"The songs, the tunes, the music of our lives..." (sung to the "Cotton" theme song...)

Wow. So, I haven't written a post in, like, forever. So after a gentle reminder to post and some inspiration for a fun topic, I decided to do a little travel through the years of songs. Songs for me, you see, are like time indicators...I associate many songs with particular events, stages of life, and people. Here are a few that come to mind in semi-chronological order:

"Fly Like An Eagle" by Seal

Ah, yes, Dale's karaoke laserdiscs and the corny "storylines" that accompanied the song lyrics. When I hear this song, I can only think of that pathetic man, running on the beach with his arms stretched out, swooping and jumping about as if he could literally "fly like an eagle." I sure hope that man is seeking some mental help.

"I Swear" by All-4-One

The last song of Homecoming our junior year in high school. How do I remember that trivial fact? Well, having a crush on Bryan at the time--and he was my date to the dance, although we went "as friends"--the last song is a crucial one. I still remember my little schoolgirl thrill when he gave me a giant hug at the end of the song. I thought maybe this friendship was going to evolve into something more...until he started dating someone else about two weeks later. Oh well.

"You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morrisette

You'd think a girl would have first introduced me to Alanis--and in particular, this song. But no, it was my good friend at the time, Brian Burghardt. Shortly after hearing it for the first time in his car, they played it at our senior year Homecoming dance and although they tried to beep out the f-word, the entire dance floor screamed it out louder than it would have been if they left that word in the actual song. Gotta love those rebellious teenagers.

"Shoebox of Lies" by Barenaked Ladies

Ah, Becky. The poor girl kept singing the wrong lyrics, saying "Shoebox of Life." We (Jennifer, Katie, Dale, and I) gave her trouble about that one for a long time.

"Freshmen" by The Verve

The song itself is actually about a guy who date raped a girl--not a real pleasant topic. But the song was very popular on the radio when we were freshmen at UW...hence the line from the chorus, "We were only freshmen..."

"All By Myself" remake by Celine Dion

Nerdy, perhaps. But I remember Liz Waters, laying on the floor in the dark dorm room with Katie, Becky, Jennifer, Dale, and Bryan. Yeah, it sounds kinky, but it really wasn't. We just had this crazy attachment to a few songs off some Billboard hits from 1987 CD and then the Celine Dion remake of the aforementioned song. I still think of those silly times when I hear that song or "Lady in Red."

How Bizarre" by OMC

For whatever reason, the chorus, "How bizarre, how bizarre," somehow sounded like "Papasan, papasan" to Scott. Yeah, a "papasan" as in the big round wicker chair we had in our dorm room. So, from that moment on, Scott, Jennifer, and I always changed that lyric when the song came on.

"Around the World" by Daft Punk

I hate, hate, HATE this song. It's this annoying computerized voice that just repeats the words "around the world" over and over and over again. It's so irritating that I have no idea why it got so much radio play my sophomore year in college. Anyway, knowing my extreme hatred for this song, Becky and Jennifer would happily blast it and dance around me with fake microphones (usually a highlighter or remote control) until I had to wrestle them to the ground to stop the madness. We actually "girl wrestled" a lot that year...I usually lost. :) But I have pictures if any of you readers are into that sort of thing--minus the mud or jello, unfortunately. But I digress.

"Come, Baby, Come" by K7

Sweet innocent Linda admitted that for years, she thought the chorus of this song literally meant "come over here." She was appalled to learn the line was actually a sexual command...apparently she didn't listen to the rest of the lyrics very closely: "You gotta give me lovin' and you gotta give me some" and a lot of references to a desired "speed" of movement and "pumping." Well, at least she knows the meaning of the song now. :)

"Barbie Girl" by Aqua

Definitely a Jennifer song. She loved the song so much that she bought the CD so we could hear it at home AND in the car. Yup, "life in plastic...it's fantastic!"

"Intuition" by Jewel and "Drop It Like It's Hot" by Snoop Dogg

I swear these songs followed Ben and me everywhere. The Jewel song--which one can still occasionally hear on the commercial for the women's "Intuition" shaving razors--was particularly popular in the summer of 2003 when Ben and I first started dating. It became kind of a joke with us because the song always came on when we were together. The Snoop song seemed to come on quite a few times in the car while I was visiting him in Florida once. Even though that one didn't "stalk" us quite as much, I still think of Benny whenever I hear the bass groove and clicking tongue sounds in that song.

I have a ton more songs, but I will save them for a future post. I will, however, end with a favorite quote from my dear friend Dale: "If this song had words, I'd be singing them right now!"