Sound track to my life (draft version)

[liv]

This is a meme that does the rounds every so often; most recent incarnation from rysmiel. The idea is that you a dozen or so songs that would form the sound-track to (a film of) your life.

I've gone for songs that were playing at significant moments, rather than songs I necessarily think are out of this world wonderful. I'm also finding this surprisingly hard, so I'm not sure I've picked the most appropriate ones. I've tried this meme or variants on it several times, and this is the first list I've been at least vaguely content with.

1. Bunthorne and Grosvenor's duet Conceive me if you can from Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience

   My parents are desperately unmusical but believe in giving their kids a Musical Education. So I spent my childhood in a welter of Gilbert and Sullivan, with my dad painstakingly explaining the hundred-year-old political satire. It wasn't a bad route into classical music, actually.

2. Gabriel Fauré: Requiem

   I was very intense (and somewhat religious) as a young teenager, and the first of many things I loved with desperate adolescent passion was this music.

3. Ugly Kid Joe: Cat's in the cradle

   Mid-teens when I was starting to establish my own identity and getting into 'alternative' music. And this one stands out from a bunch of similar stuff because it was the sound-track to a subliminal crush on a schoolfriend of mine.

4. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under the bridge

   This (and a couple of lovely people) got me through being a misfit among all the trendy north London Jewish teenagers at camp. I don't think I was this emo for more than a couple of weeks, but the song stayed with me.

5. Sisters of Mercy: Under the gun

   Leaving home and my first forays into adult life coincided with doseybat making me a truly wonderful compilation tape which entirely revolutionized my taste in music. It's very hard to pick just one song from that, actually.

6. Tori Amos: Anastasia

   I fell apart a bit when I was 19, and MK put me back together and incidentally got me completely hooked on Tori Amos while he was doing so.

7. Nirvana: Smells like teen spirit

   Like, I suspect, a frighteningly high proportion of my generation, I lost my virginity with Nevermind playing in the background. But the big V is mainly just an excuse; Nirvana has been playing in the background for most of the past 10 years, so this one had to be in here somewhere.

8. Psalm 23 from Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms

   This is the theme song for a passionate and turbulent relationship when I was at university.

9. Liz Phair: Polyester Bride
10. Simon and Garfunkel: For Emily, wherever I may find her

    Two songs from my three-year idyll with darcydodo. Actually I could do a whole soundtrack from just this relationship, since darcydodo sings all the time and I have loads of strong associations with different songs from that period.

11. Was (not was): How the heart behaves

    I was very obsessed with this for most of the first year of my PhD.

12. Beth Orton: She cries your name

    The real amazing stand-out song on a compilation tape lethargic_man made for me just after we started going out.

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Like, I suspect, a frighteningly high proportion of my generation, I lost my virginity with Nevermind playing in the background.

This is part of the reason why "Comfortably Numb" was on my list; which I suspect is a less common association to have, though goodness knows, I know enough people who had phases of listening to The Wall obsessively.

[liv]

This is part of the reason why "Comfortably Numb" was on my list
Oh, cool! *hug* I got a bit confused by the way that's run together with Some kind of stranger in your list, I looked at that and thought, hey, that's two completely separate songs, what's going on?

I don't really go in for background music, as a rule. But it's one of the immutable rules of film sex that there has to be dramatic or romantic music in the background!

I know enough people who had phases of listening to The Wall obsessively.
I actually never managed to listen to it all the way through until lethargic_man lent me his copy a couple of months ago. But the two songs I was already into before listening to the album were Comfortably numb and Hey you.

[lisekit.livejournal.com]

I love, love, love that Beth Orton song! And the whole album ("Trailer Park") it's on, for that matter.
"Automatic for the People" was doing the rounds as the album of lurve back in our day. A bit later, Trucky's "Maxinquaye" was doing it for a lot of people, too. I have fond memories of it, that's for sure!

[liv]

And the whole album ("Trailer Park")
Oh yes. I went and bought the album after hearing She cries your name, which is something I very rarely do. And it turned out that the rest of the album is just as cool! So yay lethargic_man introducing me to excellent music I wouldn't otherwise have heard.

"Automatic for the People" was doing the rounds as the album of lurve back in our day.
Yes, that's another one that's very zeitgeist and that everybody of a certain age owned, so it was highly likely to be playing at significant moments!

Trucky's "Maxinquaye" was doing it for a lot of people, too.
I'm ashamed to say I've not even heard of either the artist or the song. I shall indeed look out for it.

Trailer Park

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Oh. *pleased* You'll probably like her second album, "Central Reservation" as well.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! *hug* I got a bit confused by the way that's run together with Some kind of stranger in your list, I looked at that and thought, hey, that's two completely separate songs, what's going on?

One of the Sisters concerts I have attended opened with playing Comfortably Numb segueing into Some Kind of Stranger, they fit together so well musically, as well as Some Kind of Stranger sounding to my mind like a response to Comfortably Numb lyrically, that I think that may have been intentional. I should copy the live album I have for you, actually.

I don't really go in for background music, as a rule.

Nor I, the rhythm is so rarely right.

[liv]

One of the Sisters concerts I have attended opened with playing Comfortably Numb segueing into Some Kind of Stranger, they fit together so well musically, as well as Some Kind of Stranger sounding to my mind like a response to Comfortably Numb lyrically, that I think that may have been intentional.
I'm really bouncing off this information! I keep thinking, wow, that's really, really clever... no, wait a minute, that can't be! Either way it's a very original concept, and I keep coming back to it when I'm not even near LJ and trying to work out whether I believe it or not.