The Songs that Take me Back Down Those Forgotten Roads

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.