Music In My Life

There is a soundtrack to my life. For example,

• The other day I said, “Hey Google! Play Patsy Cline.” And then explained to Riley and Tae how when we were dating, Tara gave me Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits on tape and I’d listen to it as I drove from Palo Alto to Modesto to go see her.

• “Glory Days” and “Rosalita” were staples every time that Dennis and Cesar Capio, Eric Schiffman and I drove down the shore in the mid-80s. Hearing those songs today takes me straight back to the Capio’s Honda Prelude and the Seaside boardwalk. (We were, fyi, the original stars of Jersey Shore.)

• The Kings’ “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide” were the first songs I heard on almost every Tuesday morning of freshman year of college. If I hear them now, I have to physically restrain myself from grabbing a tennis racquet so that I can jam some sweet air guitar.

And on and on and on…

Because of the crystal clear attachment of memories to song, the answer to the question “What am I listening to these days?” has at least the possibility of impact years into the future. Will today be remembered as the days that I was listening to Artist X and Song Y. [Interestingly, I know for Riley that Abba music is now always associated with Costa Rica, as Abba’s Greatest Hits was more or less stuck in a car tape-deck that year….hmmm, or did Tara--big time Abba fan--just pretend it was stuck?]

So my answer to “Whatcha listenin’ to?” these days is...The Beatles. And, more specifically:

• Here There and Everywhere

• In My Life

• Get Back

• Norwegian Wood

The first two are simply perfect melodies with thoughtful lyrics. Here, There and Everywhere and In My Life are beautiful love songs (silly love songs, Paul might call them) and simply put they bring Tara to my mind every time I listen to them. Norwegian Wood, though similar in feel, has lyrics that take me back to my twenties, when strange evenings like the one John describes occurred from time to time. So even though I don’t claim the events detailed in Norwegian Wood happened in my life, they seem familiar enough.

And, because tunes 1, 2, and 4 on this list are similar in tone and kind of “flow” more than “rock,” I add Get Back in there because, hell, it’s just fun.

Here in April of 2018, there is not much new ground to break on the Beatles so if I’ve said nothing new for you, well so be it. But, if you haven’t (re)listened to these tunes lately, doing so will put a smile on your face.

For me, a decade from now, when someone asks what was going on for you the year you turned 50, I might just say “That was a Beatles era for me.”