Music has always played a big part in my life. I often find myself in a moment when I’m listening to a song and paying close attention to where I am and storing the memory away. This means I have many songs and certain music that I associate with different memories.
Below is a look into my brain with some music that always reminds me of certain places.
Come Together by The Beatles~Parties in my grandma’s backyard
This song puts me right back into my grandma’s backyard when I was a little kid, watching my dad sing and other family members play along.
My dad was always the lead singer in different bands when he was growing up, and continued to sing for fun when I was younger. Spunky’s Toupee was a band that consisted of my dad, his brother Jim, and some of my older cousins. The name of the band was a way to make fun of my Uncle Jim. His nickname used to be Spunky and everyone would make fun of him and say that he wore a toupee, and somehow they put the two together to come up with the band name.
Spunky’s Toupee would get together at my house and practice in the garage. Their big gigs consisted of playing in my grandma’s backyard for graduation parties.
“Come Together” was one of the songs Spunky’s Toupee covered, and it was my favorite one to hear them play. My whole family was gathered in the backyard to watch the band play and it was a moment where music all brought us together in one place.
My cousin Maggie graduated from high school this year and her graduation party in our grandma’s backyard marked the return of Spunky’s Toupee. This time, the band consisted of old members and new, with my brother and cousin Jim to help play along in celebration. It was just like old times listening to them play the classic Beatles song in the backyard.
My family filled the yard and we had a great time listening to the live music.
Brain Stew by Green Day~Band practice in the basement
In keeping with the theme of my musical family, this song always makes me think of my basement where my brother’s first band would practice.
The band had an equally strange name, The Carcass of Heidi. This name originated from one of the member’s old dog. It was a poodle that always smelled really bad and had died a while back. Somehow they thought this name was great and ran with it. The band consisted of my brother, my cousin, and a couple of family friends. They didn’t know how to play that many songs, and “Brain Stew” was the one they practiced over and over and over again. This Green Day song was imprinted into my brain from hearing it throughout the house so much.
I remember watching them rehearse in the basement. Being the first time in a band for most of them, they were all stiff and looking down at the floor as they played. “Brain Stew” was the easiest song for them to learn, so it’s the only song that they would play.
I was annoyed and entertained at the same time having to hear it over and over again. But, they were dedicated to what they were doing and wanted to be taken seriously as musicians.
The basement is a mess and used for storage now, but the memories are still there. If you listen close enough while you’re there, you can hear the echoes of the guitar that “Brain Stew” opens with.
Taylor Swift / Miley Cyrus / Lorde~Swimming in High School
The biggest part of my high school experience was being on the swim team all four years. Being on that team taught me how to work hard, how to be a part of a team, and it showed me that I’m capable of more than I sometimes think I am. Spending more time at the pool than I was at home, music played a big part in our practices and meets.
When Taylor Swift released her album, 1989, we played it on the loud speakers for two weeks straight during practices. In between sets we would all burst out into song when our favorite parts came on and our coach would just roll her eyes at us and laugh.
We all got along great, and music brought us together even more.
Even though we annoyed her with our singing, our coach loved us anyway.
Miley Cyrus’s new music at the time was also a big hit for us. Anything we could all sing along to and waste time at practice so we didn’t have to keep swimming worked for us. In the words of Miley Cyrus, “we can’t stop and we won’t stop,” and we wouldn’t stop singing these songs at practices.
Even at swim meets, we would listen to music to get us pumped us for races and sing along with each other.
Miley Cyrus/ Dua Lipa/ Kesha-Pemberton Hall
Last year was my first at EIU, and I lived in Pemberton Hall. I was getting used to the school, finally taking classes focused on my major, and meeting new people. New pop music was my go-to at the time, and this included a lot of Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, and Kesha.
Whether I was studying in my room, hanging out in the lounge, or walking back from class, I was listening to this music.
I really connected with “Younger Now” since I was going through a lot of change from being away from home for the first time. As Miley sings in the song, “change is a thing you can count on/ I feel so much younger now.”
A lot of time in my room was spent singing along to these songs (not always very well).
Many of the times that I listened to “IDGAF”–which stands for “I Don’t Give a Fuck–was leaving the building or coming back into the building, usually going to or coming back from the gym. I love the beat in the song and it made me not care about what others think.
Writing papers was made easier with music breaks.
This song was one I especially loved to sing to, as it is more chill and emotional. Hanging out in my room and taking a moment for myself involved turning this on and letting it take me somewhere else: “I’m waiting for my spaceship to come back for me/ It’s coming back for me, yeah.”
Weezer’s cover of “Africa”-Oak Lawn High School
This past summer, I got a job doing maintenance at a local high school. While I scrubbed floors, scraped gum off of desks, moved furniture, and dusted every corner of the place, we always had music blasting to make the work more enjoyable.
This was around the same time that one of my favorite bands, Weezer, released a cover of “Africa,” originally sung by Toto. I’ve always loved this song and thought it was funny, so I loved it even more when Weezer decided to cover it, simply because fans kept asking them to. I played this everyday for a week over the speaker while we worked and probably annoyed most of my coworkers.
Long days of mopping the floor were made better with “Africa”.
“Isn’t this the Toto song?” someone would say.
“Yes, but it’s Weezer!”
They would laugh awkwardly and let me sing along to the cover that sounds exactly like the original. It was going to take a lot to take me away from this song.
Lake Street Dive/ Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again-Stevenson Hall
This year, I’m an RA in Stevenson Hall and that meant going back to school two weeks early for training. During training, I was always busy doing something, whether that be staff bonding, attending lectures, going through hands-on training, or decorating my floor.
While decorating my floor, I had music playing in the hallway so that I wouldn’t go completely insane from exhaustion. This consisted of the strange mix of the band Lake Street Dive, as well as the soundtrack to Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again.
I was often left alone with my thoughts while decorating, so I felt super understood by that song. Lake Street Dive is a recent favorite of mine, and they helped me along those weeks in training.
My floor is Spongebob-themed, so I was plunged into Bikini Bottom while jamming out to this music.
As for the Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again soundtrack, I’m a huge fan of those movies and had just seen the sequel before I had to go back to school. “When I Kissed The Teacher” is the opening song of the movie and is a great sequence, so this one in particular was on repeat for me.
There were some residents that arrived early on this side of the floor, and I’m sure they judged me for my excessive singing and loud music in the hallway outside of their room.
These are only a handful of the many song/place combos that fill my memory bank. They might not always make sense, but they hold a special place in my heart and mind, reminding me of good times.
What are songs and places that you associate with each other?
Caroline Reads 