Single Subject

Yeah yeah I know my last blog was about music but this is important shut up okay right so.

We all have those songs that remind us of people, right? Like there's songs that you pop on and, almost instantly, there's images and memories running riot of times past - good or bad.

What about, though... what about those songs that strongly remind you of just one person? And always will?

There's a lot of songs like that in my head, too. Some of them are easier to talk about than others.

In The Living Years by Mike & The Mechanics will never, ever not make me think about my dad. It was one of his favourite songs. The lyrics depict a somewhat hostile relationship between a father and a son, which lasts all the way to the older man's dying day - the regrets that follow knowing that things were left unsaid, and the younger man looking at his own newborn son and wondering if it will play out the same way.

I think it goes without saying that my father and I had that kind of relationship. Until he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, we didn't see eye-to-eye at all; he didn't know how to treat me, when I was a child. We got on a lot better when I grew into a man, and we weren't living under each other's feet all day.


Goodnight Elisabeth by Counting Crows evokes the memory of an old flame. Their name isn't even Elisabeth. It just...fits. Perfectly. Not in a good or bad way. It's just the way the cards were dealt, and the way life went. Bittersweet, sure, and there's regrets there - but we learn. We live and we learn and that's how we get better.

Tainted Love by Soft Cell will ALWAYS make me think of my buddy Josh from school. There's no way we'd ever hit the pub without listening to this in his house on his Technics sound system at least once. Truth e told I sometimes preferred the pre-gathering to the actual pub trip. As much as I
actually hate the song (I REALLY DO), it always reminds me of good times.

Colorful by Rocco DeLuca was probably written about an ex-girlfriend of mine that I am still on good terms with. It's just true. I mean sure there's some people that it MIGHT be about, some people it MIGHT remind me of, but there's only one that comes to mind literally every time. Drink like it's water, girl.

Short Skirt Long Jacket by Cake reminds me of a good friend of mine from Bradford. The first time we met, she was wearing a short skirt and a long jacket. The song came out later that year, and I played the song over the pone to her (I'd left college at that point). She loved it. Also she always said that she'd love to have fingernails that shine like justice.

Show Me How To Live by Audioslave - my wonderful friend Kristina from Oregon. We were in the car with her mother, and the only radio station we could get along the Wilamette was the local rock station. So her mom spent almost five minutes laughing at the pair of us as we tried to sing along to this...

The Dambusters March by Eric Coates, while evoking the Dambusters themselves, also reminds me of the inimitable Mark Edwards. Medwards as you may know him. If you need to ask why then you clearly don't know him...

Kings & Queens by 30 Seconds To Mars can't help but make me think of my girlfriend. One of the ways in which I discovered she was a keeper was when I went to the cinema with her, before we ever got together. It was to see Despicable Me. (Yes, the first one.) A trailer at the beginning was for some owl cartoon (Legend of the Guardians maybe?) and it featured this song - and the fact that she didn't disown me immediately the moment I jumped up onto the top ot the steps, threw my arms opened and bellowed "We are THE KIIIIIINGS!" ...well, you know. That's a good acid test. Love you baby boo.

Veteran Of The Psychic Wars by Blue Oyster Cult - well this one makes me think of my spirit guide. It seems to be about him. Which is a hard thing to say about a song that paints such a bleak and hard picture...but it is ultimately a song about strength and survival rather than suffering, and I hope he'd see it that way. (Yes, my spirit guide is a guy, not an animal. Yes, I am more of a scientist than a spiritualist. Yes I know. Hush your gums.)

Snuff by Slipknot reminds me of someone very specific. If you know the song then you may understand why I won't go into details. It is a hard song, a hurting song. I doubt the person even knows this is how I feel, or what they would do about it if they did. It's not really something I want to find out, either.

Music makes things easier, for me. It always has. Emotionally speaking I find it difficult to process complexity. It's whyt I always try and approach situations with my logic hat on, at the detriment of...well...you can imagine. So when I form emotional attachments I suppose it is only understandable that I find music that resonates with that attachment. It makes it easier for me to describe and decode.

Well. There we have it. Far from an exhaustive list, but certainly a good place to start.