Songs in the key of Amber

In the spirit of plagiarizing other people's blog topics, I have taken a cue from Kendra and created the soundtrack to my life. These are of course just a sampling of the songs that bring back all kinds of memories, but here they are nonetheless.

Cleanin’ Windows – This song reminds me of my dad. I grew up listening to Van Morrison, because he’s one of my dad’s all-time favorites, and I remember Saturday mornings we’d put on a record (yes, a record) and dance around the living room and sing along to the songs. I used to stand on his feet and he’d dance around with me and my mom. I hadn’t heard this song for a long time and then one day it came on and I was totally flooded with memories. I have a lot of great memories of my parents and the fun we have had.

Galileo – I picked this one because it was my first favorite song by the Indigo Girls, and I guess if I had to pick just one song, this is it. It’s also a happy song and it reminds me of summers with the girls and hanging out by the pool with twizzlers, jalapeno cheddar dip, and bottomless water bottles. It’s a great song to sing along with at the very top of your lungs.

The Devil went down to Georgia -- If you know me BUT AT ALL (or read this blog on a regular basis) you know that no soundtrack of Amber is complete without this song. I'll just leave it at that.

Can’t help falling in love – This song primarily reminds me of high school and driving around in the Roadrunner. It especially reminds me of Becki, because she loves this song, but there’s a lot of our junior and senior years in high school caught up in there as well. We have some weird photographic evidence of days of boredom (dressing up like gangstas, taking pics of my brother in his raptor mask, dressed up to seduce the pizza boy, fur coat wearin’ hos) and interesting quotes “daddy, we can’t get drunk when you’re down here,” “Ms. Thomas, Amber ate my carnation” “no I didn’t, it just got stuck in my teeth,” “hey Nate, you’re lucky I wore a bra tonight” and the list goes on. And on. And on.

Birdhouse in your Soul – Another song from high school that reminds me of my brother. He loooooved this song and we’d play it over and over again in the car. When we weren’t listening to that song, we were watching the Princess Bride or playing Aladdin on Sega. Or perhaps I was bossing him around. A couple of years ago, he did this awesome watercolor of he and I from a picture when we were little, and the background was typewritten words that turned out to be the lyrics to this song. I loved it. And now that he writes and plays his own music, sometimes I can hear the influence of They Might Be Giants in there, born of his love of the Birdhouse.

Come Baby Come – This was definitely one of the theme songs of the A-List. Not because it’s an overtly sexual song (because the naïve girls didn’t realize that at the time) but because it’s super fun to dance to and drive to. Everybody sings their part and we play it over and over again. And if you’re Beth, you request it the night we went dancing for Karen’s bachelorette party, thereby making our night. Sigh. Good times.
*Runners up in this category include “Gin and Juice” because there are motions to go along with the words, and “Regulators” because really, who DOESN’T love Warren G?*

Omaha -- This is a great song off of one of my all time favorite cds. It reminds me of Kendra, because we listened to it a lot the summer before we went to college and she was going to college in Omaha. I have listened to that cd so much that I had to buy a new one because I destroyed the first one. THAT'S the mark of a great cd.

Lie in our graves – I wonder if anyone near our age can honestly say that they have no memories of college attached to a Dave Matthews song. I can’t, and it was hard to pick just one, but this is a good one. It reminds me of parties and concerts and doing stuff with my friends that didn’t involve actually going to class. That’s the part of college that I liked. Almost TOO much.
*Runners up in this category include “Satellite” which is the song that hooked me on Dave in the first place, and most of the songs on the “Crash” cd. And others.*

Did you ever look so nice? – I’d like to send a shout out to the ex-boyfriend I mentioned in the Indigo Girls post because he is also responsible for introducing me to the Samples. I LOVE this song. It makes me happy and it reminds me of seeing the Samples at Red Rocks one night in the pouring rain, and it’s just like a background song to fun. And it now also reminds me of Karen’s wedding, because her brother put it on the video he did of John and Karen “over the years” and it was so sweet.

Shimmer – this song reminds me of my cousin Vannie. I heard it right around the time he died, and I still get teary when I hear it. Shawn Mullins’ voice is so great on it and the line that gets me is “his shining eyes are big and blue” because Vannie’s eyes were this gorgeous blue. He was such a sweet boy and I loved him so much (still do) and I wish every day that he was still here. I guess I can’t really explain why this song has such a strong feeling attached to it, but it does. And I love it.

Champagne High – this is the best song for many reasons. First of all, Emily Saliers from the Indigo Girls does backing vocals, and also the words are heart wrenching. I love me some heart wrenching lyrics. If you’ve never heard it, it’s about a guy who goes to the wedding of a girl he loved (loves?) and he’s talking abut how she’s found her life and he’s still looking for his and wondering if he made the right decision about letting her go. It reminds me of a relationship I had that was so great, but that never had a future. Mostly because he pointed that out to me, and so consequently it reminds me of him. In a good way. My favorite words are “wagon’s been hitched to a star…well now he’ll be your thing that’s new…what little I have you can borrow…’cause I’m old and I’m blue…” How sad is that?

Anyway, that's the list. I'm sure as soon as I post this, I'll think of the best song ever that I forgot to mention. Because that's just how it works.