This is the soundtrack of my life.
SIDE A:
Everything's Alright (Jesus Christ Superstar sdtk)-- When I am but a wee little baby, my mom sings this to me as a lullaby. Interesting choice for a recent immigrant, but my mom is always up on things.
Angel of the Morning (Juice Newton) -- I am being driven to the YMCA for swim lessons. The back seat of my mom's car is plush and velvety. To this day, this song brings to mind the feeling of chlorine snorted in my nose.
Karma Chameleon (Culture Club) -- my first love affair. Me and the library. I find out I can rent this record and play it incessantly. I will continue this habit (of playing music incessantly) to date, although my predilection for Boy George's work will wane with time.
Material Girl (Madonna) -- Abby and I attend the fun fair at school and they have
Star Studio, a prehistoric karaoke machine. We record this. It will be one of my favorite life moments ever. I will reconnect with the fun of that day when Gene brings me into the studio more than 20 years later. However I will rabidly avoid karaoke bars for some unknown reason.
Beat It (Michael Jackson) -- I have an 8th birthday party. The theme is punk. The cake is Cabbage Patch. My tights are hot pink, my hair is in a side ponytail, and Dana is there, despite my dislike for her, because my mom said so. We climb on the jungle gym and sing acapella for my dad's camera. A star is born.
I Want Your Sex (George Michael) -- I experience my first run-in with censorship. I am on a road trip with my family and I am belting this out "sex is best when it's (lower voice) one-on-one..." in the back seat. My mom gives me the business. I will avoid this song until I move out of my parents' house then will reclaim it after the millenium as the fabulous tune it is, horn section and all.
Over and Over (Madonna) -- I am 9. My father buys me a ghettoblaster (I've blogged about that. It was momentous.) Armed with dubbing capabilities and a translucent orange tape, I acquire Madonna's "Like A Virgin" album. It's not the most popular song on the album, but I like it. And I'm a 9 year old Persian girl, so I'm not about to walk around my house singing Like a Virgin (I don't even know what a virgin is). I distinctly recall being at a dinner party hanging out with the other kids (the boys) in the basement and walking around with my headphones on singing this song at the top of my lungs (the 1986 version of playing it cool). For years Madonna will accompany and empower me as I deal with nonchalant men in my life.
Never Say Goodbye (Bon Jovi) -- My mom's brother visits the United States and somehow this translates into me being gifted a copy of the freshly-released Slippery When Wet. I am addicted to purchasing music and Sam Goody becomes my second home. Despite the many hits on this album, something about this ("you and me and my old friends/hoping this will never end") ballad interests me.
Bad (Michael Jackson) -- Susie takes over liking MJ at this point in time. My last memory of my adoration of Mike has to do with a poster of him lying on his side. I had a guitar sticker and I place it on his weiner. I am unable to remove the sticker and, with the Catholic guilt I have been saddled with in this unCatholic life of mine, confess to my father. He laughs.
Didn't I Blow Your Mind (New Kids On the Block) -- Fever takes hold. My friends and I finally have music interests in common. We will fight over which New Kid each of us gets. Freshly introduced to the cultural phenomenon of the rat tail (courtesy of my draft "pick", Jordan Knight) my mother will grow a rat tail curl on the back of my brother's hair. He will never forgive me.
My first concert ensues and I feel the desperation of having New Kids dangled from cranes above me, but being unable to reach them. I am a distraught teenage Sisyphus.
Funky Funky Christmas (New Kids On The Block) -- I adore this song and the album, even "Little Drummer Boy" the barumpabumbum of which has always irritated me otherwise. This demonstrates my ability to love my musical idols through thick and thin. This will be a theme in my life.
Nothing Compares 2U (Sinead O'Connor) -- 7th grade. I am 12 and this becomes my first slow dance with a boy. I regret to inform you that I was wearing tie-dye. I compromised cool (tie dye and skort) for my mom's controlling fashion sense (in deep red and forest green). Approximately 6 years later this same boy will come out. I will take it slightly personally.
I'm Going Bananas (Madonna/Dick Tracy sdtk) -- In what will probably prove to be the supreme demonstration of patriarchal patience in his life, my father sits through one half of my choreography to this album. Susie and I agree that I'm Going Bananas is a great song. We don't agree on much music for the next 10 years, but those hours of dancing in the basement are important to us.
I Remember You (Skid Row) -- I enter high school. I am a disgruntled teenager. I find the hard rock station and will spend every quarter I have playing songs like this on the juke box of our vacation hotels. I will make mixes that years later I will still listen to. I will be disturbed to cross paths again with Sebastian Bach in 2006
when he cameos on Gilmore Girls.
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2) -- My mom is becoming more serious about her personal pledge to use music to stay close with her kids. She scams us awesome tickets to see U2 during the
Zoo TV tour. I am appreciative but for the first time realize just how wonderful and resourceful my mom is! We love the show, we feel grown up going alone. Years later when we lose the friend that Susie and I went with I will still smile when I think of this night.
Three Little Birds (Bob Marley) -- I am introduced to Bob Marley by a local Michigan neighbor. I have never heard reggae before. I am amazed.
Deadbeat Club (B52s) -- I spend summers perfecting the art of being imperfect on rollerblades. This is the sound of
South Haven to me.
Would (Alice in Chains) -- I attend my first Battle of the Bands. A cute guy is playing bass to this song, I am wearing my courderoy jacket and all is well in my life. Until my friend tells me later that night that the cute guy used to be her boyfriend. And that he raped her. I will always like Alice in Chains but will usually skip this track. On a lighter note, same ex-friend stole my Spin Doctors CD. It was a weird music year. In high school music begins to define you as it never did before. Laced up in combat boots (only 8 hole because I have short legs) I naturally gravitate to the darker stuff, listening to Madonna on my own clock.
Hard to Handle (Black Crowes) -- I will teach my brother to sing the chorus of this song. He is 4 years old. We work on choreography. He will never admit that between this and his Michael Jackson DANGEROUS album (a gift) I shaped his music career.
Coma (Guns n Roses) -- Guns n Roses emerges as my favorite hard rock group. Back in South Haven, two girls and two boys go into one boy's room and close the door. It is completely dark. I am sitting with the boy I have had a crush on all summer - if not longer. We listen to Coma over and over again. When we emerge into the blinding light girl #2 whispers to me me that she and boy #2 were making out the whole time. I missed that cue apparently.
Come Baby Come (K7) -- I make the hip hop dance group. I am thrilled and I work my ass off at it. I invite my parents to my first performance, and with pride they bring my visiting Grandma. I only realize this is a bad decision when I am humping the ground in front of their bleacher.
True Colors (Cyndi Lauper) -- I know, you think I slipped up on the chronology. But I didn't. Back around 1986 my mom decided that Cyndi Lauper sounded like a singer she used to love (Melanie). Mom buys this tape and I am stunned, never having seen her take such an interest to music before. A few years after that I sing over/with the track as a gift to my best friend Stacy. I decide it would be a nice gift for mom too, so I put it on a mix for her. This heartfelt gift is unfortunately revealed at my Sweet 16 where my mom has had a video montage of moi put together -- set to the sound of myself singing. I experience wanting death more than life, however briefly. I retain the reflex of cringing when the song is heard. Phil Collins' cover does nothing to lessen my symptoms.
These Are the Days (10,000 Maniacs) -- This tape will play as I take my first drive as a free (drivers licensed) woman. Halfway to school I realize I left my license at home.
Brass Monkey (Beastie Boys) -- I am in college. This tune hitting the stereo meant the party was going well.
Shock Dat Monkey (TLC) -- This is the cd on as I drive to Madison (U of WI) to visit one of my friends for a party Halloween weekend. I am in my little silver bullet Honda Prelude (aka "Pia") listening to this cd on full blast. I slam on the brakes and am rear-ended by a cadillac. My first (and hopefully last) major accident. Whoops. I proceed to Madison and party like it never happened.
Brown Sugar (D'Angelo) -- I am introduced to soul music. Enough said.
Wannabe (Spice Girls) -- Discovered while in Greece with one of my best friends. "What the hell is this?" We laugh. We buy a Euromix and bring it back to the United States. Little did we know. It becomes the sorority preparty anthem the year I'm living in the house.
Let Me Clear My Throat (DJ Kool) -- The bass of this song will launch me to any dancefloor anytime throughout college. "If you got hair from your head to your sleeve, even if you got a weave, can I get an uh uh"
Bittersweet (Lewis Taylor) -- My cousin gives me the first Lewis Taylor album. I am stunned and will proceed to gift myself his cds every year for my birthday.
No Scrubs (TLC) -- Prepartying with the Divas (Jessica and Pavna) for nights out dancing at Rick's. I played this cd all day every day. It's also the background music as I sit in my room doing work but really waiting for a certain guy to call on the 'batphone'. And later the music I will seethe to.
Something About You (Level 42) -- The first time a guy tells me that a song reminds him of me. Years later this same guy will choose the emotionally void method of emailing me the news of his engagement weeks after it happens.
Stealing My Sunshine (Len) -- My boyfriend makes me a mix. This song is on it. Holy red flag. Years later I will mark this as the first confirmation that you can judge a person (especially a partner) by their musical taste. I will never make that mistake again.
Ojos Asi (Shakira) -- Shakira is all the rage when I go to Argentina to study abroad. I have one of the most exciting summers of my life- I spend 6 weeks in a country I adore with friends I love, I speak Spanish, I do no homework, my mom beats cancer and my family moves the home base to San Diego. Her unplugged album is incredible and is the soundtrack of me sitting in a cafe taking it all in.
Ascension (Maxwell) -- Jessica and I obsess over Maxwell. We attend his concert at the Shrine Auditorium and I feel it is a religious experience as I'll ever have- perhaps the most I've ever been affected by a live performance. The fact that it was unexpected makes it even better.
Hands (Jewel) -- I hear this song before Christmas and listen to the words (not something I'm known for). I tear up behind the wheel. I am appalled and amazed all at once at the ability of a song to touch me so. I will later hear Bob Carlisle's Butterfly Kisses and have a similar reaction. I will forcibly stop listening to the pillow talk station for a period of time.
Dear Mr. Man (Prince) -- Prince makes a comeback and I complete my triumverate of pop reunion tours. (Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Prince). I can die a happy woman. I don't expect much from the show but it's electrifying and he commands the crowd despite the crappy acoustics. I grin, I blog, I enjoy how far we've both come as well as our shared taste in platform heels.
Delicate (
Dave's Son) -- I move to San Diego. I have no friends. Amit from college comes to visit (hi amit!) and hooks me up with his friends. (The same people who got me a-blogging). Days, nights, and months go by having the time of my life doing everything and, really, nothing. Gene (aka Dave's Son) works on material at my house and comes up with a few songs I'm particularly fond of. Despite Treehouse being written at my house this one hits home and is on every mix I can squeeze it into for a very long time. Gene takes me with him to the studio. Heaven. Peanut peanut.
My Baby (Janet Jackson ft Kanye West) -- Dancing becomes a staple of San Diego life. Before I know it we're packing in a hip hop class before Sushi Wednesdays. This is the warmup song and also the album in Hong's SUV every time I climb in.
I Don't Feel Like Dancin' (Scissor Sisters) -- I up and move to San Francisco. I've always wanted to try it, so I do. Why the hell not? This becomes our theme song during my three month stay. Despite its distinctly country roots, I play it all hours for everyone around me until we're all dancing. It is also my lead-off track when I program my ipod to run a half-marathon completely untrained, just because I want to know what it's like to run across the Golden Gate Bridge.
**
I'm sure there's much more I'm forgetting but these are the songs that stick out. As for Side B, we're not even there yet!
By the time I'm done on this Earth, I want my own box set.
Thanks to Taiga for the idea! And to create your own cassette magic go to: http://www.says-it.com/cassette/index.php
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