Many
things bring back memories but for me, the one thing that can conjure up any
memory, good or bad, is music. Every relationship I’ve been in had a theme song
that reminds me of that person. Every bad breakup also has a song
(unfortunately, one particular song, which happens to be one of my favourite
songs, reminds me of a person I’d rather forget!).
There are
songs that remind me of my childhood friends, people who passed away, people
who moved away, moments I never want to forget and moments I wish never
happened but can laugh at now.
There are
also those songs that remind me of memorable things that have happened on the
road or while traveling abroad. Those
songs set the backdrop for some interesting, sometimes funny and always
unforgettable moments where people from different backgrounds and cultures were
united in a moment of togetherness even when language wasn’t a common factor.
I can trace the connection between music and travel back to my grade school
years when my class would pile into an old school bus and travel to various
places around Cape Breton for field trips. All the way to our destination, we
sang songs. Even the bus driver would join in.
The 90s - Teenage
Rebellion and Walkmans
Road
trips with my parents were much the same until I hit my teenage years and music
took on a different form. It was no longer “cool” to sing along to
campfire-like songs with my parents; My Walkman (yes, Walkman – it was the
90’s) was my steady companion on those long trips and I often retreated into my
own little world as I watched the world go by through the car window.
MC
Hammer, Vanilla Ice, C+C Music Factory and Technotronic. Again, it was the 90s.
My parents hated this because they saw
it as me removing myself from their circle and being anti-social. I saw it as
me discovering my own taste in music and setting my own soundtrack to the
memories that were being made.
As I got older, I started leaving the portable music player at home and listened
to the radio instead. I developed a taste in music similar to my mother’s.
Dwight Yoakam, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, The Garrison Brothers, The
BeeGees, Sheryl Crow and Nana Mouskouri. I started to appreciate well-written
song lyrics and real instruments. Folk music, country music, rock music, world
music. I developed quite a diverse taste
in music!
Now, when
I hear “The Streets of Bakersfield” by Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens or Roger
Miller's version of "Me and Bobby McGee" I'm taken back to the days when
Mom and I would drive around town with our coffee.
The songs "Silver
Seas" and "Massachusetts" bring me back to the days of watching
mom carefully prepare dinner. Boney M's Christmas Album brings happy tears to
my eyes because it reminds me of the time-honoured Christmas tradition of
decorating the house with that album playing so loud, the whole house would
shake.
When I got
my first car, the first things I did were make a bunch of mix tapes and CDs and
raid the cheap bin at Wal Mart where they sold old cassettes of long-forgotten
bands from the 70s and 80s.
"Perry Mason" - Ozzy Osbourn - First Cape Breton Road Trip on my Own
When it
comes to special memories made on the road, there are many and each one can be
paired with a song. I remember the day I got my first car quite well. My
parents surprised me with a white 1989 Honda Accord. I grabbed some tapes from
my bedroom and jumped in the car to embark on my first solo mission behind the
wheel of my very own car. Well, not really solo. I tool my sisters along.
I
remember the song that was playing when I pulled out of the driveway; Ozzy
Osbourne’s “Perry Mason”. A few months later, I furnished that car with a brand
new, state-of-the-art sound system with amps, subwoofers and a CD player, top
of the line in those days! That faithful little Honda was my sanctuary for 6
road-trip-filled years. I figured I had put that poor car through enough when
the odometer reached 425,000 kilometres.
The summer before I moved away for college, I took one last trip around TheCabot Trail. I still remember the song that was playing on the radio when I
found myself driving along the lonely country road through the Margaree Valley;
“Strawberry Wine” by Deanna Carter.
The Harmonica Player
When I moved to Newfoundland in 2000, my car came with me. The night of the ferry crossing from Cape
Breton to Argentia was one filled with bitter-sweet emotions. I was homesick before the ferry even docked
but excited to be going on that new journey.
As I stood on the outside deck of that ferry and watched my hometown get
smaller and smaller and the waters around me become dark and rough as we
crossed into the open ocean, loneliness swept over me.
Then, I heard a sound coming from above me in the shadows of the upper
deck. It sounded like a harmonica. I followed the sounds until I noticed a
shadow on a bench in a far corner. A young man was playing the harmonica and
soon, that young man joined the band in the main lounge for a lively set that
had me forgetting my sorrow for just a little while.
"Sweet Child of
Mine" - Guns N' Roses - Theme Song
of my Youth (Or perhaps my entire generation)
Everyone has that one song that takes them back to the best years of
their life. That song for me is Sweet
Child of Mine by Guns N' Roses. Driving
around the backroads of St. John's and touring the outports outside the city
while a carload of us sing to this song at the top of our lungs is one of my
fondest memories but this song was the backdrop to so many epic moments of my
life.
"Billy Jean" -
Michael Jackson - My Song
Everyone has that one song that everyone else knows as their song. For me, it's Billy Jean. I'm sure everyone on George St. in St. John's
knew it was my song. I know almost every
DJ did! I wouldn't have to say anything
when I approached their booth. They just
knew and next thing you know, my song would be on.
I liken my reaction to the first few beats of
the song as the reaction you get from a cat who hears a can of tuna being
opened...running to the dance floor, usually a few sheets to the wind but always
with the intention of savouring every moment that song graced the interior of
whatever club I happened to be in.
"Dirty Old Town"
- The Pogues - St. John's, Newfoundland
I moved to St. John's, Newfoundland just out of High School so the first
11 years of my adulthood were spent there so I was heartbroken when I had to
leave.
The night before I departed the
city for good, I managed to get all of my friends together for one last night
on George Street. We hit all of our
favourite haunts, enjoyed some of our favourite local bands, drank, ate and had
a blast. We ended the night at the same
place we ended every other night we got together on George St. over the last 11
years.
At last call, as I savoured my
last Vodka and cranberry a familiar song came on. Fittingly, the song had been
sort of a theme song for my life in St. John's.
Fittingly, Dirty Old Town was the last song that played that night. When
I want to return to that special night many years ago, all I have to do is
close my eyes and listen to that song and I'm taken back there.
"We no Speak
Americano" - Yolanda be Cool - Playa
Del Carmen Mexico
A trip to Mexico many years ago turned into a complete disaster and in
the background of every horrible moment that week, the song “We No Speak
Americano” by Yolanda be Cool was blaring through the speakers in the common
area of the hotel. I’m not sure why the staff had such an obsession with that
particular song but even when I hear it today, I have flashbacks to that horrible
week in Playa Del Carmen.
"Mambo #5" - Lou
Bega - Varadero, Cuba
My trip to Cuba the following year was much better. The only problem? I
had the song “Mambo #5” by Lou Bega stuck in my head for weeks after I returned
home! For some reason, this song was played over and over again in the common
areas of the resort. Now every time I hear that song, it reminds me of that
week.\
"Freedom 90" -
George Michael - Montezuma, Costa Rica
And then there was Costa Rica, one of my most memorable trips. A week
spent at a yoga retreat in paradise. I was too tired to walk back to the
retreat after an evening spent wandering the little surf village of Montezuma so I hailed a cab. My driver couldn’t speak a word of English and we both
struggled to communicate. After some pointing and hand gestures and broken
words in English and Spanish, he understood where I wanted to go. We started
the short journey up that steep hill to Anamaya Yoga Retreat in silence until
he turned on the radio. One might assume that a Spanish song would be playing
on a local station in a Spanish-speaking country but it was an English song. My
driver recognized the song and that man who could not speak a word of English
only a few minutes earlier began to sing along to George Michael’s “Freedom 90”
at the top of his lungs…in clear, unbroken English!

Over the course of my life, I have had many
such unplanned and unforgettable moments and I feel fortunate to have those
memories and to be able to remember the songs that bring me back to those
special moments frozen in time. Someday, I may forget those memories and I can
only hope that the sound of a particular song will bring me back. I believe
music has that much power. I’ve experienced that power many times.