Funny How a Melody Sounds Like a Memory

         A couple of weeks ago my mom and I were driving home from lunch.  We were in my new car and my sunroof was open despite the sweltering heat outside.  It was one of those picture perfect afternoons though.  I remember Eric Church’s song Springsteen was on the radio and I couldn’t stop smiling about the track my life was on.  I turned the music up too loud and reached up and put my hand out of the sunroof.  My mom asked me what I was doing (I must have looked like I wasn’t paying attention to the road), but all I could say was “I’m just living life, Mom.  What are you doing?”

            I know that sounds like a super cheesy thing to say, but it was the most honest thing I could have said in that moment.  The other day my mom texted me saying she was “living life”…her and my dad had their hands out of the sunroof.  She finally understood what I meant.

            I just watched the music video for Springsteen and had to smile when I saw that it features people riding with the top down and their hands out the window.  It’s always really cool to realize you interpreted a song in exactly the right way.  But, honestly, that’s not really my favorite part about the song.  My favorite part is that it puts into words what I love about music in general.  That a single song can take you back in time to a moment in your life just as though you were living it all over again.  Everyone has a list of songs that takes them back (see Summer Love); I happen to have an entire playlist.  But the really amazing thing about it is that you get to constantly add new songs to the list.  That a song can come on the radio and make you cry, laugh, remember, forget…The lyrics to a song can make you appreciate an ordinary moment like driving home from lunch; the melody can make you forget you’re in a crowded room.  Sometimes you might swear a song was written about someone you know; sometimes you might swear it was written about your life.  But mostly a great song can just make you appreciate a moment, and then remember that moment every time you hear the first few chords for the rest of your life.

Summer Love

            A few weeks ago I was talking with some friends about what songs would appear on our “Top 25” playlist for our lives.  I was at a loss to answer at the time, but the thought has been on my mind ever since.  I hit shuffle a little more often now on my iTunes, and I listen with a more critical ear as the songs play.  Would this make the list?

            Today, as I was flitting about the house knocking out my to-do list, I finally settled on a “Top 25” song.  I actually settled on two.  Quite the productive day, I’d say.  I know you’re just dying to know what they are so I’’ll put you out of your misery.  Two of my Top 25 life songs are…

1.    Strawberry Wine by Deana Carter

2.    Maybe it was Memphis by Pam Tillis

Strawberry Wine has a sentimental meaning for me: it was the first “real” song I ever learned all the words to.  Little five-year-old me had a legit obsession with Deana Carter and my life goal at that age was to see her in concert.  I’m still waiting to check that one off the bucket list. 

Maybe it was Memphis is basically just one of my all-time favorite songs to sing at the top of my lungs.  It’s just plain awesome. 

But as I made a mental note that both of these songs would be forever etched into my life playlist, I also realized something they have in common.  They are both about summer romances.  The kind of romance that makes you feel invincible for a moment in time.  The kind that shows up on the last cool breeze of spring and fades away with colors of the leaves in the fall.  The kind of love that you want to last forever, but deep down you know it won’t last any longer than the long days of summer. 

Everyone needs one summer romance in their lifetime.   It’s a feeling that is too good to miss out on.  It’s a summer that is too important to pass up.  Growing up I listened to these songs and yearned for the feelings that should accompany them.  Now, I hear them and I am nostalgic for the summer love they remind me of.  The summer after college when I was “caught somewhere between a woman and a child,” trying desperately to hold on to those last moments of carefree-ness, but quickly being forced to grow into the woman I would become.  It happened exactly as summer romances should.  Our circumstances brought us together and our circumstances tore us apart.  It was a romance made for the throws of summer; the kind you think about in the cold months that follow.  The kind that a song can take you back to. 

And a song that can take you back to that feeling, well that song is definitely worthy of the playlist.   

Anyone else know what songs would make their playlist?  I’m curious to hear them…