Soundtrack

This “Soundtrack” thread has been a difficult one to ponder, and I'm still not sure I've got it down.

To this day, I hate ti music that my mom introduced me to: 70's country. Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, and the like. All the whine, and none of the rhythm. Then my step-dad introduced some more “B-Side” type music into the home, Cat Stevens, Captain & Tennille (sp?) and Rough Trade. The latter left a huge impression with “High School Confidential.” The pulsing beat and innuendo grabbed me as much as it confused me – the cover of the album had a woman, but the sultry purr seemed too deep. And just how was she “cream(ing) her jeans”? I pictured her in the bathroom with a tub full of dairy, doing something to her pants that looked like a cross between hand-washing and a tantrum (I was 8 at the time).

My first real “Soundtrack” choice would be “Synchronicity 2” by The Police. Rock video's were just becoming popular, and MTV (and it's Canadian cousin, MuchMusic) were just about to be born, and we just had the Friday night video show. As our parents were entertaining, my sister & I would eat in the living room, and enjoy this video, along with Duran Duran's “Wild Boys,” Pat Benetar's “Love is a Battle Field” (“how angry could they be if they're ending in a dance sequence?”)

To sum-up my later elementary school years, I've chosen “Christopher Tracey's Parade” from Prince's Parade album (which featured “Kiss”). It escaped the attention of the masses, and did what it wanted because it wanted to, while wondering why no one else “got it.” 'Nuff said.

For the first half of High School, Aerosmith's “Young Lust” seems to fit. Up-beat and blusey, talking a lot about wanting it, and not saying much about getting it. About sums up most of our High School experiences, don't it?

Then, for my second half of High School, I got religious. I'd found and accepting community that didn't focus on the “it” I wasn't getting anyway. Plus, I was always spiritually inclined, and a white guy in the Western world, ergo, I must be a Christian, right? RIGHT?! A suiting song (which finally just occurred to me, and I need to find the cassette to credit it properly) would be “My Jesus Is All,” by The Resurrection Band (or just plain “Rez”) with Grace and Glory from their live album...well, I can't find my cassettes just now, but it's a good song!

Then I went to Bible College in BC. The title track of Undercover's “Devotion” album (listed on my Dessert Island 15) would be played here. It's largely about frustration with the community:

“I just came here to find my way,
To find a way to find my way.
All you do is talk about people...
All I know is there's no answers here.”

Then resolves back to the point,

“Raise your hands it's time to fly higher,
Raise your hands, it's time to fly.”

After this, I started playing in a band with my best friend. I think that The Beatles “Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band” would go nicely here, and it reflects our shining optimism here. After a few years, it ended and he got married (play Pearl Jam's “Black”) and I found a home in another, much heavier band. I felt like we were five faces of the same persona, and it was the happiest I'd been in a long time, so I'll play Korn's “Got The Life” at this point. Then, like most bands (I'd say “All bands,” but I think all-inclusive statements are inherently false), it went to shit.

During this time, I got into a very unhealthy relationship, where she would try to make me feel worthless so I'd think I couldn't do better; how cliché is that? Enter Audioslave's Cochise:
Well I've been watchin' while you've been coughin'
I've been drinking life while you've been nauseous.
Go on and save yourself
Take it out on me.
Then, I finally came to my senses and moved out. From the same album, “What you are”
And when you wanted blood I cut my veins.
And when you wanted love, I bled myself again.
And here I go, far away, I know you, you'll find another slave.

Twelve years after I left, I returned to Ontario. I figured that my small town was lucky to have me, and I'd learn them a thing or two about urban sophistication. I found my home town had grown up, and I had some of that still to do myself. “Back to School” by The Deftones would suit this phase.

Then, seven months later, I met the woman who would become my wife. I'll go back to Aerosmith with “Deuces are wild.”

“I love to look into your deep (blue) eyes,
They talk to me and seem to hypnotize,
They say the things nobody dares to say,
And I'm not about to let you fly away.
My lover with no jet lag
Stayin' up all night in the sleepin' bag
got a heartbeat rhythm with the subterrain
I get stoned on you girl, there's no need to explain."

Then, four years later, Calli was born. Creed's “Arms Wide Open” says it all nicely, about how I want to teach her to embrace the world for what it is, and enjoy all there is to love about it.

And there you have it, the songs that illustrate my life. I'll probably think of more appropriate songs as soon as I post this, though :)