posted
Today I found the most hilarious cassette tape...it was a bunch of songs that I had dubbed in a time when I was seriously depressed about a BOY. Funny enough it was a bunch of songs that reminded me of him, or power songs that made me feel better, songs that made me feel justified in my angst and anger...etc. I listened to it all that summer, and when I look back, it didn't really help because it just kept reminding me of the good the bad and the really good about the relationship and the guy.
Anyway, I laughed a lot when I listened to it today because I can still tell you the reasoning behind every single song on that tape. It was quite meaningful to me. A couple of the defining songs are
Feelin' Groovy - Simon and Garfunkel Mama Mia - Abba Possession - Sarah McLaughlin To Be with You - Mr. Big Love of a Lifetime - Firehouse Bridge over Troubled Water - S&G
I'm glad that the pain and angst is over by now (it's been over 3 years), but I'm so glad I found that tape. It brought back a lot of memories. Really specific ones. Times, places, smells and situations. Am I weird, or has anyone else had experiences like this?
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posted
That's really funny... I'm now taking a 2-hour cabaret class, or I guess workshop, that's just me and the instructor... she just today assigned to me to find 10 songs that are meaningful to me in some way, and write some words describing how and why!!! That's so weird, that you should have that experience just at the same moment!!!
I'm really looking forward to doing that, it should be a great journey into my soul...
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LOL, currently I'm in the midst of a great music-listening binge to get over a girl. Important songs are: pretty much most of Sarah McHoweveryouspellhername's stuff, and Third Eye Blind's CDs. Yes, there are specific reasons for each song I listen to, and yes, they mostly remind me of the good and bad things about her. Plus, I'm really getting into writing my own guitar/piano music, so that helps.
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I recently found the tape my last girlfriend made for me while we were apart for the summer term. Ah memories. I may have sworn off relationships after going out with her, but the memories were welcome ones nonetheless.
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I have experiences like that every single day. Since I get distracted by music before bed I'll go through some of my cds and listen to certain songs and get taken back to specific instances. Plus my synesthesia seems to have gotten stronger so music is just more intense than ever... it fills me like nothing else does. *loves music*
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I routinely make tapes for myself that seem to capture my mood at a given point in life. For a while, my friend and I would make each other tapes and mail them to each other. It was kind of a contest to include the most obscure "surprise songs" while still maintaining listenable coherence.
The best part of these tapes are the titles we give them. I was just parusing my collection and saw: Choosy Moms Choose These Tunes Procedes from this tape go to rehabilitate those of us who enjoyed Debbie Gibson Beautiful, Bemused, Bellicose Babysitter (my friend Kristin's description of me) Songs for a Rainy Thursday or an Existential Quandary U2 that Americans Have Never Heard These Tunes are More Fun Than a Brand-New Juice Tiger March 2001 and all the Gory DetailsPosts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Annie, you're killing me!! I found a tape today that I had titled Melodious Mellow Melodies. I KID YOU NOT!! Can you believe that?
I also dig what you said about doing the 'surprise songs' thing. A friend and I make mix CDs for each other too and one of my favorite things is to hear his reactions to some of the songs that I put on. I love it!! And then I make a copy for myself and always listen to it on shuffle so that I never know what song is coming next. Yes. I'm a geek. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Of course there are songs that bring back wonderfully or horribly - or even mundanely -specific memories.
Maggie May, by Rod Stewart - always makes me think of one night when I was in junior high. I was bored, sitting on my bed in my room listening to the radio. And when that song came on, for some reason the thought came to me that from then on, every time I heard that song I would think about that moment. And I do.
China Grove, by the Doobie Brothers - walking from my apartment in Heritage Halls (Lucy Mack Smith Hall, to be exact) to class at BYU. It was January, there was snow on the ground, but it was a bright, bright sunshiny day (no, wait, that's another song ) and I couldn't get that song out of my head, so I was singing in under my breath as I tried to avoid slipping on ice.
Now that I'm trying to think of others, I can't. But I've got several songs like that. I think it's kind of neat, to be able to go back into a memory like that.
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Syn: you actually have Synesthesia? I thought it was just a cool screen nick. (Did I miss a landmark-type post by you or something?) Honestly, sometimes I think *I* have it. (I'm hoping it is an actual clinical term and not just from the short story I heard about it from.)
I loooooove music! *hearts*
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Sadly enough Danny, I'm slowly becoming less and less of an AFI fan (lyrically.) Not to say I don't think their lyrics aren't well-written, I just can't identify with a lot of it; my life isn't one big dark room, I'm not going to see anyone on the ocean floor, and I don't think God ever called in sick.
However, songs like "Green Eyes" by Coldplay, "Way Away" by Yellowcard and "I'll Always Be Right There" by Michelle Branch (among plenty of others) are pretty special to me (or at least applicable.)
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Narnia, that is so weird. Maybe this happens a lot but I hope not. I'm trying to find some songs to put on a cd for my friend. The guy she likes isn't interested in her. It depresses me just thinking about it. I have Don't Dream it's Over by Sixpence and Affirmation by Savage Garden so far.. any other suggestions?
About the memories, I have a few songs that make me think of people I know/knew. Some may be because I discovered them with a person. But others are like Dave Matthews Band's Where are you going. That's for a guy I liked when I followed him after school. heh. I was fully prepared to let anyone know that I was going to the library. Posts: 1056 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Heh, Emp, that was funny. Thank you. I don't mean to sound defensive, which I am, anyhow, but I don't think most of the lyrics of AFI are meant to be taken literally. Maybe their older stuff, sure. But I don't think God's ever called in sick, either....a vacation leave, maybe.....
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esl...I know how your friend feels. Girl power songs are great. Possession by Sarah M. is a good one. Also I do what I have to do by her is a really good one. Frozen by Madonna is also a bitter justified song. Also, to make her feel better, put She's Got a Way by Billy Joel on it too. I'll think of some more. The song I played the most for the guy before this other one was Foolish Games by Jewel. How many times did I sit and bawl to that song? Thank heavens it's been a while, but that's a depressing/true song.
Hm...more. Tori Amos and Silent all These years. Your eyes by Peter Gabriel (that song melts me.) In too deep by Genesis might be depressing, but it's such a good song. But True Colors by Phil Collins is a GREAT song to make anyone feel better.
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It's not the lyrics you have to take literally, so much as the meaning of the lyrics (that you take literally), Emp. If the lyrics say exactly what they mean, then sure, take the lyrics literally.
I think that, even if I cannot relate to all of the meanings of AFI's lyrics, they still stir wonderful emotions inside of me when I listen to them, and that, to me, is the most important thing. So hey, if that's what Coldplay, Yellowcard and Michelle Branch do for you, right on, buddy.
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[aside]Hey Index Card!! It's good to see you. I haven't seen you around lately (but I don't read all the threads) so I'm glad you're here!! [/aside]
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Yes, I actually do have it... With all five senses when it comes to music. And There are other things I can do that are a bit unbelievable Songs that I really love these days are stuff like: Morrissey-Angel, Angel, Down we Go Together. I can listen to that thousands of times. Dir en grey-Kasumi-This song moves me, it makes me ache and twtich from how beautiful it is. Tori Amos-Your Cloud, but there are other songs i LOVE by her like Graveyard and Butterfly and Alamo Bjork-Pagan Poetry and a whole lot of other songs like Hyperballad.
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... I had forgotten abut "In Your Eyes" - that song is so powerful. I have it on at least 3 mixed tapes. If anyone ever stands outside my window and plays it on a boom box, I'll marry them no matter what.
My favorite get-over-the-boy method is listening to Jagged Little Pill really loud. And driving at insane speeds too, if you can.
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I've had different songs for different experiences. For a nice "women are evil" vibe, there's never been anything better than Led Zeppelin I. The entire album is like a mix tape of brilliant frustration. For trying to convince myself to be glad that some person was gone, the most effective songs I've ever found were "I Feel Free" by Cream and "Poor Heart" by Phish. Those songs can change my mood instantly. Fortunately it's been many years since I've had the need for any of those songs, but they still bring back pleasant memories.
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Some songs have meaning to me because of the context in which I heard them. Some songs have meaning to me because of their lyrics. Some songs have meaning to me because of their melodies. Some songs combine any or all of these elements.
Lyrically, there are a few:
I'd walk the water to get back to you and where I was complete we found you scattered by the highway side too soon to be released gathered the pieces up and cleaned the places where you were undone and washed the wreckage out unfinished, all the thoughts that we'd begun
- Moist, Leave It Alone
It's actually about a friend of the band's who was diagnosed with AIDS, but I took it quite literally when a close friend died in a car accident. Partly because of this song I could never bring myself to go to the site of the crash.
you left us all behind was this the way that you'd remind us to cry? how could I be this close and not go through what I'm supposed to, why? was there something I forgot? was it the service? maybe I'm just selfish today and I can't comprehend why I'm not feeling sentimental is it a question of my faith? if you were here today, would you look at me and come out swinging? I never meant for you to hate me but I didn't feel
- Sandbox, A Question of Faith
I dealt with the mourning process in a very strange way.
I know that you went straight to someone else while I worked through all this s*#t here by myself
- Ben Folds, Gone
I took this one quite literally in the aftermath of my last breakup, when I found myself living alone in Newfoundland while she went on to date another guy the evening of the day I left home. It was a slap in the face after the meaning the relationship had held for me.
Eve 6's entire Horrorscope album is full of male anthems for my friends and I. The minute the album starts playing we're all grinning within the first few seconds, because the music is so upbeat and the worldplay so astonishingly good. As an added bonus most of the songs are about women:
he reads women's magazines swears the truth doesn't faze him and he knows the hottest bras for fall and how to make her fall in love in four or five days or less guess it depends on the stars and how well he has memorized his dating do's and don'ts
- Eve 6, Sunset Strip B*#ch
On Pearl Jam's Ten there are a couple of songs whose anthemic nature give me shivers... Black, Garden, and Alive in particular. The guitar solo in Alive is simple yet powerful.
Tool's Lateralus has an awesome song on it, the Parabol/Parabola duo, that contains one of my favourite lyrics ever: "celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing." Tool have also written some of my favourite pumped-up-and-angry songs -- songs like Ticks & Leeches and Eulogy. The Grudge, as well, which features a 24-second nonstop scream. Eulogy contains the angry, angry lyric "come down / get off your f&#@ing cross / we need the f$*#ing space / to nail the next fool martyr."
Coming back to the subject of women, Tool's H. also has lyrical power:
What's coming through is alive. What's holding up is a mirror. But what's singing songs is a snake Looking to turn this piss to wine.
They're both totally void of hate, But killing me just the same.
The snake behind me hisses What my damage could have been. My blood before me begs me Open up my heart again.
Melodically there's another vocalist who gets me fired up -- Chris Cornell. That man has some lungs. Audioslave's Light My Way is a favourite because of his screaming vocals. Gives me shivers, much like the Pearl Jam anthems. There's some stuff on his solo album, too... Disappearing One, in particular.
There are many, many more...
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quote: I know that you went straight to someone else while I worked through all this s*#t here by myself
- Ben Folds, Gone
I took this one quite literally in the aftermath of my last breakup, when I found myself living alone in Newfoundland while she went on to date another guy the evening of the day I left home. It was a slap in the face after the meaning the relationship had held for me.
(Thread derailment)Holy jeez, Twink. That's EXACTLY what I'm going through now. Why is it that I've never even HEARD of Ben Folds? Great lyric.
I've been meaning to get Horrorscope since it came out. Lacking the funds, though. *siiigh*
Syn: that is actually really cool.
(back on thread) As far as get-over-someone songs, I like Puddle of Mudd's "She Hates Me" (that's about the only song of theirs I like, though )
Everclear's "Now That It's Over" touches on a nice number of points:
My bad dreams just don't scare me now, baby, without you. I wish you were willing to accept the blame for all the $#!++Y things you do. I wish I could find the words to tell you to politely go *bleep* yourself, now that it's over.
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After getting rid of my last bf, I was feeling rather guilty about it all, so I listened to Madonna's (OK, I know she's not the most profound lyricist around) "Power of Goodbye" about 30 thousand times.
You were my lesson I had to learn I was your fortress you had to burn Pain is a warning that something's wrong I pray to God that it won't be long
So true, so true!
Apparently, he still hasn't burned his fortress, though - it's been five months, and I got flowers from him AGAIN yesterday.
*stew*
What he needs now is a good "get over it already" song.
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posted
You know, I just remembered that some people like to put a friend in their place for advice-asking situations..
Anyway thank you all very much for the suggestions.
[derail]I don't know whether my friend's trying to get over the guy. I am optomistically believing that she doesn't need to because feelings (his) can change. And if her feelings change that's okay too.[/derail]
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Annie, you were my sister in another life...that is danged scary. That SONG....#10 on the Ray of Light CD is ON that tape that I'm talking about. It's one of the best. I love the line "You were my lesson I had to learn. I was your fortress you had to burn." That sums it up ridiculously well...
girl. The similarities are creeping me out!! Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
I am tempted to think so, Narnia. It has already been established that I am genetically identical to Katharina and Jon Boy, so I'm thinking someone pulled a Julian Delphiki on our parents.
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Annie, you're killing me!! I found a tape today that I had titled Melodious Mellow Melodies. I KID YOU NOT!! Can you believe that? ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Yes. I'm a geek. ![[Wave]](graemlins/wave.gif)
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) and I couldn't get that song out of my head, so I was singing in under my breath as I tried to avoid slipping on ice.![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
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Great lyric. 
