I was on a long journey home this morning, and had some time to catch up on some of my favourite music. (I love long journeys, I've realised. Although "long" can vary on my mood. It needs to be about an hour long, enough to get through about 10 - 15 songs depending on their length.) Somehow my iPod knew what kind of mood I was in and picked all the right songs. I fell into this daze, as I do effortlessly all the time, and I began thinking about a variety of things.
It all started with Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars." From the moment I heard this song, I was in love with the lyrics, the music, the voice, ESPECIALLY the voice and thereafter I fell in love with the band. This song always brings me back to one very vivid memory. I remember listening to this song with a very close friend of mine, whilst we were laying on the grass at our halls of residence during out first year of University. We weren't doing anything out of the ordinary as rolling down this grass patch was very common - with the added Rabbit faeces and mud getting stained on to our clothes - but there was something about the atmosphere that night, where everything was really silent and there was this amazing song just blasting into our ears. It was one of those nameless moments.
This was followed by Josh Groban's "Remember When it Rained" a song which, always takes me back to my IGCSE English classes in school (Dubai). This song reminds me of how I used to love studying everything to do with books in terms of Literature, and how I used to get so excited when we were set a creative-writing task of some sort. My English teacher was somebody whom I not only admired but had a very friendly relationship with. She wasn't like my Maths teacher who despised me because well, I was never very bright with the numbers and I would make excuses for England so as to miss the classes and I would make an effort to never complete my work (possibly why I failed miserably!). She was very funny and spoke to us like adults and not brainless things. She was somebody I believe inspired me to continue writing and fall in love with books more than I could have imagined.
Whilst my thoughts were in Dubai, it was only appropriate that the next song was Shania Twain's "From this Moment." My sister and I loved this song, and she used to a be a fan of Shania's music. This song actually reminds me of her wedding time in 2005. We were trying to find the right song for her to walk in to on the wedding day, and this obviously made the list. I started thinking about how the last couple of years spent in Dubai were definitely the more calmer, happier and humble years I've had. I loved the flat we had, it was small and simple but felt like home, literally.
I fell into a bit of a trance with the next song. It was Bon Iver's "Blood Bank" - I think this song represents a period of music change I went through during my final year at University. I was back in halls and living alone with a massive work load and music that wasn't exciting me enough. I remember hearing a song by Bon Iver on an episode of House, which made me cry - it was more the scene in the episode than the song itself, but I think the song did push it that bit more. It was right after this point that iTunes became my best friend, and I would stay up hours downloading music.
About halfway through my journey, the train stopped at Oxford Circus and this lady next to me asked me if she could get off at Tottenham Court Road to get to the British Museum. Distracted by the conversation and my iPod continuing to play to the next song (another Snow Patrol song, "Set the Fire to the Third Bar"), I decided to quickly go back to my thoughts. This song always manages to make me feel a whole array of emotions. I've heard this song when I was involved in different situations, so it almost created a visual reel in my mind that was fast forwarding through a variety of moments I hold close to me. There was this one particular face that kept appearing and for that reason only, I decided to repeat it once more.
By this point I was two songs away from reaching home, and the next was one that was particularly nostalgic - "Everything" by Lifehouse. I've loved music by Lifehouse since their first album in 2000 which had the very popular and swoon-worthy "Hanging by a Moment." The song that was playing though, reminded me of my first two years back in the UK, a phase that I had nicely tucked away in my subconscious where even Freud couldn't get to. I thought of the people I had met during that time, as I spent the majority of my time at college for my A-Levels. I spent this song thinking about my tutors in particular. It was during this time where I fell in love with Psychology because of my tutor. He was brilliant, and he knew how to motivate me. It was because of him I was awarded an A for my entire A-Level at the end. I then recalled my Media Studies tutor, who I believe was a hippy stuck in the 80's movie world and a closet hopeful Mafia don or the next Quentin Tarantino (We watched From Dusk Till Dawn, Scarface and Goodfellas excessively!) It dawned on me then that over the years, I became prone to accessing certain memories from certain phases more than others. I know the first two years in the UK were most definitely difficult, but it doesn't change the fact that I met some of my greatest mentors during this time.
About 3 stations away from my destination, I knew I had time for just one more song, and what better way to end my journey than with "For you now" by Bruno Merz. All I could think by that point was how this song resonated with me now more than ever (as I mentioned before, don't confuse him with Bruno Mars - very annoying!). And Before I knew it, I was on my way home humming to Kings of Leon's "Revelry" feeling warm, nostalgic and slightly desolate of the memories bought to life briefly on my journey home.
(A song)
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