Of Songs and People

There are certain songs out there that remind me of certain people. I was just listening to the music on my IRiver, and I caught one that always reminds me of my wife, and I'm not sure why. The song is Chez Seychelles, by Michael Doucet and Beausoleil. Its old-timey, and its a fiddle song, and I heard it at our wedding, but its something more than that. Its sweet, and simple, and homey, and happy. In my mind, I can picture us in early 19th century costumes waltzing to this song, and being very very happy. Some days when I hear this song, I even get choked up.

There are other songs that I associate with her, such as "Summertime", as sung by Ella Fitzgerald. I associate this song with her because early on in our courtship, I was at her apartment, and heard a tune coming from the living room, and there she was, quietly hand sewing something, and singing Summertime. She's got a lovely voice, I wish she used it more often. On that day, she looked up and saw me looking around the corner at her, and she was very embarrassed. Little things like that remind me how special she is, and I suppose Chez Seychelles does that as well, but I can't pin down why it does, it doesn't have the same kind of direct link that Summertime does.

I associate Cold Beverages by G Love and Special Sauce to my old roommate and good friend Matt, he introduced me to the Philadelphonic sounds, and many a hot summer day were spent in the blue Subaru going to and fro, listening to G Love or A Tribe Called Quest.

Unfortunately, I can't think of any others right now, but I know there are others. Another interesting phenomenon I suffer from is music-induced memories. It might not sound very interesting, but when I hear certain songs, I think to times or places that I heard them in. "Well, duh," you say, "That happens to everyone." But its not the typical "Oh, I was at so and so's house when I heard that" business. It happens the most when I hear songs that I was listening to while reading on the T. I remember the book, I remember the scene, I remember the weather, and I get a distinct remembrance of my feelings at the time, even those not associated with the book or with the song. I've told some people about this, and they attest that they've had the same thing happen to them, and we generally attribute it to a subliminal-type trigger, that our brains and senses remember more when more of them are in use, or when concentrating on something like reading a book.

I'm reminded of a story from Richard Feynman,(noted physicist and one of my heroes) who, while in college, did a study with his friends. Loosely put, he noticed that his friends thought and processed thought differently than he did. This may seem obvious, but its still an interesting study if you ask me. He asked his friends to silently count out what they thought was a minute while doing different things, including reading a book, talking, typing, walking up and down stairs, playing an instrument, etc. He found that while he was able to read a book and count at the same time, his friends had a hard time doing the same, while on the other hand, they were able to talk and count at the same time, but Richard had a very difficult time doing so. He posited that it came down to how a person counts. Some people said they count by seeing the numbers in their head, to others it was a kind of beat in their head, and others spoke the numbers to themselves. Try it yourself some time. Count to 60 doing different activities, and see which takes the longest and is the most difficult to you. I find it easy to count while listening to something else, but I have a very hard time counting while reading or writing something I've never read before. If I type something off of a page, I don't have any problems, though.

Once again, I've ended somewhere completely different than where I started off, or even where I intended to go, but life's all about the journey and not the destination, eh?

I think Feynman would tend to agree with me.