Some researchers say that smell is the strongest trigger of memory. But, I don't have a strong sense of smell. So for me the strongest trigger and connection to the past is music. Where I was at a certain moment when I first heard a song. Who I was youthfully in love/lust with at the time. Where was I and what was I doing. Songs take me back and trigger memories of teenaged angst and youthful dreams and thoughts. I'm not one to play music all day long. I love having a quiet moment or several where I don't have anything not even a computer or TV screen blaring at me. Now, don't get me wrong. I love technology and I am often absorbed in my phone looking up facebook or video or checking messages and email. I even had a young nurse laugh one day when I was having a medical appointment and she said I looked like a teenager with my face in my phone. So, I don't want to mislead as if I'm this quiet stoic deep person. I can be at times but I also have Late onset Adult Deficit Attention Disorder according to my wife.
Music was (along with beer and chemicals that are better left in the past) an escape for me from the mundane in my youth. Music and books. But, it's the lyrics I hear every once in a while that take me back. I can be 17 and watching a Tequila Sunrise with the Eagles or getting on a Midnight Train to Georgia with Gladys Knight and the Pips. I can be 14 and looking across the General Forrest Junior High gym in Gadsden, Alabama at a neighborhood girl I grew up with and all of a sudden noticing her in a different way while Badfinger plays over the P.A. system about "looking out of my lonely room"
I can be transported to a car and looking over at the most beautiful girl that ever walked out of Altoona, Alabama while Foghat sings "Slow Ride" and I can remember my first ticket when Creedence Clearwater was rocking on my 8 track and my foot got heavy while they were blaring out "Lookin' out my Back Door"
I can go back and all of a sudden my hair is long and thick and my body is full of energy and I can hear Linda Ronstadt singing "Desperado" in a way that not even the Eagles can quite match. At least not in the version where she ends the song and those huge brown eyes look into the camera at the end. Talk about "Mike Drop" That was awesome.
I read where Peter Frampton is having to retire because he has a disease that is causing his muscles to go slack on him and he can't play the guitar. I still remember the album "Frampton Comes Alive." I didn't care for the album and I traded a great Steve Miller 8 track for the darn thing. But, still it's hard to think of the long haired youthful Peter Frampton not being able to play the guitar. Old age is certainly not for sissies. Still, I'm thankful to be on the outskirts of it and looking forward to ever how many more miles my source allows me to travel.
I grew up with country music. My mother sang and my step dad played the guitar and the old Country/Western stuff filled the house. I hated it. I did grow up to appreciate the genius of Hank Williams and the beauty of Patsy Cline and the hard headed courage of Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. But, back then Porter Wagnor and Buck Owens and George Jones were not my thing.
However, I do have the "odd" ability to sing along with the lyrics of just about any country song you can name that was sung by George Jones or Loretta Lynn or Porter and Buck. You can't grow up around music even if it's not your music without it rubbing off on you.
So, I'm older now and I don't listen as much as I once did. I still pick up my ole six string and strum on good days when my hands don't get tired and my limbs and breath are good. It takes me back. I sometimes wonder if the coming generation will be as musically gifted or as taken away to a different place as we were. It's kind of odd but this new "tolerant" generation seems more segregated in some ways than we were. They get into their safe spaces and can't be bothered by anything that is different or alternative to what they are comfortable with. Oh well, maybe that's just an old fart looking back and judging the youth. It's been going on ever since the first kid put on a rock and roll record or a soul singer came on the radio and white bread America had to come to terms with the fact that there are different voices in life. Maybe the kids today will be alright in the long run.
So, most days you won't find me listening to an endless playlist of songs on my phone. Most of the time I'm listening to a book on Audible or a podcast about the paranormal or sports radio. But, some days the mood will hit me. My hands will feel good and breath will come easy and I'll pull down my old guitar or I'll turn up my sound system and go back for just a minute or and hour and get lost in Rock and Roll.
Peace!
