Friday, August 19, 2011

Songs from Before

So I thought it might be fun to occasionally post a blog about music I have loved. I *strongly* associate music with previous experiences and life events. Songs bring those moments back almost as vividly as a smell. I suppose it has something to do with my hippocampus. I will be walking down an aisle at the grocery store and will have to stop in my tracks because a song will stir a memory so intense it's like it has transported me elsewhere. I was going through my song collections last night. Lots of fun. I thought I would start with:



"You Are My Sunshine" is the first song I can remember hearing. It was my favorite in a set of songs my parents would sing with me in the car. We would be going on long trips and we would sing "You Are My Sunshine", "Home on the Range", "Skiddle MuRinky" (questioning the spelling on that one), and others. This song also brings back memories of my first bedroom living with my parents. My bedroom looked out an open field full of tractors behind our house. The back of the house faced west, which made for a lot of struggle on my part in going to sleep during the summer. I remember light streaming in and hearing the voices of other kids playing outside. It was so completely unfair I couldn't be outside too. But my mom would sing this to me and it always made my heart happy (even if it wasn't showing on the outside).

It always was and always will be my dad and mom song. I sing it to my kids and it makes me think of them, still.

This particular version is by Elizabeth Mitchell and is on her album with the same title. It is the sweetest rendition I have found (other than my dad playing it on guitar, of course).