Music and Memories

There is probably nothing save Cynthia that I am more passionate about than music. Cooking would be a close third I am guessing. Music however has always been a big part of my life. I guess it started like everyone else. Church hymns and being a part of the choir. Before that was music class in Elementary School. At that age I did not get how powerful it was. It was a living breathing thing and very powerful. I had the privilege of having two older brothers who had some influence on the music I was exposed to as well as my mother who had an eclectic taste in music. My dad was not really into the whole music thing at the time. I think over the years he has come around a bit. Who can live without music in the life for goodness sake? Whether you like it or not you are exposed to it. Whether you know it or not it is powerful. It can evoke emotions and memories. What else can take you back and even bring you to tears? What other way was there to express to your significant other how you felt than a mix tape. You remember the mix tape. A collection of power ballads that said all you couldn't.  You can even recall certain events and times in your life by just hearing a song. Music is always present except maybe birth at all of our special occasions.
    I remember as a young preteen discovering my musical taste. I remember my first album bought. It was "Some Things Don't Come Easy" by England Dan and John Ford Coley. I still love that album. I still have it and its well worn with all of the crackle and hiss. One of the coolest things I got to do in radio was interview John Ford Coley. I explained to him that he had an impact on my life because of his music. He was an awesome interview and a really cool dude. As we were talking off air prepping for the next segment after the commercial break. We were talking about the record and I told him about one of my favorite tracks on it and he said that he hated the song. Not in a mean way he just thought it was too simple. That was cool I learned then and there just because it is on a record it doesn't mean the artist loves it.
   A lot of the artist that I listened to growing up I had the opportunity to sit and talk to them one on one. I especially was intrigued by the ones that wrote their own music. You could feel the excitement in their voice as they explained how a song came to be. After that you listen to a song with more appreciation for understanding where it came from.
     As a teenager I never thought as I was listening to these artists on American Top 40 with Casey Kasem, that I would be conversing with them.  Its funny how life turns out. That is the power of music. It takes you to places you never thought you would go. It takes you back to your childhood. I remember breaking up with my first serious girlfriend and hearing a song on the radio. A light came on and I thought to myself I get it, I understand it.  Music can make you remember people and places and in your mind its so vivid. You could almost touch it. That is why music is so powerful. It can help you remember or forget. It can comfort or evoke pain.  But most of all it can put a smile on your face as you find yourself drifting to a time far away thinking about some of the greatest memories of your life.