This is a reminder that I need to crank up my stereo especially while I am sitting here in the office trying to be productive.
There was an article in Conscious Living linking music to increased immunity. When I am down, I want to listen to music. Not just any music. I want music from my high school and college years. Music from before I got sick. Songs that when heard can transport me back to a very specific time in my life; a carefree time when I am healthy.
My friend Liz recently told me that she had heard about music therapy and Alzheimer’s Patients. The theory was that if music was played from a time when the patients were younger, thought memories could be evoked. I found this information on the Alzheimer’s Foundation (Most people associate music with important events and a wide array of emotions. The connection can be so strong that hearing a tune long after the occurrence evokes a memory of it.)
This is all the more reason for me to blast the oldies when I am home by myself or to download a few of these to my ipod and stick my ear buds in my ears and listen even when I am not by myself. I hope you enjoy my selections from my past.
Maggie May by Rod Stewart takes me right back to a local drive-in hanging out with friends from school.
There are many more songs that can take me back to a particular time and place. Recently my sister and I were talking and reminiscing about songs on our drive back from the Daffodil Festival and Daffodil Hill. One of the musicians we began thinking about was Gordon Lightfoot. As we drove home, we tried to remember all the words to this song. I was a senior in high school about this time and my sister was a sophomore.
From my college years is Roberta Flack
I was reminded by Roberta Flack from acflory at Meeka’s Mind and again about Gordon Lightfoot by Anneb54
So what songs would you BLAST from your stereo? What kinds of memories would they bring back to you?
allergictolifemybattle 
I blast my stereo most every day. The main requirement — is it danceable — at least to me. My younger days would be Lynryd Skynyrd, Bob Seger (Old Time Rock N Roll), more mellow — Jim Croce.
I need to get my ipod charged and get back to music.
Music, for me, always evokes memory of time and place when first heard. I seldom ‘go off’ music I like completely and so listen to an enormous range these days from classical to funk to Brit prog to jazz to synth pop to Frank Zappa to European metal. All of it carries meanings relative to time and place when first heard. It’s all good.
Thank you Matt. Listening to music from before the time I became ill, allows me to remember what it was like.
I understand what you are saying about music taking you back to a time when you were blissfully unaware of the looming health issues. Great video clips! But I also wonder if there is current music that resonates and lifts you up in the same way?
One song that I really like is Roar by Katy Perry.
I got the eye of the tiger…I am a champion and your going to hear me roar… Now I’m floating like a butterfly
Stinging like a bee I earned my stripes I went from zero, to my own hero
This is me finding my voice and no longer being afraid to speak up for myself and tell my story. To not let doctors or the legal field walk all over me.
I saw recently where those good old songs that we listened to (we are of the same generation) are now called classic and not oldies. I love those good old songs with lyrics (without profanity) that I could understand, and a beat that I can dance to.
I so agree. I want to understand the lyrics.