"Come as you are, as you were,
As I want you to be
As a friend, as a friend, as an old enemy
Take your time, hurry up
The choice is yours, don’t be late
Take a rest as a friend as an old memoria
Come dowsed in mud, soaked in bleach
As I want you to be
As a trend, as a friend, as an old memoria
And I swear that I don’t have a gun
No I don’t have a gun"
Nirvana – ‘Come as You Are’
So the funeral began and the celebrant started by saying a song would be played. I’d been holding it pretty well together at this stage and had my tissues prepared for the inevitable tears, that is until they started playing this song. I really love the song and now I’ll always remember it as the song that was played at my cousin’s funeral. The tears started flowing a bit more quickly than I’d anticipated and my shoulders started shaking. I don’t know what it is about crying in public – even at funerals – that makes me feel really self-conscious but it does. This is the first time that I didn’t really care. My previous memory of this song, and indeed the whole album by Nirvana – Nevermind was from when I was living in London in 1992 and I had it playing almost non-stop on my Walkman.
By the time they played the 2nd song (not sure of the title of that one) I had it pretty much together and had even had a couple of laughs by then. There was a good speaker at the funeral that had a couple of funny stories to tell which is part of what funerals should be about I think.
Back to music though. It has a tendency to evoke memories and emotions for me, as I’m sure it does for many people.
We quite often listen to music at home and yesterday I put on a CD that begins with Paul Kelly’s From Little Things Big Things Grow and JJ told me it made his heart dance. Typing this makes me smile now as it made me smile when he told me.
A lot of music makes my heart dance, including the aforementioned Paul Kelly song. Although when I saw it performed on Rockwiz by Archie Roach and Sara Storer it made me cry. I must have been feeling a bit fragile at the time as it’s not a particularly sad song, but quite poignant I guess. It’s a song about a dispute over wages and conditions between Australian Aboriginal stockworkers and landowners and became a fight for land rights. It was called the Gurindji Strike. I digress though.
I bought a CD called KY Jelly by Lemon Jelly a few years ago. I put it on when I’m feeling a bit down as it uplifts me. I can’t really describe what it is about the music that uplifts me, it just does and by the end of the CD I usually feel a lot better.
I have other music I put on when I’m doing housework. As I’m mentally preparing for my larger weekly clean I think about what music I need to listen to and select something to listen to while I work. It has to be turned up very loud to go over the noise of the vacuum cleaner. It’s usually something quite upbeat like the Chemical Brothers. I’m sure they’d love to know they’re my housecleaning music. I do enjoy them in other situations also.
Songs that are big hits at certain times evoke memories for me of that time. Unfortunately this applies for songs I really hate like Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You. When this song came out my work colleague listened to a popular FM radio station and they played this at least three times a day. I never liked it anyway but after hearing it so often I will always hate it with a passion, but I’ll never forget the colleague who’s radio played this song, and where I was working at the time.
When other songs come on the radio or on Rage late at night many of them bring a smile to my face because I haven’t heard them for so long and I used to really love them. It could be a song from when I was growing up, or when I started going out to discos and nightclubs.
What songs bring back memories for you?
jeanie says
There are songs that will always mean people or places or feelings for me also.
When my ex died, we played Joe Satriani’s “Always With Me, Always With You” – it was a song that he especially loved and particularly poignant for many of his friends and family.
My housework music of choice – well, you cannot go past Alannis Morissette to get you into fine fettle I have found.
My long distance darling has always made CDs for me, what he is enjoying or listening to or if lyrics give that little extra something – and so, from my first such CD One Crowded Hour will always be evocative.
ha ha the other night “Push It” came on the radio (I have no idea why) and I was instantly whizzed back into that downstairs nightclub in the valley in Brisbane where I spent many an evening!!
BTW really enjoying your blog (if I haven’t delurked before)