Monday, January 14, 2008

Memory almost full...of crap


While music is indeed the soundtrack to our lives, songs don't just bring back memories of long, hot summers or teenage parties or that job you loathed.

They can also conjure up memories of very small, very dull moments too.

When I heard Fern Kinney's Together We Are Beautiful on the radio recently, it reminded me of waiting for my mum to get ready to take me to an early doors dental appointment. I sat in the hall while it poured with rain. It was miserable and March.

So to celebrate that most pivotal of moments, here are 10 other boring recollections sparked by certain tunes.

She's On It/The Beastie Boys: Reminds me of going to Kingston to buy a new Hoover.

Kiss You All Over/Exile: The plastering in the new extension was finished.

Live It Up/Mental As Anything: Sitting in a launderette while outside it's bright but cold.

A Watcher's Point Of View/PM Dawn: Washing up on a Sunday afternoon as the sun set, thinking about how much I didn't want to go to work the next day.

Wishful Thinking/China Crisis: Having glandular fever.

Le Freak/Chic: Cleaning out the rabbit hutch.

Gotta Pull Myself Together/The Nolans: French class.

Toast/Streetband: Lying on a rug by a radiator.

Silly Thing/Sex Pistols: Having a bath after Blankety Blank.

You Can Do Magic/Limmie & The Family Cookin': Dropping in on a friend's sick aunt, circa 1974.

12 comments:

A Kitten in a Brandy Glass said...

"Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" always reminds me of being sick in a lay-by during some very long bank-holiday car trip when I was little...

Clair said...

I think that's very telling stuff. For me, Wishful Thinking is being piled in a phone box with Paula, who was trying to convince a mate in Leicester that China Crisis were, in fact, cool.

office pest said...

You have eclectic tastes F-C.
I took the plunge over the weekend and did a post about a choon that still resonates with me. It's been on my mind for a long time so I thought I'd share it. There's video as well!

Jon Peake said...

Let me add, OP, that I don't actually own or like some of the listed tunes, it's just the memories.

Welcome to Blogland. I'll add you.

Bright Ambassador said...

They'll Never Take Me Alive - Spear of Destiny. Cycling to the chip shop on Good Friday 1987. My dad cut his big toe later that day trying to cut carpet tiles in his slippers with a Stanley knife. How we laughed as he hadn't noticed the blood pouring from his toe but was most upset he'd cut his slippers.

Matthew Rudd said...

Tragedy, Bee Gees - falling off a climbing frame at a children's play park on a Dorset caravan site.

Mondo said...

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World - Charlie Rich , not Prince . Makes me think of being in the school playground.

I Feel Love - Donna Summer. Is driving from Barnstaple to Croyde Bay on holiday in Devon.

Kiss You All Over - Exile
Is sitting in a car outside a Bakers.

Side show - Barry Biggs. Is being in the school playground (again)

Senses Working Overtime XTC. Is laying in bed eating chocolate digestives and listening to Noel Edmonds Sunday Morning Show

office pest said...

Thanks for the add F-C.
Your concept of 'media hair', mentioned elsewhere, made me laugh. I guess you mean like Melyvn Bragg or Mike Read.
Wossy well on the way there too.

Beauvale3 said...

I'm sure Clair is right about the phone box as I can guess who said mate was! To me Wishful Thinking means hot Summer days lying on the not very safe corrugated roof of a pig-sty. Broken Land/The Adventures is my Glandular Fever song. Cath/Bluebells reminds me of being riotous with Clair. That Same Old feeling/Picketty Witch and Excerpt from a Teenage Opera/Keith West both remind me of Bob Monkhouse and the Golden Shot.

Tim Worthington said...

Bedsitter by Soft Cell reminds me of putting too much vinegar on some Birds Eye Potato Waffles.

beth said...

I love this post.
I know I've got so many song related memory-snaps myself. Although, obviously, as soon as I wanted to dredge up some prime examples they were wiped from my mind at a single stroke.

Why does this happen so often these days?

Jon Peake said...

It's because we're all getting older, Beth.

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