This last year was one of travel. I was in New York from January to April; back in Waterloo from May to August; then Sydney from September to Christmas. Each time with its own music: unrelated songs but that I’d been listening to them at that time. That’s how I am with music… obsessive. A short list of songs over and over, with high turnover. The result is music that becomes burned into my consciousness, tied to the people and places of a particular time period.

From New York

• Frank Sinatra – Fly Me To The Moon
• The Foundations – Build Me Up Buttercup
• Kingsbury Manx – 900 Years
• Norah Jones – Creepin’ In
• Aerosmith – Blind Man

I bought that Sinatra compilation at the Times Square Virgin the first day I arrived in New York, and eventually gave it away as a gift. The Aerosmith best-of album made great listening on the clangy NYC subway. I think I picked up that Norah Jones CD to prep a bit for when I heard her playing live at a bar in Gramercy. I wouldn’t turn twenty-one until June, but they weren’t carding that night, and a kind stranger even bought me a drink.

From Waterloo

• Susan Cagle – Manhattan Cowboy
• Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend
• Kansas – Carry On Wayward Son
• The Seatbelts – Ask DNA
• ZZ Top – Sharp Dressed Man

The summer was dominated by tracks featured in the Guitar Hero games, which saw fairly consistent usage at the house I was in. I had seen Susan Cagle performing in the Union Square station my very last morning in New York, on the way to the airport. I ended up being early for my flight home and regretted not staying longer to hear, but tried to compensate by listening to her CD all summer.

From Sydney

• Little Birdy – Come On, Come On
• Blind Faith – Can’t Find My Way Home
• Rolling Stones – She’s A Rainbow
• 4hero – Les Fleurs
• The Andrews Sisters – Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

A mixed bag here. I had a handful of Stones songs in my library previously, but somehow missed out on She’s a Rainbow until recently; I encountered it through the gorgeous Sony Bravia ad campaign that was playing on Australian television. The Little Birdy song was covered by a contestant on Australian Idol, and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy I heard played at a dance, and makes for terrific Balboa.

Being in the co-op programme at Waterloo has meant that my life for the past few years has been neatly divisible into wildly varying four-month chunks. It’s an interesting experience to sort my MP3 library by date added, scroll to some random point, and see what memories a particular set of songs can evoke.

Mike

← Earlier Later → Posted at 2:27 am to Culture, Music.