Melodies of Life

August 26, 2009
12:00 am Wednesday


Songs are imprints in life. Whenever we hear familiar songs, we bring back time and recall specific memories we had experienced before; in effect recapture that old feelings of exhilaration, enjoyment, excitement and even despair all over again. We also recall how we live life in the past; an example of this is we remember specifically the time when we're eating out with our high school friends or even the specific day when we had so many problems in life when we hear the familiar songs.

Seldom we hear the oldies song "devoted to you" by Everly Brothers; but whenever I hear the song , It brought back the era of 1970's in me, happily walking in the street towards my kindergarten school in project 4 Quezon city , clad in my brand new school uniform with light blue bag and blue shorts.

I keep on remembering also that feeling of excitement along with my two other brothers running towards the playground plaza. It makes no sense, in a way, but it's a good feeling; as if you wanted it to really happen all over again.

I knew that the song was made in the 60's but somehow maybe it touched me indirectly because, when we were young, whenever I (with my 2 brothers) walked or run towards the plaza to play, there’s one particular house alongside the street near the playground, that almost always played that song "devoted to you" every single day, every afternoon between 3:00 to 5:00pm, as I recall it.

I keep on remembering the place, the mixed joyful feeling when I was a child, even the "scent" of that one particular period in time. Was it abnormal? Do others have the same feelings when they remember things or places the way I do?

Every song has its meanings and I have no idea at all about the meaning of that Everly Brothers song until I reached high school already. But the melody, the hymn, it really has brought back memories.

When I hear the song “Bad Day" by Daniel Powter I remember the grief that was inside me over the loss of my brother because of his lingering sickness.

And I can't really say if it’s the lyrics or the melody itself that triggers the emotion, it can be both. Irregardless of the meaning of the lyrics or the melody of the song, when you associate one event to a song and you gave meaning to it, then it will stay forever inside you.

Sometimes I wonder if all songs, which I became familiar with, have different meanings to everyday people also, aside from the message of its lyrics.

Maybe, it's the association of the song to that one captured moment we try to cherish; and then we emotionally embedded it forever in our subconsciousness until it creates a feeling of longing or an imprint, be it a bad memory or a good one; ready to flow whenever it is stimulated by the said music anytime.

To me, songs are like BOOKMARKS in the internet; you want to mark a site because you like it; and if you want to browse it you just click the title or the name you want to see. To my mind, we subconsciously catch one fleeting moment in our lives and then bookmarked it by a SONG and re-experienced it all over again when we hear the song again.

thanks for the images:
zedge, ioffer,com
megamuz.com