The Soundtrack to My Life

The Soundtrack to My Life

I was searching through my iPod for the perfect song; a song that would fit into my life right now at this moment.  It got me thinking that everyone has a set of songs that can make up the soundtrack to their life.

I spent half of my summer boating on the Susquehanna River with the radio as the background.  Now, amidst the rain and chilly weather, every time I hear the song “Rockstar” by Nickelback, I am taken back to the scorching heat and lazy days of summer. I can distinctly remember being a child on the river, watching the rocks below me, the smell of sunscreen on my skin, listening to “Money” by Pink Floyd.  

It’s hard to pick a few songs that help define me, so I tried to choose five that really communicate to me emotionally. These songs make up the soundtrack to my life.

When I am driving in my car, I like to think that I am on “Thunder Road” with Bruce Springsteen.  Driving gives me control over something that I can’t find anywhere else; knowing that I am free to go anywhere and see anything.  Springsteen sings: “tonight we’ll be free” because “these two lanes will take us anywhere.” “Thunder Road” helps me to achieve that.  Every time I listen to this song, I am reminded of driving in the warm summer when I can “roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair.”

Tom Petty’s “American Girl” draws me in with the first guitar riff.  I can’t recall where I was when I heard this song for the first time, but I do remember the first time I listened to the lyrics.  I was young, 18 or so, and I was not enjoying where I was in life.  Petty sings, “she couldn’t help thinking that there was a little more to life somewhere else.”  I was instantly connected and wanted to go on a journey with Petty and find life somewhere else.

Like many others, I will never forget what I was doing on September 11, 2001.  I had always loved listening to Don Henley’s “The End of the Innocence” because it reminded me of having a carefree childhood.  On September 11, one of the first songs that was played on the radio after all the devastation was this song. It took on a whole new meaning for me that day: “O beautiful for spacious skies, but now those skies are threatening.”  If I was innocent before September 11, I certainly am not anymore.

Every time I hear Stevie Nicks’s song “Edge of Seventeen,” I am transported back in time when I stood directly in front of her as she sang it.  Nothing can compare to hearing music come alive before me.  It pulls me in and makes me completely oblivious to my surroundings. In the song Nicks sings, “Nothing else mattered.”  I have the ability to focus entirely on the song, which often results in a unique emotional experience.  I frequently try to recreate those emotions by vibrating my stereo speakers in my car.  At the end of the song, Stevie walks the entire stage and shakes hands with her fans and takes gifts.  That night I was finally able to give her a letter I had written.  It was rewarding for me to “thank” her for all that her music has done for me.

I had the pleasure of seeing Lindsey Buckingham in concert, where he performed “I’m So Afraid.”  Lindsey is by far one of the most underrated guitar players alive today.  His guitar solos are absolutely mesmerizing and mind-blowing.  During his solo, the red light flashed over him as he plucked the strings and became consumed in his music.  The bass vibrated in my chest as he hovered in front of me; it was then that I clearly saw the sweat on his face and the indentations on his fingers from his guitar strings.  I knew at that moment that Lindsey was connecting his music with his heart, which was split open in its rawness for everyone to see.

In every phase of my life there are key songs that take me right back to that moment.  I can instantly re-experience sounds, smells, and feelings within the first few notes that I hear.  What songs would you choose to be on the soundtrack of your life?