The Soundtracks Of Your Lives

One of my most recent soundtracks of my life is Oingo Boingo's "Just Another Day." I really needed something to get me through the dreaded work day and loneliness that has come with it. I get down in the dumps a lot due the 12 hour shifts and not getting extra time off. I try to make the best of what I got for a job, but its been tough. Found out that 12 guys quite before me in the past two years. Before that the only Oingo Boingo song I knew of was "Weird Science."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b6opMEu-zM

Another one smacked me good in '08. I had got back from going to Disneyland and Hawaii for a few weeks in January. While in Hawaii, I got looking at all the couples either getting married, on a honeymoon, or just vacationing and thought why isn't that me, what kind of life is this?! Got the flu around Valentine's Day and was trying to keep my eyes open at a store when I caught sight of this cashier girl. Didn't think much about it, but she was in the back of my mind. I recovered from the flu and went back to the store to see if she was still there (the place has quit a good turn over) and Huey Lewis and The News "The Power of Love" was playing. I played that song all summer long after my friend found the Back to the Future soundtrack for me and still playing it this summer. Sadly, I still haven't got the guts to ask her out, but have talked to her several times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFaXTcR4dtE

On top of that song Genesis "Invisible Touch" has some lyrics that sums it up for me.

"She seems to have an invisible touch yeah
She reaches in, grabs right hold of your heart
She seems to have an invisible touch yeah
It takes control and slowly tears your apart.

I don't really know her, I only know her name
But she crawls under your skin, you're never quite the same, and now I know..."

Ask her out Ghost! Go on, flirt with her!

Worst case scenario, she says no. But I'm guessing even if this happens, you'll have brightened her day a little just by making her feel wanted. And you'll know it wasn't to be and can turn your attentions romance-wise elsewhere. Best case scenario, she turns out to be perfect for you, you settle down, get married and live happily ever after. It's a no lose situation, so go for it!

Wow, this is so personal, but an excellent question or topic. I haven't had that many good times in my adult life after a certain point, and want to focus on the good, or at least try. But music was with me all along, through thick and thin, all ups and downs. I can identify very strongly with the sentiment or purpose of the topic. I might have 10 examples. :roll:

This was the very best of times, and never duplicated since - I was so high on natural endorphins that I was walking many feet off the ground, inexplicably happy when my first child/daughter was born. The goodness of it hit me of course after the 9 month wait (and my wife's :lol: ) plus the 24 hours of angst in the hospital, altogether 40 hours there without sleep. I was almost hallucinating.

Anyhow, once we got settled at home, I knew there was this song by Paul Davis, but had hardly heard it. It was rare (seldom seem or heard), like everything around here. I had to look it up in Sam The Record Man's huuuge catalog, finally found the right Paul Davis and the single "Sweet Life". It explained everything I was feeling, everything, the whole deal, custom-made for the occasion! 8) I ordered the 45 rpm record and it was rushed to me, so that I could play it a hundred times, all in the first week.

http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/p/pauldavis6960/sweetlife259533.html

That was nearly 30 years ago. Just about everything conceivable has happened since, but we're still sputtering along with some semblance of a family, mostly the dysfunctional parts; but working together (family first!) ... spoke with my daughter today on the phone, she still doesn't want to see me, just wants all the help and advice and relief from crises that she can get. Why not, she's a princess in my mind which may be stuck in the past with memories, like a dream?

Another one that's become part of my "soundtrack" is Neil Young's "Helpless".

If I close my eyes I can put myself back into that alley in Austin, TX in the early 1970's, the era of sex, drugs and rock and roll (and Austin was the place to be for a budding little hippie chick!). I'd been out partying with friends and had been imbibing in the latter two things the era was known for. Then it was time to go home (about 2 a.m.). To get to my car I had to go through this little alley, there was a light rain and I was really, really happy, so I don't really know why (other than my slightly altered state) I started singing "Helpless" as I walked through that dark, wet alley. But, it has stuck with me all these years. And, even today, I can close my eyes and see the alley, I can feel the rain lightly falling, I can feel how happy I was. I can hear my footsteps splashing in the little puddles and me happily singing ...

There is a town in north Ontario,
With dream comfort memory to spare,
And in my mind
I still need a place to go,
All my changes were there.

Blue, blue windows behind the stars,
Yellow moon on the rise,
Big birds flying across the sky,
Throwing shadows on our eyes.
Leave us

Helpless, helpless, helpless
Baby can you hear me now?
The chains are locked
and tied across the door,
Baby, sing with me somehow.

Blue, blue windows behind the stars,
Yellow moon on the rise,
Big birds flying across the sky,
Throwing shadows on our eyes.
Leave us

Helpless, helpless, helpless.

So, evidently "Soundtrack" moments don't really have to have a reason behind them. Sometimes they just happen.

Ask her out Ghost! Go on, flirt with her!

Worst case scenario, she says no. But I'm guessing even if this happens, you'll have brightened her day a little just by making her feel wanted. And you'll know it wasn't to be and can turn your attentions romance-wise elsewhere. Best case scenario, she turns out to be perfect for you, you settle down, get married and live happily ever after. It's a no lose situation, so go for it!

Thanks Scrybe! :D You just brightened my day a little more. Back in March I wrote this song about her:

http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=43927

I'm yet to finish the lyrics.

Another one of my soundtracks is Metallica's "Bleeding Me." It meant a lot to my best friend and was played at his memorial service. I remember how it felt to hear it along with his friends and family and the reactions that came with it. Sometimes its really tough to listen to. I always hope to get a phone call from him waiting for me to come over and listen to his new CD or watch a movie and BS away the day. He would also sing Soft Cell "Tainted Love" when he got frustrated with his mom. Would always be a good chuckle even though I didn't know what the song was at the time. I heard it on the radio the summer he passed away in '02 while at a different job and started laughing.

I have just completely ruined any semblance of credibility I might have previously had with that one post, haven't I? :roll: :lol:

Yep - you mentioned Rick Astley. Newton-le-Willows' biggest contribution to the world of music....

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh

:cry: :cry: :cry:

Vic

Oh Well - Fleetwood Mac

"I can't help about the shape I'm in, ....52-y-o, feelin' like 92, bad back, no get-up-and-go....
I can't sing, ................................yep, that's me.
I ain't pretty,...............................yep, that's definitely me!
And my legs are thin." ....................very, very definitely me!

:( :( :(

Vic

Oh Well - Fleetwood Mac

"I can't help about the shape I'm in, ....52-y-o, feelin' like 92, bad back, no get-up-and-go....
I can't sing, ................................yep, that's me.
I ain't pretty,...............................yep, that's definitely me!
And my legs are thin." ....................very, very definitely me!

:( :( :(

Vic

And what about the lines that follow:

"Don't ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to" :wink:

:note1: :note1: :note1:

John

Well when I was 16 I was really into Fall Out Boy....for obvious reasons. Listening to their older albums now takes me back a little. How far back you ask? Well im 18 now...I think I've grown a lot(well music wise at least) in those 2 years

Being born in 1960, a lot of my early soundtrack was The Beatles - "She Loves You" was my first musical memory, I remember "Michelle" being on the radio constantly one summer when I was dropped at Grandma's house while my parents went off to earn a crust, and "Let It Be" fascinated me just because of "Mother Mary comes to me/ speaking words of wisdom, let it be."

"Downtown" - Petula Clark still reminds me of sunny days with my mum before I ever went to school. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "Scarborough Fair" are way up there too.

Teenage years - "American Pie," "Ride A White Swan," the big songs by Slade (come on Vic, you know the ones I mean), Sweet, and early Queen hits. My first girlfriend was seriously into Queen and the line "take your little brother swimming with a brick that's alright" from "Tie your Mother Down" still reminds me of her and her a-hole of a little bro. The Clash, Tom Robinson Band, X-Ray Spex, Boz Scaggs, early Ultravox and a lot of Ska bands finished off my teens and into my twenties along with some band called Rush, who I first heard on the Old Grey Whistle Test one night. My dad hated Rush; can't imagine why, I only played them every day.

Twenties and thirties - not a lot to talk about really. Queen, Rush, and Fleetwood Mac were the only things making much I liked up until Big Country discovered R&B and the volume got turned up to 35. After I divorced the first Mrs Green I started getting into Classical Guitar in a big way. I'd always liked it but I started playing it too.

Since 2000, when I went off to Germany, the soundtrack has been getting heavier and heavier. Courtesy of the Kerrang TV station I got into Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, G 'n' R, System Of A Down and Rammstein. They also used to play some quirky band from Devon called Muse, a song called "Plug In Baby" became of those rare songs where I just had to work out the guitar part. Later additions have been Velvet Revolver and a Finnish band called HIM (short for His Infernal Majesty, and I've been laying them on the iPod at work this morning).

I still play classical Guitar, but nothing from that side of what I do evokes the same emotional response.

A :-)