Transported By Music

Music is an important part of my life.   It's probably important to you, too.

In my world, music is important to me on so many levels, it's hard for me to describe.  On one level, I enjoy music just to hear sounds that are pleasing to my ears, and on the level music holds an equal place with laughter, bells, and the sound of automatic weapons (the sound of machine guns make me smile, again, don't judge). 

On another level, music moves me emotionally, whether the music is inspirational in my faith, or it is a sad ballad, or a song about the joys of love, music has the ability to make me feel things that don't generally come out of the white noise in my head. 

On still another level, music can sometimes be something that is neither spiritual, emotional, or just pleasing to the ears.  Sometimes music just makes me want to move my body... whether it is just tapping my foot, dancing, or headbanging with an intensity that would make Angus Young proud.  I don't want to talk about any of those things today.

No. 

 

I want to talk about being transported by music.  Transported to a time and place in your life that is significant to a particular song.  I have many of them, as you probably do.  One of my "transportational" songs is the old Motown classic "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing" by Marvin Gaye & Tammy Terrell.  Some of you may remember the song... it is one of the quintessential songs of the Motownera.  For me, the song reminds me of the time immediately prior to my parent's divorce.  Released in 1968, when I was only 5, the song always brings me to riding in the back of our station wagon, when my dad was stations at Hamilton Air Force Base, California.

 

I am chronologically certain my parent's marriage was already in the toilet at that point, but I was a little boy... and the song always reminds me that we were an intact family in those days.  It makes me happy and sad at the same time.   It makes me happy because of the warm feeling of togetherness, however illusory... and it makes me sad because it's is the only "happy family" feeling I have of my childhood, and it is intensely fleeting.  When people say that divorce doesn't have long-term effects, tell them to come and talk to me, I'll call bullshit right to their faces.

 

Another song that transports me to a particular time and place is the song "Magic To Do" from the Broadway play "Pippin".  I have this song on my ipod, on my "Movie Music" play-list, and while I was on my way to work this morning, driving through the hated Springfield Interchange, I listened to it and enjoyed the fact that it took me back to 1977, when I went, with my Junior High School music class, to see the play in New York city.  I don't remember much of the play... to tell you the truth, beyond two songs, I don't remember any of it, other than the fact that Ben Vereen was in the cast when we went.

The songs that I mentioned aren't the only ones that take me places, but they stood out the other day when I decided to blog about this... I'll bet you have songs like this.

 

What are they?, and where do they take you?