Friday 31 August 2012

BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY, THIS LIFE


I was listening to the radio last night and heard that song. You know that song that suddenly brings back a flood of memories from a time that just makes you smile and say to yourself, ‘god that was a good time in my life.’ [And god my ass was so much smaller]. I’m big on sense memory and the part that music plays in memory recall, and I’m happy to say I have many songs that apply to many sections of my life, as most will do (unless you’re not a music lover and then…well, I don’t trust people who don’t like music). I suppose that’s as close as we’ll all get to having a running soundtrack of our lives. I mean admit it, how many films have you seen where the music starts to play while two characters are falling in love and you think, damn it, things in real life would be so much more interesting if some quirky Indie band was standing behind me singing their heart out while I went through my daily tasks.

The song I heard the other night was ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ by The Verve. Such a good song (of course every time I hear it I can’t help but think how pissed they must be for having to give away all the publishing to The Stones. Yes, I am a composer’s child) that reminds me of when I first moved to London; not to mention, it also reminds me of a time when musicians used to actually sing live, play instruments and wear non revealing outfits. Anyway, at the time I was young and in love and thought I had discovered the world’s greatest city – well, barring the weather, I had; and that little song set to a great sample became so much more. It became the soundtrack for that time in my life when anything felt possible and I was set free in a large city to wreak havoc (I kid!). Not to mention, when I hear that song, I smile and actually feel younger; I’m not sure if I’m smiling out of remembrance or because I feel younger. Once you hit 40, you’ll take whatever you can get.

The best part of music recall, as I like to call it, is there are songs for so many different chapters in one’s life. There is the song my husband played me shortly after we met [that I had never heard before] that blew my doors off. I remember sitting there thinking, okay, if this man knew well enough to play me this song, he’s not only soulful, but he’s got serious moves (well done honey). There are songs that got you thru breakups (usually totally depressing ones that made you cry even harder, cause we humans like to wallow in a bit of misery); songs you traveled with, window down, hair blowing, tunes blaring (road trips are key in this category); songs you got your screaming newborn to sleep to (the King favored Coldplay’s first album and Trouble by Ray La Montagne) songs that remind you of people. Songs that you wished didn’t remind you of people…you see, the possibilities with music and memories are endless.

Funny enough, I’ve often been told that my father’s songs mark significant events in other people’s lives. Often this makes me smile, as I appreciate the feeling it gave them and am proud he was able to mark that time in their life. And other times, I cringe slightly as people like to tell me way too personal of information like, they lost their virginity in the back of a Ford to one of his songs. Um. Okay, thanks for (over) sharing.

Who knows? Maybe the King will be walking down the street one day and hear ‘The Wheels on the Bus," (no clue who wrote this stellar classic) and be transported back to the days when he and I would sit in the park on a bench eating crackers (the kid loves crackers) and I’d sing the song over and over, and he’ll think to his adult self, ‘despite the countless hours of therapy to work out my mother issues, she wasn’t so bad after all.’

Sigh. A mom can dream.   


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