So I realized that after a few weeks of having my blog, I have yet really addressed the issue of music! Shame on me! Music is a HUGE part of my life (dating a Rockstar and all) and I cannot believe I overlooked it… I get distracted so easily. I am always humming or bursting into song, (which gets me a few perplexed looks, so today, I shall fill you in on the soundtrack of my life.
Childhood Days. Honestly, the first music I can remember having an effect on me was New Kids on the Block. Don’t judge me, I was 6. My Used-to-be-Friend Catherine was 3 yrs older than me and aquainted me with pre-teen eidolons of the 80’s. We both loved Joey McIntire the best, but she always got first dibs, since she was older, so I was stuck liking Jordan. Many, many hours were spent sitting in our basements belting out “Cover Gir-r-r-rl” and “Step By Step”. And much to my father’s chagrin, one Christmas my Auntie bestowed me with a life size poster of them. Sadly, Catherine forsook the boys and turned her attentions to M.C. Hammer. I was left to extol NKOTB on my own, and to avoid ridicule, tore all of my Teen Beat posters of them out of my locker at the end of 3rd grade. I still resent Merry Weathers for that…
My mom always listened to country. So in my growing up days, I was subject to the atrocious croonings of Kenny Rogers and the less offensive Alabama. There is one song I will always remember driving to school singing a song entitled “I’m Gonna Get You.” Please, if any one knows what the heck I’m talking about, please enlighten me as to who sang that, because I have never been able to figure it out, and my mom thinks I’m fabricating it.
Michael Jackson was also a great source of musical joy around that time. Alas, I never acquired the effortless dance aspects that made him so alluring to me.
Church years. From the ages of 10 to 15, I was not allowed to be exposed to anything other than music that praised God. Unfortuneately, most of it came screeching at me in operatic refuse out of my dad’s radio at high volumes. Luckily, there was an excess of gifted singers at my church and school, so I was not completely disenchanted with Jesus music.
When I was 9, I had a got a crush on a boy named Ryan. It was not just his sandy blonde hair that made him attractive to me. No, no. As we were sitting in our school’s auditorium waiting to practice for the annual program, he sat down and played piano like a blonde version of Mozart. Ok, maybe not, but it sounded really good to me. I decided that day that I wanted to be a stellar pianist. The next 11 years I spent hours trying to play Chopin as fast as those frickin’ men on my classical tapes. I have decided that Man fingers are more speedy than Women’s. Providentially, my talent as a musician served as a link to my peers, since my dad had pretty much castigated the personality out of me at that time.
Late teens and early 20’s. Nothing really stands out in the music area at this time, other than at the time, I believed Colin Raye to be the foxiest and most talented country singer then. I listened to Pop alot then, what comes to mind: Savage Garden, Matchbox 20, and Goo-Goo Dolls. I DO remember driving to my first apartment in my ’93 Mustang convertible that had not yet rusted out and lost it’s muffler singing to “I Will Buy You a New Life.” By the way, Backstreet Boys was the very first CD I ever bought that I hid in the shelved of my closet from my dad.
My first boyfriend, (my ex-hubby) loved Alan Jackson, and one of our first “dates” we spent sitting out on a dock, looking at the stars, while “Buicks to the Moon” played in his truck. Incidentally, I had spent weeks in my younger years at my Uncle’s, who also thought Alan Jackson was the shit, so we connected because of that.
A few years later, when I lived and worked with my friend, we were driving back from work and put “Everything To Me” by Avalon on repeat. Perhaps it was the thought that our parents now considered us “Children of Satan”, but we both ended up singing through our tears. More likely it was because she had just had a baby she hadn’t planned on, and I was trying to decide if I should break up with my boyfriend, but I will always remember trying to pretend I had something in my eye so she wouldn’t know I was crying.
Which reminds me, I ended up going to Canada and hanging with a bunch of natives, and when I put in a Coyote Ugly soundtrack, one of them said, “What the hell is this crap.” I listen to that CD now and I say the same thing.
Drunken days and Getting to know my Bro. I lump these together, since the music is very similiar. While I was dating my ex, we hung out alot at his brother’s, in the basement that had been converted into a bar. There were many nights of drunken debauchery, and it was only made better by the gargantuan sound system that rattled the house. Mostly 80’s tunes were played, several while I meditated on the floor in front of the fridge in a drunken haze.
My brother has always been a source of hopelessness for my parents, as he experimented with drugs alot in his teen years and listend to “Devil music”. He moved out when I was very young and didn’t get to know him until I moved out. At first, I was nervous about getting to know someone I had been raised so differently from, but we are great friends now. He has spent many hours introducing me to the likes of Poison, Tesla, The Black Crowes, Prince, Mariah Carey, and Black Sabbath.
Married years. After I married, we bought a shithole of a house that we fixed up. Many hours were spent sanding, painting, and caulking to the voices of Johnny Lang and Ann and Nancy Wilson.
Here I will take a small break and include a band has weasled it’s way into my life soundtrack at different intervals. Audioslave. In a previous post, I mentioned an incredibly hot makeout session I had with my Rockstar when I tried to set him up with my friend. “Like a Stone” was played that night. I would like to state that I detest that song and Chris Cornell’s voice is excruciating. While I was married, I really got into WWE wrestling and one of the Diva’s theme songs was “Be Yourself.” My brother throughout the years has tried to get me to listen to them, but to no avail. I didn’t begin to take a liking to them until my Rockstar played “Jewel of the Summertime” for me. And “that’s all I have to say about that.”
When I started dating my Rockstar, we watched tha movie “Rockstar”(imagine that) and I found out that the singing was done by a man in the band Steelheart. My Rockstar started looking up their vids on youtube, and he said,”This is probably one of their best songs. I will always remember sitting on his lap watching the video for “All Your Love.” (How romantic) We broke that folding chair after that….
Along those lines, since we are both into music so much, there are numerous songs that could be added to my “Gettin’ it on list”, and it may be a bit sacreligious, but Lita Ford’s song “Holy Man” will always be the first one I think of.
Oh, there are so so many more that I could go on forever, but for now that will have to do. But to quote one of my favorite hymns, “How can I keep from singing?” XOXO
Sparklebumpsthebookwhore 