Music and Memories
I love music. I love listening to it, playing it (badly), trying to write it. When I do anything, I try to do it with music in the background. Even if I’m not a musician, I can say that music is my life.
One of the traits of music that amaze me every time, though, is that most songs recall me a series of memories. So easily. I experience it continuously, almost every day. I bet everyone remembers the songs on the radio when we were kids, or the first record/cassette/LP/CD that we bought.
Now, let me tell you my personal experience with some moments of my life.1
Early Beginnings
When I was about six or seven, I usually went shopping with my mom at the tiny mall in the nearest city. There, there was a section for music and video games. A couple of years later, I would have bought there the PlayStation, but at that moment, my attention was caught by a cool and funny cassette cover. There was a shark wearing braces, and I thought it was hilarious. It was Eat the Phikis by Elio e Le Storie Tese, an awesome Italian band that a child could not appreciate at all. They are very skilled musicians with an awesome sense of humor, but their songs are full of double meanings and some bad words. I probably had heard about the band because of the main single of the record, La Terra dei Cachi, very popular at the moment, but I didn’t appreciate their music at all.
So, my very first purchase in music wasn’t very lucky! But my second one, my first Compact Disc, was completely different. La Donna, Il Sogno & Il Grande Incubo was way catchier for an eight-years-old kid. It had a cool “3D cover” which moved when tilting the case, it had a heavier sound and themes (the main single was about Spider-Man!).2
The Adventure Begins
When I had the Christian confirmation, my mother’s hairdresser gifted be a beautiful album: All That You Can’t Leave Behind by U2. That was mind-blowing: I was twelve, and I played it in my little stereo a thousand times. I remember using that mini Hi-Fi to create the first compilation for my middle schoolmates, and listening on that to Beatles and Rolling Stones’ greatest hits with my parents. Also, until high school, I listened a lot of Italian pop and… Robbie Williams. I really don’t know how I happened to be obsessed with his songs. Probably I must have heard She’s The One in some TV spots.
Then, when I was about sixteen or seventeen, my friend Andrea, a true punk rocker, asked me: “Can you download (👀) the new album by Green Day? It’s called American Idiot”. I didn’t know anything about them, and I started listening to something. Also, my other classmate Manuel told me: “You should listen to Deep Purple’s Made in Japan, the greatest live album ever”. A few months before, my cousin Marco borrowed me Queen’s Greatest Hits Collection.
Damn, those boys changed everything.
Briefly, I started to search info on the internet about a gazillion of bands, and for about ten years I have bought ~400 CDs from the old Play.com (may it be blessed!) which, at the time, had ridiculous offers for music!
I think that my first important discoveries must have been: Green Day —> Offspring —> Grunge —> Radiohead (no idea about the connection!) —> the English alternative scene of ’00s —> David Bowie and the other Bigs of the ’70s —> who knows…
Strange(r) Things Have Happened
When I was nineteen, and I got my first job, then, I had an internship at the company for three months, at about 200 kilometers from home. In those days, casually, I had also met my first “serious” crush. Every weekend I was back, so we could see each other.
One of the most vivid memories of those months is the album by Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. I remember listening to it on an old laptop, in my awful hotel room, while texting to my not-yet-girlfriend. Each time these songs kick in, especially Home, I go back to that hotel room. This is a real superpower of music: the immediate flashbacks that can make you experience.
Another example with that girl: when we broke up, one night I listened to Muse’s Origin Of Symmetry, and I thought I couldn’t be able to enjoy it anymore. Luckily, I was wrong – damn, that album is so good.
Anyway, when I speak about music, I cannot but thank my brothers. Since I was very young, rock and grunge music have blasted out of their Hi-Fis. It’s because of them if Pearl Jam are probably my favorite band. I remember when they bought CD singles (damn, I hate them so much, their case is too thin!) from Aerosmith, Counting Crows, or Skunk Anansie. One of my very first “music memories” is the single CD of Guns N’ Roses’ Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door playing at my house.
Nowadays, I still have my CD collection, but I mostly stream music. I love keeping the discs mostly because of the moments they recall me. The important thing isn’t the high quality speaker to enjoy the music; it’s the organ that listens to it – the heart.
🎮 I bought Cult of the Lamb, but I have no time to play it!
📖 Finished The Master and Margarita and I loved it!
I love music. I love listening to it, playing it (badly), trying to write it. When I do anything, I try to do it with music in the background. Even if I’m not a musician, I can say that music is my life.
One of the traits of music that amaze me every time, though, is that most songs recall me a series of memories. So easily. I experience it continuously, almost every day. I bet everyone remembers the songs on the radio when we were kids, or the first record/cassette/LP/CD that we bought.