Worthless
MTM and I had exactly one CD in common when we merged our collection: U2 Greatest Hits 1980-1990. One duplicate in our wildly divergent musical library. How could a person who lusted after crooners and a person who liked dissonant noise ever live in peaceful harmony?
Answer: Cafe del Mar.
The second stop on our whirlwind honeymoon tour of Australia was Heron Island, a dot on the Great Barrier Reef we could circumnavigate in twenty minutes. Our room faced west, through the wispy fronds of a she oak tree to the line where water met sky beyond, the spot where the sun sank into the ocean every evening.
Our room contained a lone CD, its cover sporting an almost naked woman submerged in a sea of coral. Doubtful, I stuck it in the CD player as we prepped for the communal seafood buffet.
What is this? MTM came in from the peace of our patio, pointing in the direction of the chilled out speakers.
I don’t know. A CD that was in here. It’s chill, isn’t it?
MTM picked it up and caressed the lines of the woman on the front. Huh. From a club on Ibiza. Too bad I never went over there when I was living in Spain.
So, you LIKE this?
Yeah. It’s relaxing. YOU like it?
Yes. I do.
We finally found a genre of music upon which we could agree. Techno chill. Every time I listen to Cafe del Mar Volume Eight, I am back in Australia. Watching sharks dart through the undulating fields of coral on the Reef. Climbing to a lone point in the Grampians in the spitting rain. Feeling the mist of the Southern Ocean along the Great Ocean Road. Getting lost in Melbourne.
Magical music for a mystical place in time.
Is there a type of music over which you bonded with someone special in your life?
This post is part of the series The Soundtrack of Life. If this is your first visit to the series, please click here for the first installment, click here for the second, click here for the third, and click here for the fourth. MTM wrote a great guest post yesterday, which you can find here. Thanks for your contributions and insights in the comments. They always enrich this blog, especially in a series like this one.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Hooked on Classics « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- The Very Thought of You « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Christmas in…..August « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- The Day the Music Died « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- A Kind of Magic « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- We Are Young « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Take Me Out « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Let There Be Peace on Earth « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
Alt country. Katherine and I heard this amazing voice telling this amazing story coming out of our radio as we were driving across country…
Check out this video on YouTube:
Sent from my iPhone
Zydeco and Cajun is the other. Some other day.
I ADORE Iris Demint! I first heard her via Prairie Home Companion. Bill Smithem calls this Americana music. Ballads and songs of life. It’s the music we bonded to when we had our first date–12 hours of his guitar, my voice and stories–and we’re headed tonight to play and sing with friends and no doubt we’ll be singing some of those same songs from our first date.
Iris’ voice reminds me of shaped not hymn singing which I also adore.
And a very well respected band member of a zydeco band once told the crowd at a concert / event, now there’s a woman who can dance! I can’t sit still to zydeco.
There was a zydeco festival going on in New Orleans when I was there, but I never managed to get over there. I could hear snatches of it, though.
Another great add, Robert.
Isn’t it funny how we think in terms of “my” music, or “their” music. It is a very personal collection we bring with us! I’ve always had huge musical collections, and my husband isn’t nearly as possessive. He makes me laugh with his oldies…like Ricky Nelson and Dion and the Belmonts! He is stuck there musically, but he is a good sport and will allow me to drag him around to concerts and musical theater. He does like the Beatles…so we at least made it into the sixties together! Ha! I enjoyed your story very much! Great series! D
Sometimes, being supportive of the other person’s musical taste is the supreme act of love. Like, when MTM bought me Harry Connick Jr tickets, yet he can’t stand him. He was willing to go to the concert with me anyway, though.
Sounds like you two work the same way.
Hmmm. We are both lovers of anything acoustic, Tom being a strummer of them as well, so, I’m back to James Taylor, who we first saw at age 20 at the old stadium in Chicago, then the U of I at Champaign/Urbana, then Poplar Creek, the Auditorium, Ravinia . . . . .
. . . of course, we can’t forget Simon & Garfunkel’s last tour together, driving from Normal, Illinois, in Tom’s Corvette, five people in that little tin can, to St. Louis to see them, hearing Bridge Over Troubled Waters for the very first time, live. I later acquired the album (a real album) before Tom did and he wouldn’t talk to me for a few days. tee hee
Did Tom want to get the album first? Is that why he wouldn’t talk to you?
Yes! I beat him to and he was mad at me for getting it first. He went out and bought one. This was, oh, ’bout 40 years ago, when we were dating. We still have Bridge Over Troubled Waters – both albums.
It’s hilarious that you still have both of them.
I bond with everyone about music. Even Scot, the not so musical, fell for me when he realized I’d seen Highlander and (like everyone on the planet) only loved it for the Queen Soundtrack.
Who couldn’t love a Queen soundtrack though? They will feature later in the series.
Beautiful Andra!!!!
Thanks, Valerie. Good to see you.
Actually, Nancy and I overlap a good bit although she leans toward pop and country and I lean towards, well towards MTM style. But we come together over melodic English and Irish folk music and strangely enough some hard techno-trance stuff. The only music of her’s I really can’t stand is modern pop like Beyonce and Lady GaGa. The only things in my collection she doesn’t tolerate are those dissonant noises from King Crimson, Gentle Giant and the like.
Oh, and she just shakes her head in bewilderment when I play my soundtracks of steam engine sounds. Come to think of it though, most people do.
Soundtracks of steam engine sounds…………there’s really such a thing, Carnell???
Yes. I have been listening to them since I was a kid. I used to put them on my record player (yes, a real record player back in the age of 33 LPs) and listen to them to go to sleep. I can burn a CD of one if you would like.
Oh, sure. Why not?
Cool deal!!!!
You know, this series is making me realize that it’s funny how little I have bonded with people over specific music, given that the vast majority of all the men I’ve ever dated and all of my college friends that I’m still in touch with are reasonably serious amateur musicians. Rehearsals and performances were the backdrops to nearly all of my college friendships but somehow the specific pieces fade behind the simple fact of our all being deeply involved in music.
But, it sounds like you like a little bit of everything when you talk about music. There’s got to be some life event that has a soundtrack for you. There’s a writing prompt……
I like so many different types of music – swing, jazz, rock, rap, r&b, musicals. MLB is a HUGE Springsteen fan. Thunder Road is her favorite song.
It sounds to me like you bond over Les Mis, though. From you comment yesterday.
I no longer have a music collection to link together with someone else’s collection. What a romantic thought.
However, in honor of U2, I fired up my online playlist of U2 classics arranged in the order I like to hear them to respond to this post. Thanks for the reminder.
They are great. It takes me back. U2 never made it into my brick-and-mortar collection back in the day, but now they are always just a couple clicks away.
Glad it was good for you. I like doing these to force myself to go through my own vault, and to find new music from the things other people submit. Music posts are fun to write.
BFF and I overlap more than we diverge . . . but he’s a bit more country and I’m a bit more rock and roll.
The amazing thing about Cheryl and I merging our musical collections was not finding music we could agree on, but the fact that in spite of our loving the same kinds of music (with show tunes and violin concertos being two of the minor exceptions), in our combined collection of over 450 CDs there was not a single duplicate.
hmm…to answer, no, must be why I’m still single…???
(actually, now that I’ve taken the time to listen to the Dido, I do have one from the one who got away, he composed music for his band (I’ve heard I was honored with a song after our brief fling…it wasn’t in a good light! he and I shared a lot of music loves, including his band)
The music thing can’t be why you’re still single, Angela. I don’t think I’ve ever had a song written just for me, flattering or not. The bad girl ones are so much more memorable.
Mark gave me Tom Waits. This was the song I fell for.
Good on Mark!
Blue October…my son Preston and I. Carrington and I dedicate songs to each other all the time – meaningful and loving songs – songs that uplift that explain how we feel toward each other, but Preston and I are depressed souls who are so much alike that sometimes we repel each other like those magnets that you cannot put together no matter how hard you try. Blue October speaks to the darkness inside our alike souls as we push/pull through life. Sterling (my oldest baby) and I don’t really have a music connection unless you count the fact that I refused to let him go to a Pantera concert years ago because he attempted to hotwire my car…*sigh* Kids!
It is great that you and Preston can bond through music in the down times. If it can lift you up, any song is magical.
I love this series. I immediately related people in my life to what song was playing when we met. To this day i here a certain song and I can tell you who was in my life at that time. Some bring sorrow and some bring such happiness that I am driving down the road smiling like a crazed person. Music truly comforts and transports me.
I hoped this series would help readers recall specific life events and people, Angela. I am glad it has done it for you.