The Sound of Music

Whoever said that smell is the strongest sense associated with memory obviously doesn't listen to music.

While yes a whiff of cologne can whisk you back a decade or two, and the smell of Mama's baking can remind you of afternoons with Great Auntie Suzie...nothing says "Hey, remember this?" like a well timed song.

Maybe it's just  a case of being more specific, I dunno

And movie soundtracks, I think, are the ultimate. I mean who can't hear the first strains of "I've Had The Time Of My Life" without remembering Johnny and Baby...the 'Lift'...the leather jacket, the whole shebang. Or...as has been the theme on my Facebook page this morning...listen to Bowie's Labyrinthine "Underground" without recalling Jareth, his crystal 'bubbles' and that most awesome hair.

And it ain't just the visuals that spring to mind. I remember 'feeling' torn between wanting to have the Goblin King's hair and wanting to marry it! It was an intense time I tell you. But after deciding matrimony was probably not going to pan out, I settled for replication...much to David Bowie's relief I'm sure.

And Ghost! God damn it that infernal movie nearly made me lose it in front of all my mates (Patrick Swayze has a lot to answer for!). I still get a rattle in the bottom of my stomach to this day at sound of The Righteous Brothers plaintively wailing their "Unchained Melody"! It's just ridiculous.

But the ultimate (and I'm sure my Eighties sisters will be with me on this) has to be dance movies. Who, ahh say who, can hear Irene Cara's "What A Feeling" or the theme from "Fame" without remembering how BADLY he/she wanted to be that damn talented. I mean seriously. And to shift a little later, Eminem's "Lose Yourself" always wrenches me straight back to the final killer rap scene where Rabbit canes "Clarence" like an errant schoolboy. I swear the skin-tingly awesomeness of that one gives even Chuck Norris a run for his money.

And so it continues today. And as a new generation has movie scenes, and the feelings elicited by them, etched into it's consciousness by well crafted tracks...we elders (or are we technically, the overall 'tweens' ?) can only sit back and smile....waiting for the first time one of our kids, upon hearing a favourite soundtrack song gasps: "Oh wow!!! I so remember that movie!!" 

Yeah, I'm looking forward to memories like that \m/