''All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces. Bright and early for the daily races, going nowhere, going nowhere. The tears are filling up their glasses, no expression, no expression. Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow, no tomorrow, no tomorrow''.
Along with many other of my amazing cognitive processes, I find my memory quite fascinating. Sure, I habitually wake up after vodka-fuelled shenanigans with about five hours of the previous night erased completely from my mind. But I’ve learnt that my memory is very effective with a little help from association. In particular, certain songs can really, really take me back to a specific moment in my life. It’s made me wonder – do we like certain things just because of what we associate them with? Certain songs take me back to previous summers, or holidays, and some remind me of people. Now, do I really still like the songs, or just the warm, nostalgic buzz they give me?
I once read that our sense of smell is our strongest trigger of memory, however, for me, songs are more personal; the smell of freshly cut grass reminds me of so many summers that when I smell it now, I’m faced with so many images of barbeques and bees that my head spins.
Another example is food. Remember Jelly tots? Or that multi coloured cereal that tasted like it had rained down from heaven straight into your Tinkerbelle bowl? If we ate them now, I’m sure they wouldn’t be half as exciting anymore, but they’d still be the best thing ever, simply because of association. And how about the song you can’t listen to because it reminds you of a past partner? I’m sure we all have one of them, no matter how much we want to be able to listen to it impartially.
For me, it’s the sound of the Beach Boys. Listening to them fills me with the smell of fields and petrol, and I remember years ago when weekends were spent on family outings, listening to them in the car. This, of course, was back when I could refer to my family as ‘moderately functionable’- just like my portable CD player, (remember those?) which I used to drown out the sound of ‘Good Vibrations’.
I'm sure that me reeling out my memories isn’t going to be the most entertaining thing you’ll read today – but there’s a certain song that reminds me of my Grandmother – who died almost exactly one year ago today. I remember listening to it whilst she pottered away in the kitchen, calling me in every so often to point out when a new bird had flown into the garden. At the time, I didn’t really listen to the lyrics of the song, but ironically, they seem to fit perfectly with my coping of losing her. The song wouldn’t have had any effect on me if I don’t remember so clearly listening to it when I was graced by her company. But now, it makes me instantly hysterical. I almost get lost in the memory of listening to it, before I’m snapped back to reality and realise it’s just a song.
Music has a way of accelerating any mood, bringing back any memory, and making any moment ten times better. I definitely think though, that if we didn’t have memories associated with certain songs or bands, that we wouldn’t like them half as much as we would if we remember happy memories of listening to them.
If you’re lucky, and if you happen to be listening to music right now, you might hear the same song again in a few days time and remember that time when you wasted ten minutes of your life reading that weird blog post that had no real sense of direction... and you’ll feel all warm inside :)
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