIND. I can still remember the thrill I got listening to ..... that song. That song!
That song.
"The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" by Genesis (I know. I KNOW.) came out when I was twelve, and I remember being up at the lake, eared pressed to the radio, listening to that music ..... there was something so different about it ...
See also, "Carpet of the Sun" from the "Ashes are Burning" album by Renaissance - I was eleven when that came out, and I would listen to that song over, and over, and over, wishing that it would never end, because it was so ...... something.
It still happens now and again, although not with the same gut-wrenching impact of the first time you hear a song that you think might change everything. The first time I heard the "Avenue Q" soundtrack, it blew me away, just because it was a Broadway album that was actually ...... gasp ...... funny! The first time I heard Susan Werner's song "Time Between Trains" on the radio, I called up the station, desperate to find out who that singer was, because she was doing stuff that didn't sound like anything else I was hearing right then.
It hasn't happened in several years now for me, hearing a song that's like nothing else. I hope it happens again.
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2 comments:
The "Turn Around" song from the Kodak commercials always makes me cry.
I first heard Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" while touring England on a narrowboat, and it really hit me hard.
Buffy Ste. Marie's "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying".
Well I guess I am younger and wasn't exposed to a whole lot of modern music till I was a teenager. The first time I heard Prince I was amazed that it was a guy, the man has a astounding range with his voice. I also was captured by Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves.
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