A while ago (a couple weeks maybe? a month?) Stephen T. McCarthy posted some songs that were akin to Theme Songs on his blog. That started me thinking about my life and what sort of mix tape would play if I were to create one. And that has led to this Let Me Introduce You To "This" Concept. I've decided that over the course of Who Knows How Long I'm going to post a short (to medium short to slightly long) blog bit to correspond with a song from the Soundtrack Of My Life.
In the thinking about this idea, I've come to realize that a great deal of my life is Phases. Some of those were months, others years. Some of the songs I really identified with at that specific time. Others I realize (now) are apt descriptors of that time of my life.
By no means does this mean I'm blogging about this exclusively. It doesn't mean my endeavor to move through Train albums is over. It just means I'm introducing something new that (I hope) will happen with regularity. I invite you to mull over your own life. If, in the mulling, you decide that this idea sounds pretty cool, AND it's something you'd like to do on your blog... do it!
This isn't a hop. There is no Linky List. If, at any time, you decide to create a Soundtrack of Your Life (one song at a time) and post them on your own blog, I will add you to the bottom of each of these blogs I write with a link. There is no date you must post on. No date you must start on. No date you must finish on. There is actually no set rules of any kind. You can post a song for every year of your life. Every event of your life. Every phase of your life. Or a combination of the above. In other words, there really aren't any rules.
I will begin this endeavor by posting my first song. It's called Wonder by Natalie Merchant. I'm choosing it for two reasons 1) Particularly when I was at my lowest (about the time this song was recorded... or shortly thereafter) I felt like I was a shining example of God's creation gone absurdly wrong. In other words, I felt like anything but a Wonder of God's Own Creation. 2) I've decided, once again, that I am wonder of God's own creation. Just like you. Just like each and every one of us.
In any event, this is Day 1.
Is this something you'd like to do on your blog? If so, let me know and I'll post a link here. Do you feel like one of the wonders of God's creation?
Love this song!!! I've been a fan of Natalie Merchant since her 10,000 Maniacs days. A song for every year of your life? Not sure I can do that, as that would be 42 songs! Maybe a song for major life events - like moving, changing schools, my first girl friend, etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm not doing every year. I'm going to hit major events. Sometimes those seemed to stack one top of the other. Then there are long dry spells of a whole lot of nothing.
DeleteMy whole A-to-Z is the soundtrack of my life, Robin - so I'm ahead of the game!
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm now caught up on your A to Z and I say you can STILL do this if you want. The nature of the A to Z is to pick 26 different artists using the letters. This is more about what songs correspond to your life. I called this day one (or the beginning), but the next one will cover ten years. There is no way I could've worked this concept around the structure of the A to Z. So, feel free to join in. I know you love music!
DeleteMusic really can help us through tough times. I heard 'Bring on the Rain' once and it touched me out of the blue, so much so that I'm still mentioning it here years later, lol :)
ReplyDeleteBring on the Rain is a great song. Jo Dee has that sort of voice that says "I know trouble."
DeleteThis theme was actually a blog hop a while back.
ReplyDeleteThis was my entry
http://discconnected.blogspot.com/2010/07/soundtrack-to-my-life.html
As soon as I finish typing this comment I'm going to pop over and look at this... but it isn't really what I had in mind. I'm not looking for ONE post to detail the soundtrack of your life (or mine). I want the posts short enough that people actually have time to listen to the song, so that means one at a time. It's also an opportunity to really think about you life and how far you've come (maybe how far you've got to go). To remember that there were good times and bad times and you survived them all. Maybe they changed you, but that's okay. Maybe that's good. Maybe it's not. And that's the point... sort of. We all think our life experience is unique and no one knows what THAT was like. But chances are someone has written a song about it because they nail the feeling of exactly what that was like. And that's why people who love music love it. It hits them in that visceral place. And that's what I want to do here. Tell you the story of me with the songs that go along.
DeleteAnyone who's been reading this blog since 2010 are already fairly acquainted with the story of me... since I talked about me non-stop for an entire year. BUT, I've changed a lot since I started blogging. I understand the events of my life differently now. There was a time when every bad thing that happened 20+ years ago still had the power to hurt me NOW. Just thinking about it and it was like reliving it all over again.
A big part of this year (and last year) has been letting it all go. I still remember it "like it was only yesterday" but I don't feel it that way any longer. So, this soundtrack is really about how I was HERE and I can now appreciate all the good and bad things about that moment, but I'm not there (emotionally) and longer... and oh what a relief it is!
I did not mean to imply that the blog hop was the same thing-just that the theme had been a blog hop.
DeleteIt is funny that we all think our experiences are so unique, and yet, for the most part, we all share the same ups, downs, lefts, rights, wrong ways on one way streets and dead ends.
And occasionally we actually catch the green lights.
I'd forgotten how good this song was...Tigerlily has probably been sitting on the shelf for more than a decade....time to dust it off and give it a spin.
You're pretty gutsy, Robin-I don't know that I'd be willing to bare my soul like you do on this blog-for every nugget I share I usually add a generous splash of self-deprecating humor to draw attention away from the fact that I let something personal slip.
And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the act of letting go is one that came very hard to me and very late in life, and I do not think you or I are unique there. A lucky few learn that lesson/skill young-the rest of us muddle through and do the best we can.
<<<---You're pretty gutsy, Robin-I don't know that I'd be willing to bare my soul like you do on this blog-for every nugget I share I usually add a generous splash of self-deprecating humor to draw attention away from the fact that I let something personal slip.
DeleteI think I've been doing it for so long that it doesn't feel particularly gutsy. Also, this blog (and my baring my soul here) kickstarted the emotional healing that I'm now experiencing. I'm not sure I'd be here if not for this blog... and my willingness to just tell it like it is here. In the telling I discovered some things that really weren't working well for me. It was then, and only then, that I could begin to process and release.
The truth is that I'm very thankful for this forum and all of the people who've participated in my journey (no matter when you started it with me). Each and every one of you has offered something insightful (at least once) and sometimes with great regularity.
And don't worry about sounding like a broken record... if you read my posts for any length of time you'll fully grasp that I tend to repeat things a lot. Or maybe just relive similar versions of the Same Old Story until I work it all out in my head.
That sounds like a cool idea. Music can really affect our moods. I do feel the wonder of the world around. Especially in the spring.
ReplyDeleteSusan, if you like it, you can join in any time!
DeleteI liked that song pretty well, GIRL WONDER, and I also look forward to hearing more songs from the Soundtrack Of Your Life.
ReplyDeleteI did my Life's Soundtrack back in 2010...
[link:] ‘THE SOUNDTRACK TO MY LIFE’ (Or, ‘0 TO 51 IN 15.5 SONGS’)
But I don't think that's what you were referring to in your text above.
Incidentally, I've NOT forgotten that I owes ya an A-list E. It'll be coming to a computer near you in the not too distant future.
~ D-FensDogG
'Loyal American Underground'
Actually the post of yours that caused this idea to germinate into what I now think it is was the one on your BoTB blog detailing your drinking songs. Which was sort of a soundtrack to your life. Or a certain part of your life. And that is kind of what I want to do here. Hit all the major stuffs. (See my comment to LC above for a more detailed accounting of what I have in mind.) If you were to do something like this a la Style of Me, it would be one song per post. The posts would be shorter so that people actually read and listen and you'd be tackling one event, phase, aspect of your life.
DeleteNow, that said, I would love for you to participate in this if you'd want to do it. I think your gift for storytelling is beyond wonderful. You have a real gift with words that too few people get the opportunity to appreciate. This whole soundtrack business is less about explaining who the artist is/was (unless it's relevant) and more about explaining what was going on with YOU that makes it relevant.
There may be some years in which NOTHING was going on. Or it was pretty much a variation of the same thing (those would be phases) and can be summed up with one song. There may be other years that SO MUCH was happening that it felt like a major life event every time you turned around. And each one of those has a story and a song. You see where I'm going????
So, I will read your post linked above, but I can already tell you that it doesn't exempt you from participation in this if you decide you want to do it. Besides, you have a whole new bunch of readers now. :)
GW ~
DeleteI want you to know that I didn't discover this response from you until just a little bit ago. Sorry if it seemed I was ignoring it. (I really should subscribe to Email Comment Notifications more often so I don't miss things like this.)
It was very, very kind what you said about my writing. Thanks SO MUCH! Truly appreciated. I wasn't good enough a writer to make it professionally, but I guess I'm good enough to entertain some folks for free from one blog bit to the next.
Know that I am giving some serious consideration to re-posting (and maybe partially re-writing) my old 'Soundtrack To My Life' and presenting it song-by-song in separate blog bits over a period of time, like you are doing.
When are you planning to post your next installment? Or have you even decided on that yet? Is it so spontaneous that you're not actually planning or "scheduling" when to post them?
One thing I can tell you for sure is that, if I decide to do this, I wouldn't be posting any "Soundtrack" installments between my BOTB contests and when the voting ends (i.e., never between the 1st and 7th, and never between the 15th and 21st). I wouldn't want to start covering up my BOTB installments prior to the ending of the voting period.
~ D-FensDogG
And that, my friend, is the beauty of participation. It's not like a hop, where you have to post on THIS OR THAT day. It's a whenever you feel like it sort of thing. I would probably note in the title what it is and tag it so that people can go back and find the older posts if they get to the party late.
DeleteI'm planning on posting my next one this Monday. I've already covered up my BOTB post. I've found that I don't garner many votes after two or three days. I used to worry about covering them up. Now, I just roll with it.
So, if you've decided to do I'll post a link to you blog at the bottom of each of those posts, with the reminder that everyone participating is doing it on their own timetable.
Would you consider waiting until Tuesday, the 21st? If so, I'll post one on the same day and link it to yours.
DeleteIf not - no problem - I'll still link to yours on Tuesday, but I don't want to post something new until voting on my BOTB is closed.
You know, covering up a BOTB could result in one or two less votes. And as close as some of my BOTBs are (including THIS one which feels right now like a dead-heat), one vote can make the difference between a tie and a win for one of the contestants.
~ D-FensDogG
It is wonderful, actually, how much we can relate to songs depending where we are in our life. Great song!
ReplyDeleteWhat's even funnier is that we depending upon where we are right now... well that affects how we see the past. For instance, if I'd done this back in 2010 I don't think I'd have used the same songs. I might've, but the story would have been different I think... because I see so many things differently now.
DeleteI do like that song. I don't tend to have "encouragement songs" for whatever reason, but know a lot of people that do. And if I would have hit Wonder at a similar low point, It might have went into the "I can't stand it" list for several years. Luckily I don't and it didn't.
ReplyDeleteAs far as having a theme song, Rain King about covers it for me.
It's hard to listen to happy songs when we are so so so so so sad. Of course, listening to the sad songs that accentuate how we feel probably does nothing to make us feel better.
DeleteIt would be a real challenge for me to pick just one song as a theme song. Hmmm.
That was perfect timing when that song was released.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't pick any songs that would fit my life with their lyrics, but I could pick ones that I distinctly remember at a certain point in my life.
I guess. I really loved that entire album. However, I felt (at that time) like a person who had so much potential and wasted it. Or didn't measure up. Or that God had played a huge joke on me. That was then. Now I see it differently. We are all the wonders of God's creation. There was no joke. There was just me wandering around in a desert of my own making.
DeleteI think if you want to play along you can do it however you want. So join in!
Now that's an interesting idea. I have so many different phases of my life that the songs keep changing over and over.
ReplyDeleteFor instance. In 1949 I got married and the popular song was "Maybe it's because" sung by Dick Hymes. The lyrics fit because I was so young and falling in love. Ppfftt ...Now I hear it and I think it's just a draggyass old song. Hahahaha
Here's the thing. You don't have to pick a song that was recorded in the era to which you are referring. However, the song you choose may be something that you really liked then... and not so much now. And that is part of the story. So, you could use Maybe It's Because and tell the story. You can also say how I felt about the song then vs. now. Why? Because it's also part of the story. The story of you. Where you were. Where you are. And it's interesting. YOU are interesting.
DeleteGreat song. Good idea. Good luck with all of this.
ReplyDeleteIf you decide you want to do a variation of this on your blog... have at it!
DeleteThe song choice is nice - the video is cute. Not sure if I'd participate at this time.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great song. I remember listening to that CD a lot when it came out--right around the time when I was dating my present wife.
ReplyDeleteI did a part one and two soundtrack at the time when Larry and Stephen did theirs. You can find them at http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/2010/06/soundtrack-of-my-life.html and http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/2010/07/soundtrack-of-my-life-number-two.html
Then you might recall that last year my theme at Wrote By Rote
was essentially a song by song soundtrack of my life--26 entries and some of them went kind of deep.
Don't forget my BOTB post for the 15th!
Arlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Tossing It Out
This is a great song! I look forward to listening to the next soundtrack of your life, Robin!
ReplyDeleteJulie
What a cool idea and beautiful song! I think this (The Soundtrack of My Life) would something I'd like to give a shot down the road....if I remember. lol Have fun!
ReplyDelete