I’ve always found it interesting how certain songs, scents and events make you think of certain times in your life, where you were, who you were with etc. I’ve also always tried to find the questions that you can ask someone that will cause them to skip the “usual reply” and take them to a place where the reply that they come back to you with is one that shows their inner thoughts or experiences.
I guess my intrigue of finding subject matter that gets me past the scripted answer goes back to a response my father gave me when I came across something that I didn’t know about him. My father, a career journalist, told me that in order to find out those types of things, you must ask the right questions.
Certainly there are times to be direct in both personal and professional life. We probably are required to be direct 90 percent of the time. I’ve always found that in order to be a better father, husband, friend and account manager I needed to find those questions that gave me a look at another side of my son, wife, friend or client.
Music seems to be a subject that is “safe” enough that when you ask about it you typically are able to stay in conversation space and provoke rich thoughts about a particular experience associated with a particular song, artist or era. Certainly more safe than asking about religion, politics or favorite team, which typically backs each person into a corner and brings them out fighting.
For my first blog entry I thought I’d take you through the songs, artists and eras that make up my life to date with the hope that you will laugh, cringe and consider your own list of songs that have played a significant role in your life. I hope you enjoy….
Copacabana, Barry Manilow: An odd song to lead off with for sure! Embarrassingly, the reason why this song comes to mind is that Manilow was the first concert I ever attended. Thanks to my mom who secured tickets for my younger sister’s birthday. I’m sure you can imagine how thrilled I was/still am that this was my first live popular music experience. Why couldn’t it have been the Dead or The Stones or something COOL!?? Well it wasn’t….it was Barry!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgnHEyeMECc]
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England Dan and John Ford Coley, I’d Really Love to See You Tonight: I remember this song from the summer of 1976, being nine years old and starting to get interested in girls. This was on someone’s radio at the community pool that I would ride my bike to every day that summer with my buddies. While this song was playing I remember watching the prettiest girl at the pool diving off of the high dive as England Dan and John Ford Coley sang. I was sitting poolside (it was a “rest period”) with my starry eyed nine year old buddies as she disappeared into the water…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRFZUB3NzGs]
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The Sugarhill Gang, Rapper’s Delight: The first time I ever heard “rap” and I loved it! I attended a junior high school that was 80% African American and some of my friends at school were telling me about their older siblings listening to the Sugar Hill Gang, One morning at basketball practice we were running drills and Rapper’s Delight came on the boom box sitting courtside. Practice came to a stop as many of my teammates who already knew the song started lip synching the lyrics. The beat, the lyrics, the dance moves were all new to me and I loved it! It started my lifelong fascination and love of rap/hip hop music.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6gD_CwF5YM&feature=related]
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Zapp, More Bounce to the Ounce, Doo Wa Ditty: These two songs take me back to being a sophomore football player in high school. I yearned for these songs on a daily basis because these songs played all summer long in our field house as we went through conditioning drills and two-a-days in preparation for our season. By being in the field house it meant that I wasn’t getting hit, yelled at, sprinting, smacked in the head or any of the other things that happen to a sophomore on a high school football team. AND Zapp was my initial introduction to funk.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQfZRRRo_8A]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxusDNnS0Do]
Steely Dan, Hey 19: One of my roommates in college was a huge Steely Dan fan and he played them so much that I became a huge fan too. These songs always take me to Manhattan for some reason, walking through a light rain. I don’t know why, maybe because rain in Manhattan kind of slows everyone down, suddenly they are not as concerned about getting somewhere. They can stop in, grab a cup of coffee or a beer and chill until the rain subsides.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzfwtX2kgOA]
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Nelly Furtado, I’m Like a Bird: This song takes me back to a really tough time in my life. A time when I lost my job and broke up with my live in girlfriend in the same day. Although the timing of all that left me wondering what I was going to do next AND broken hearted, it also provided me with the opportunity to begin a friendship with someone who ultimately became my wife. This song always takes me back to that time.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppneVqc3kVs]
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Hoobastank, The Reason: This is the anthem for the “make up”. You know how guys are, they think that the grass is always greener somewhere else. Suddenly they realize what an awful person they’ve been to the one person who cares about them without prejudice. So they get rid of all the bad influences and get on their knees and beg for forgiveness. Yep that was me……and two years later……we were/are happily married.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q30-2QpZVc]
Buy this song on Amazon.
Thanks for allowing me to share with you the soundtrack of my life, to date. I can’t wait to find out the song track of your life. You can be sure that I will ask.
Kelly Clark
Strategic Account Manager
