Strange Connections

I originally wanted to title this post “From Iron Maiden to World Peace in Three Easy Steps”, but however apt that title is for the ramblings of my brain today, it seemed too wordy.

Here’s how it happened:

I was on my way back from Warriors and Wonders and just ahead of me I saw a young man with an Iron Maiden iron-on patch on his backpack. The first thing I did was think of the following exchange from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Evil Duke: Put them in the Iron Maiden.
B&T: Iron Maiden! Excellent!
Evil Duke: Execute them.
B&T: Bogus.

I liked Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. It was very silly, but very entertaining and even slightly educational. Then, I started thinking about how Bill and Ted’s band Wyld Stallyns eventually brought world peace, repaired the environment and caused people to just be excellent to one another.

I’m not under the impression that this could actually happen – but I think that music does bring peace to individuals. Once you look past the music you associate with particular people and situations (like ex boyfriends or girlfriends, nasty breakups and general angst) you should be left with music that is for yourself alone. Music that just makes you happy, that lets you live purely in the moment.

I don’t really know anything about music except what I like to listen to, so I have no idea why some music makes me cringe or irritates me while other music makes me feel calm or fills me with absolute joy. I suppose if I were to actually finish reading This is Your Brain on Music, I’d have a better idea – but since I didn’t I’m just going to ramble on here.

For instance, the song Dirt by Phish is a song I find very calming. The lyrics are a little melancholy, and it’s not that I don’t hear the lyrics, but I don’t exactly pay attention to them and dissect them either. The song just is what it is and so am I when I listen to it.

On the other hand if I listen to Mr. Coffee by Lagwagon, or the Sex Pistols version of My Way, I feel full of energy and snarky comments. I don’t associate any of these songs with any particular person – I just like them and they do neat things to the way I think while it’s playing.

When I think about the music I associate with people – it gets more complicated. It’s not about just me – it’s about me in relation to another person. For instance, I can’t hear the song Good by Better Than Ezra without thinking of my ex and how awful our breakup was. And it’s not that I go back and relive the pain or anything so melodramatic – but simply that I see it like a movie in my head - that poor, heartsick girl who felt so utterly dismissed and discarded as a person. I feel bad for her.

On the other hand, I listen to May I Go by Econoline Crush and I suddenly find myself in 2004, Perth, Ontario walking late at night late in September feeling like I could never be happier or be more complete as a person.  I can smell leaves and cold air, I am happy and content and everything is just really good. I like going back to that one.

I love that music can do this – even when the memory or picture it evokes isn’t pleasant, it’s still pretty cool that I can see it.

I suppose this is really nothing more than the soundtrack of my life. I can look at my music collection and for nearly everything, I know why I bought it, approximately when I got it and who it makes me think of (in those cases where I associate it with people).

So, I suppose what I’m trying to say is go watch Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (because it’s funny) and High Fidelity (because John Cusak’s character Rob says all this stuff better than I do) and think about your own soundtrack.