Music Memory Monday

 I'm running low on Music Memories.  I guess it's time to open up the ole' brain and write some more.

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Oh what a night

Of all the songs that stand out from our wedding reception this one takes the top prize. Don't ask me why, it wasn't our first dance, it wasn't our wedding party song, hell I don't even know if anyone requested it, but as anyone can tell you there isn't much time for the bride and groom to dance at their wedding but I danced when this song came on.

I vividly remember hearing it start. It was fairly popular on the bar scene, in this remixed version of course, and the minute it started I knew I needed to dance. I can still see the DJ's lights flashing on the floor and there I was swinging my gown around and changing the words to fit my own scenario. Late September back in '97. Oh what a night.

It summed up the night perfectly and I can honestly say I still get goose bumps every time I hear it.

What a very special time for me, 'cause I remember what a night.

Music Memory Monday

In hindsight, there were better choices.  If you travel back through my Music Memory Mondays you will find that a much more awesome choice was in the memory banks the whole time.

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The one I didn't get sick of

I have never claimed to be the most deep of music lovers, but when the lyrics of a song tell a story I can relate to, the song usually becomes a life long favorite.

So, it would go without saying that any song I would choose for the first-dance at my wedding would have to be perfect, and long before I was even engaged I was on the hunt for that story-in-a-song.  I think the search actually began when I was in my teens when I started writing down lyrics in notebooks.

When I finally became engaged and our date had been set, it became my mission to find "The Song".  I went through a few drafts, if you will, each time becoming obsessed with my choice.  I  played them incessantly, imagining the moment in excruciating detail until I couldn't stand to hear the song one more time.  Back to the drawing board.

Kenny Chesney's Me and You, Tim McGraw &  Faith Hill singing It's your love, all fine on the surface but they just didn't feel right.

Then one summer night about three months before our wedding I was looking through my collection of mix tapes when I found the golden nugget.  The lyrics were perfect.  As far as I could tell it wasn't overused, and (major plus) it didn't make my fiance' want to vomit.

When I'm feeling blue, all I have to do, is take a look at you...

Wouldn't you agree, baby you and me, got a groovy kind of love...

Sure there are times when the cheese factor of Phil Collins rears it's ugly head, but I still get goosebumps when I hear "our song".  Looking back there were other choices that may have been better, but things happen for a reason and all it takes are a few key strokes on a piano to take me to one of the best days of my life.

Music Memory Monday

OK, before anyone gets their panties in a bunch- this happened a long time ago.  Before I was legally wed, and during a time in which the man I was dating, whom I later married, was back home having some fun of his own.  We are adults, and this memory takes place in 1996.  And no, I do not feel guilty or have any regrets :)

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 Oh I really should have known...

In January 1996 I began my last semester at college. I had decided over Christmas break that I was going to immerse myself in the college experience this last semester and not travel home to work as much. This put a new strain on an already weak relationship with my boyfriend of four years.

The previous semester I had developed a crush on a fellow student. He was broadcast major like me and we were involved in the same student activities. He was a couple of years younger, he had a long term girlfriend, and he was a smart ass. Simply, he was a challenge and I was up for it. We shared a flirtation but if someone else was around he was rude, but that worked for me. When we were one-on-one, which was usually a result of me going out of my way to be somewhere he was, then he was different.

We worked together at our college TV station. This meant we were together quite a bit filming segments, many of which involved taping a band at a bar, and then we had long hours in the edit bay putting the show together. It was during this time that I first heard Jann Arden's song "Insensitive".

I was drawn to this song at first by just one line. How do you teach your heart it's a crime to fall in love again? I had a boyfriend, one that I was technically still attached to, and one that I honestly still loved very much. So what was I doing?

One night after taping another band, in another bar, and after having way too much to drink, the crush and I, well... we had some fun.  It was intense and crazy, but the moment it was over, it was over. Oh I really should have known, by the time you drove me home...  After that night it was different. We had gone too far, and he could now be described as nothing but "insensitive". By the vagueness in your eyes, casual goodbyes... 

As the female counterpart I was not capable of being that way. I fell too fast, I feel too much...  I probably wasn't the first or the last.  I'm one of the chosen few, who went ahead and fell for you... and I often wonder if he even remembers me. We finished out the semester and, hung out as friends in our group. I married my boyfriend, he married his girlfriend, and the rest is history. But anytime I hear this song I completely lose myself in every detail of that time in my life. I thought that you might have some advice to give, on how to be, insensitive...

Music Memory Monday

Probably not my juiciest Music Memory, but it's still an important one :)

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Over The Edge

My last semester at college I created and co-produced a TV show called Over the Edge for our college TV station. It was a segmented show where we would try to cover some campus news, nightlife, and any other oddity that someone suggested.

One of our biggest challenges as we put the first show together was "What should our theme song be?" In 1996, TV shows still had opening credits and I wanted Over the Edge to have the perfect theme song. We had considered a number of options before my co-producer put something together using But Anyway by Blues Traveler. I liked Blues Traveler, but I was more of a mainstream Blues Traveler fan. Everyone liked them when Hook came out, but this was a song off of an earlier album. The minute I heard it I knew it was the right song, even the lyrics seemed appropriate for a college TV show.

Now, whenever I hear the harmonica at the beginning of But Anyway I think of Over The Edge. The funny part is that clearing music for advertising is an integral part of what I do everyday. I had no idea how illegal using that song, and all songs, without permission was at that time. I guess we're just lucky that Blues Traveler never came after us for royalty payments.  Meh, but anyway...

Music Memory Monday

It's seems I have two fans of my Music Memory Monday stories, so I dedicate this one to them ;)

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Closure

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Well...I...heard there was a party and we thought we'd come out and see everyone."

"Where's your boyfriend?"

"He's out of town this weekend, I came out with T and J."

"It's been awhile."

"Yeah"

We had broken up about a year and a half earlier after two years together.

Our break-up was long, and dramatic. I had basically ended it with him to be with my current boyfriend, but he was my first, in so many ways.

It was odd to see him again, even though I had been drinking and looked forward to running in to him here where he lived with a few other guys from "the group". The group I had also belonged to until I did the unthinkable and let him go. My current boyfriend had gone out of town with some friends and this was my payback to him. I was young, and yeah- immature, but so were many others at that age.

We had started the evening around the bonfire. It was a familiar site. Open field, bonfire, lots of drinking. He invited me inside to warm up and with glaring eyes from my friends I accepted the offer. We sat on his bedroom floor and talked, really talked. The animosity he had towards me after our breakup was gone, he had moved on now. But we both needed to say some things. He pulled a shoebox out of his closet with our two years wrapped up inside. Half used candles, cards, my senior picture, why he had kept these things I don't know. I had a similar box but wasn't that a girl thing to do?

"I was saving you know," he said.

"Saving for what?"

"The football bank was for you, every penny I put in there was for your Marquis."

He remembered what kind of ring I wanted, wow.

"Yeah, but we just weren't meant to be." I said.

"I know, but I wanted you to know that I was serious at the time."

We chatted a lot longer. Saying all the things we had wanted to say, I guess. He said he wasn't giving my senior picture back even though he admitted if his girlfriend found it she would throw it out. There were some moments where kissing him would have been so easy, so familiar, but the alcohol was wearing off and I knew it would open a door that was better left closed.

"Have you seen 'Pure Country'?" he asked me.

"That George Strait movie?"

His family owned a horse farm and they were as country as you could get in Michigan. I hadn't seen the movie.

"No, I haven't. Is it good?"

"Borrow mine. I think you'll like it."

"But how will I get it back to you? I have no idea when I'll see you again."

"You'll get it to me someday, but hey, pay attention to the song called 'Where the Sidewalk Ends'."

"OK, why?"

"'Cuz it's about us"

Music Memory Monday

A nice memory for one week before our wedding anniversary.

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Not Enough Time

In the Fall of 1992 I transferred from the community college in my hometown to Central Michigan University.

It was a rough time for me. I was homesick. I was in a new town, with roommates I didn't know, I transferred jobs, and my boyfriend of 6 months was at home.

I hadn't planned on "taking" a boyfriend to school with me.  In fact I broke up with my boyfriend of two years earlier that year for just that reason. Well, that and things weren't going so well. But a month after the breakup I started dating a guy I worked with.  He was funny, a smart-ass, and he had great dimples.  It wasn't supposed to go anywhere.  He was just supposed to be someone to hang out with, but after a few months of casually dating it dawned on us both that there was more going on than we had planned.

I worked at a local retail chain and had transferred to the store in Mt. Pleasant when the school year started.  Despite my seniority I was working every weekend and couldn't make it home much.  The boyfriend had some weekends off and would come see me when he could.  Before I left I created the customary mix tape for him to play and think of me.  It was filled with songs we had enjoyed during our few months together, and being who I am I also left him some typed out lyrics of a few of the more meaningful songs.

About six weeks into the semester I wasn't doing so well.  I missed him so much and I was doing poorly in school.  I hated working and was pretty much in a funk all the time.  My boyfriend made plans to come up for a Sunday and spend the day with me.  We hung out, went to dinner, and as night fell it was time for him to drive the 105 miles back home.  Just before he left he handed me a letter size envelope.  It was thick and obviously had something hard inside.  He told me I couldn't open it until I returned to my dorm room.

When I got back to my room I tore it open to find a cassette single of INXS' Not Enough Time and he had written out the lyrics on notebook paper.  I dissolved into tears as I read the lyrics Not enough time for all that I want for you, not enough time for every kiss, not enough time for all my love, not enough time for every touch.

I called his house immediately and left a message so he would call me back when he got home.  It was truly the most romantic thing he had ever done and it was torture to have to wait to talk to him.  It's funny how important this moment is in my life and yet when it came time to pick out our wedding song, it never occurred to me to use this.  Sometimes I think that no matter how perfect it would have been, I just didn't want to share the story. It's something that I needed to keep protected, until now.

Music Memory Monday

A fine memory from Central Michigan University.  Fire up Chips!

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You've got to be kidding me

My first semester away at college I was unfortunate enough to have an 8 am class two days a week.  To add insult to injury it was a grammar class.  So on those days I would drag myself out of bed, make myself as presentable as possible and go grab something to eat before class.

As you can imagine the cafeteria population was sparse at that hour and I usually sat alone with a bowl of cereal.  I was never sure if the radio seemed loud because there were so few people in the room at that time or if they purposely cranked it up at that awful hour to keep themselves awake.

The radio was always tuned to the local Top 40 station in our college town, and as is the case with many Top 40 stations they play the Top 40 songs.  Over and over again.  At this time Please Don't Go by KWS was very popular and for a period of a few weeks it came on at the exact same time every morning.  At least every Tuesday and Thursday morning when I was eating my bowl of cereal.

At first I questioned my sanity.  Could this really be happening?  Am I imagining it?  But after hearing it for the 7th or 8th morning it became ridiculous, and I would catch myself saying out loud "you've got to be kidding me!"  I have to say I wasn't a fan of this song before this happened. It's very repetitive and impossible to get out of your head.  But after this, the song annoyed me even more.

My husband has all of the MTV party-to-go CDs and Please Don't Go is on one of them.  Every time I hear it I am instantly transported back to the Robinson dining hall, sitting alone with my bowl of frosted flakes.  Extremely annoyed.

Music Memory Monday

It's my ring tone for him, and we played it on the iPod just yesterday for our girls.  I would have never guessed...

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What are we gonna do with it?

This isn't the first song that made me think of him. It's not the song played during our first dance at our wedding. But there really isn't a better song to be "our song".

We weren't supposed to last. I had just broken up with my first boyfriend after two years together, but it wasn't a clean break. He had broken up with his girlfriend a few months earlier because he found out that she was cheating on him while he was at deer camp. I was going away to college that fall and didn't want any attachments, which was part of the reason why I ended it with the boyfriend. But no matter how many other dates I went on, he was the one I couldn't get out of my head. The smile, the dimples, the smart ass comments, I was falling for all of it.

We were at a party together. Me with my friends, he with his, and the DJ played this song. It was popular at the time, it was fun and it made you want to get up and dance. The more I heard it after that night the more I liked it, and the more it reminded me of him.

It took a few months of back and forth, but eventually we admitted to one another what was obvious to everyone else. "Now that we've found love what are we gonna do with it?" Well I "took" him to college with me and we've been together ever since. Our dating life wasn't flawless, and our marriage far from perfect, but after 18 years together and almost 13 years of marriage we still love this song. Now we play it loud and dance with our girls. It will always be "our" song.

Music Memory Monday

The saga continues.  The neglected blog trudges forward.  More soul baring ensues.  Yeah, whatever.

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Ungrateful

I have always been someone who really listens to the lyrics in a song. When I was younger, and before the beauty of the Internet, I spent endless hours with my tape player and a notebook writing down the lyrics to special songs line by line.

In early 1992 my first boyfriend and I broke up. During our two years together I had made him the customary mix tapes usually complete with lyrics, or at the very least meaningful lines from each song. I know he appreciated the sentiment, but still he never returned the gesture. Until we broke up.

I was living alone and dating here and there. He would come home from college, drink too much with his buddies and show up on my doorstep. One night he showed up with the cassette single of Tesla's What You Give and he had written down the lyrics, line by line, complete with interpretation.

He basically said I was ungrateful for breaking up with him, and that if I had invested more into our relationship like he had, we would still be together. He said that the lyrics in the song should tell me how he felt and what he was going through. It was ironic that I had wished he would return the sentiment I had given him many times, only to have him do in anger, not love. At least it wasn't in love from where I was standing.

Luckily, it's a rare occasion to stumble upon a Tesla song on the radio. But our local "shuffle" station has played it and I catch myself feeling that utter disbelief at being called ungrateful all over again.

Music Memory Monday - uncharted territory

My music memories are entering uncharted territory.  They are my memories, but they are from long ago important parts of my life and it can seem odd to post them here when I am happily married and in a very different place than I was 20 years ago.  But I guess that's the fun in all of this, and bloggers are bloggers for this very reason.  We have something to share, and apparently nothing to hide.

A second chance

Four months before my highschool graduation I met my first real love. Not a crush, although I excelled at those, but a true connection that was like nothing I had ever experienced. We met through mutual friends and hit it off immediately and were soon spending every moment together. He was a year older and attending community college and therefore had fewer rules than I did, but we managed to sneak moments here and there. But my feelings were getting the best of me and the more intense we became the more I wanted to run. So, run I did. About 6 weeks after we began dating I went to Florida for Springbreak. A co-worker who I had been crushing on long before I met my boyfriend was staying at the same hotel and one thing led to another and when I returned from Florida I never called the boyfriend, and oddly enough he never called me either. I'm pretty sure he knew before I left for Florida that we were done.
Obviously, as one could have predicted things didn't work out with the co-worker crush. But I was ok, graduation was quickly approaching and the urgency to spend time with friends before we all headed in different directions was more than enough to fill my time. But as soon as the diploma was in my hand and summer was in full force I found myself thinking more and more about my ex. As I said, we had friends in common so it wasn't odd to hear what he was up to, luckily we never ran in to each other, until July.

I had been thinking a lot about our 6 weeks together, and rightfully so. During that time I had given him something I had been saving for almost 18 years, and I was pretty sure he didn't realize he was my first. Because I can't let things go, I had to write him so that he knew the full reason of why I freaked out and never called him again. Several of my friends were dating his friends so it wasn't hard to get the letter delivered. But I had guessed I would hear from him immediately and I didn't.

But July came around and the summer parties out in the farm fields of Jackson were in abundance and I finally ran into him. The minute we saw each other we were together again, talking and rehashing what had gone wrong in our brief time together. He apologized for not realizing the significance of what we shared and we talked, and talked, and talked, on the hood of my car.

It wasn't long after that we first heard Whitesnake's The Deeper The Love and declared it our song. Despite our age and the brevity of the first chapter in our relationship, we found our way back to each other. And despite what we had put each other through we felt that we were better for it.

An the deeper the love
The stronger the emotion,
An the stronger the love
The deeper the devotion

We were good together for almost another 2 years, but alas my young heart needed to see what else was out there and I let him go, but he holds a place in my heart that is tied to so many firsts, and when I hear this song I am reminded of some very special times in my life.

Music Memory Monday

There's always a first time

Growing up I was a good girl.  My Mom put the fear of God in me with hopes that I would not make the same choices she had made. I started drinking on my 17th birthday and stayed away from boys in the biblical sense until a few months shy of graduation, both being much later than the majority of my friends.  The last few months of my senior year were filled with so many things.  I was struggling with depression, although it was undiagnosed at the time.  I had trouble getting up for school and only with the fear of not graduating placed in front of me did I make an effort to show up and do the work.  I had my first boyfriend, although I was still flirting with a guy I worked with as well.  I had a great group of friends and on the weekends we were always together.  Whose house it was just depended on whose parents were out of town at the time.

I had a fear of the unknown.  I never wanted to look dumb, or inexperienced and that kept me from trying some of the things my friends were doing.  I knew that when I drank, I usually ended up drunk, and sick, so I was careful about what else I tried.  But there's a first time for everything and the first time I "inhaled", Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb was playing in the background.

Think what you may, but it couldn't have been more perfect.  I didn't know what I was doing, but it didn't matter.  All the anxieties that I had been experiencing disappeared and nothing seemed that bad for a short while. Come on now, I hear you're feeling down... We were sitting on the sun porch off my friend Sean's upstairs bathroom, there was a full moon, and people were in the backyard talking.  I can ease your pain...  Honestly there were people in every room of this old city house just hanging out, enjoying the drama of youth. There is no pain you are receding...  I don't even remember who was out there with me, but I remember thinking that I would remember that night for the rest of my life and so far that's very true.  I have become comfortably numb...

Music Memory Monday

This one, in my opinion, is HILARIOUS!!!!!  I hope that if my friend Heather is out there that she will comment on this as she did on my JamsBio account.  She was in the car that day and I think she still has nightmares about this song.  I added a youtube at the bottom so you can sing it all day too.  Enjoy!

Senior Skip Day

In my late teens as my interest, or obsession rather, in music grew I would listen to songs I liked over and over again. I had volumes of mix tapes that I was beyond proud of, and would play them for my friends in my car whenever I had the chance.

For our senior skip day it was a fairly common thing to drive to Sandusky, Ohio to go to Cedar Point. I had my own car and volunteered to drive myself and 3 friends. It was roughly a two-and-a-half hour trip and to this day I have no idea who was navigating. I'm not sure how we made it home.

But I vividly recall my friend's lack of enthusiasm for one song on the "Cedar Point" mix tape I had made for the the trip. It was "Sending All My Love" by Linear.

We left Cedar Point quite late that night and I had managed to miss the highway and get us lost in a less than stellar area. Once we made it to the turnpike and everyone else could relax they all fell asleep. I figured if I was going to stay awake and drive, that I would enjoy my mix tape, and apparently I would enjoy it more than once. An hour or so later my friend Mike awoke to see where we were. The first words out his mouth were "Holy Shit! I fall asleep and this freakin' song is on! I wake up and it's still on!"

Needless to say I was on the receiving end of many Linear jokes. Luckily they were one-hit wonders and the novelty wore off. I still have those mix tapes and on the rare occasion I hear this song I think of senior skip day and Mike.  I hope he has recovered.

Music Memory Monday

My music memories, since listed chronologically, are drifting into embarrassing territory.  But they're real, and they're mine, so why wouldn't I share it all here?  Because some of these memories will never make me ask "what if?" I am who I am because of them, and that is just fine with me.

Make me who I'll be someday

"You look good with a tan."

I sat across the table from him and absorbed the compliment to its fullest extent.  He didn't offer them up much.  We were in the cafeteria at the grocery store where we both worked.  He was working the 3 - 11 shift that night and I, of course, had stopped in and agreed to sit with him on his dinner break.  Something I did often, and he never returned the favor.

"So are you going somewhere for spring break?  Is that why you're tanning?"

"Yeah, 3 of my friends and I are driving down to Daytona for the week.  We have reservations at the Thunderbird"

"No shit? Really?"

"Yeah why?"

"'Cause that's where we're going too."

I honestly didn't know that's where he was going for spring break too.  I knew he was the reason my boss wasn't thrilled to let me have the week off.  He had already requested it and it was spring in the garden center.  She needed us high school kids to get things set up full time that week.  Needless to say I was bursting on the inside but trying very hard not to let my excitement shine through.  I had to maintain my cool.

"Cool, maybe we'll run into each other..."

Then he asked me if I liked Van Halen.  I was a fan, but I was about to like them a lot more.

"Yeah, they're alright."

"You should listen to Cabo Wabo off of OU812.  That could be us, only in Daytona of course."

"I'll check it out."

This relationship, if you could even call it that, was so one sided and damaged.  We went to Florida and while there I allowed myself to be used, and it happened a few more times when we got back.  Hell, I even took him to my senior prom.  There's always a little piece of me that thinks he really thought I was a great girl, but his reputation wouldn't allow it to become anything other than what it was.  But he helped me realize what I deserved from a guy and it made me who I am today.  For that I am grateful. He may not even remember who I am, but I think of him and our Cabo Wabo adventure in Daytona from time to time.

Music Memory Monday

Ah yes, the inspired class song story.  Seems appropriate since its been 20 YEARS!!!!!!  Oy!  **slaps forehead**

The First Class of a New Decade

I think the choice for a class song ranks pretty high on the list of significant songs in our lives, that's why when the choice isn't great it's hard to stomach.


The two classes before ours had common, yet appropriate class songs, Don't you forget about me by Simple Minds- very Breakfast Club and expected for 1988, and Never tear us apart by INXS for 1989.

I know we had a few choices to vote on, one of which was Thank you for being a friend also known as the Theme to the Golden Girls. I'm not sure what it says about our other choices when all I can remember is that and our winner, Bette Midler's Wind Beneath My Wings.

IIf you only listen to the chous, it's inspired in its message, but if you read the other lyrics the choice seems odd. Does this really represent our class?  Someone voted for it, because it won, but everyone seemed to complain about it.  It's about being overshadowed by someone, and how after the fact that person who was shining bright decides to acknowledge the other.   I've always been embarrassed by our class song. Don't get me wrong, the song is lovely, but a class song it isn't. At least it gives me a nice chuckle whenever I hear it.

Music Memory Monday

Let's get back to basics.  Another memory from my JamsBio vault.

You Remember Uncle Joe

I'm from Michigan and I love Bob Seger. Growing up in the 70's &
80's Bob Seger was huge in our house. My parents belonged to a 4-wheel drive club and I vividly remember hearing Against the Wind on 8 track. A lot.


Honestly as a kid I didn't give Bob Seger much thought. I'm not sure why. I loved music but Seger didn't really resonate with me until my senior year. Every other weekend my Aunt and Uncle played in a Euchre club and I used to babysit for my cousins. My Uncle owned a bar and had recently replaced the bar's jukebox with a newer model. He brought the old one home and put it in his basement. It was an awesome finished basement with a big screen TV and stereo speakers all around, quite innovative for 1989. Once the kids were in bed I would go down there and play song after song on that jukebox, but the one I always came back to was Fire Lake. The guitar strumming at the beginning gives me chills. I feel like it tells a story similar to those long days out with my parents and their friends with their trucks on the beach, everyone always seemed to be having the best time.

I guess to certain ears there is nothing spectacular about Seger, but the way he sings a story reminds me so much of my childhood. I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.

Music Memory Monday

At the start of my freshman year we arrived to find a slew of new students at our Junior High school. The reason was simple. In our towns' Catholic school system you went to the high school in ninth grade and that was when many parents said "Fine, you can go to public school". It saved them headaches from listening to their kids complain and from the increased tuition at the high school.

Ninth grade at the public school meant we were the big kids on campus. It was our year to shine before becoming peons again at the high school. This was also the year that C came to our school. He wasn't your typical Catholic boy. In fact I think his parents sent him there so the Nuns would keep him in line.  But I believe it had the opposite effect and encouraged him to rebel even more.

C introduced me to Iggy Pop and seemed like he had been living in a world that I didn't even know existed. I was unbelievably infatuated with him and for a brief time we became a "couple". This existed mainly of us ignoring each other at school and talking to each other for endless hours on the phone in the evenings. But after awhile he grew bored with my innocence and moved on to someone else. I was upset, as any girl would be, and I turned to my music collection. I had loved the song "At This Moment" by Billy Vera & the Beaters since seeing it on Family Ties and for some reason it assigned itself to this significant moment in my life. I definitely had a flare for the dramatic, but to associate this song with Iggy Pop's number one fan was odd.  Choosing a song that C himself could not have stomached to listen to just proved how wrong for me he was, but I was 15 and did not see the irony in that at all.  I just had to believe that somewhere he was still pining for me, and yes, I still love that song.

Music Memory... Thursday?

OK, so Monday came and left. But I have had a crazy week! Board meetings! Hours in the flower shop! Single parenthood! Yeah, yeah, yeah, he comes home tomorrow night and I am really glad. The Swanngirlz have missed their personal Grizzly Adams!

So before I head off into another day of insanity here is another music memory from my JamsBio collection.

My First Concert

During the summer of 1986 I attended my first concert. It was Starship with The Outfield at the Jackson County Fair. My friends and I thought we had finally arrived. Dropped off at the fair to attend a concert with no parental units in sight.

Starship was in the midst of their 80's resurgence. They had dropped the Jefferson and had found renewed popularity with "We Built This City" and "Sara". We knew every song they played and our parents were thrilled to let us go see a group from their era. But we were much more excited about The Outfield. Play Deep was great and we all loved "Your Love". We couldn't have moved more as we stood on our metal folding chairs on the dirt track of the fairgrounds, and when it was all over all of our voices were muted by our ringing, now damaged, eardrums.

This song has maintained it's momentum through the years, largely in part to an everlasting interest in 80's music, so it's not uncommon to hear the song quite a bit on our local "Shuffle" station. Every time I hear it I have to tell whoever is with me "This was my first concert! Starship and The Outfield at the Jackson County Fair! Rahhhh" and I still have great photos of their bass player in his muscle t-shirt. Ahh, good times.

Music Memory Monday

I know, I know. Blog more than on Mondays! I am trying! Really, I am. I will have a few more posts coming up today and this week, including another giveaway, whoo hoo!

But in the meantime, enjoy this music memory from my JamsBio collection, and the 80's.

Growing up my best friend Jen and I were inseparable. We did all the things 13 year old girls do including spending endless hours talking about who we were going to marry. She had dibs on John Taylor from Duran Duran, and I (it pains me to even type this out) had dibs on Kirk Cameron.

In the summer of 1985 when I was 13 and she was 14 we decided to write the story of our lives. It would take place in Los Angeles where she was a model dating John and I was an actress dating Kirk. We wrote endless chapters and decided that we needed to record our story on tape complete with music. So we would each read our respective chapters while the other would operate another tape recorder with background music. I chose "Still in your Heart" for one pivotal scene, which looking back was odd because as a John Taylor lover, Jen would not allow anyone else to love his music, Duran Duran or Power Station. But I guess she decided to let one slide.

I still get flutters of excitement when I hear this song. It pops up on my iPod occasionally. We thought we were so cool writing this book and recording it. Part of us probably really thought it would happen.

The night you met it was a magic start...

I've always wondered what happened to that notebook with our dreams written down in it, what fun it would be to read it today.

Music Memory Monday (almost)

This post from JamsBio is especially significant for me because it was part of a contest associated with the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson's Thriller album. I entered with a vivid memory of my twelfth birthday party and low and behold I won second place. That $250 prize helped me believe in writing as a career, or at the very least as a step above a hobby or a pipe dream. It was some validation for my work and one more step in my "process".

Another step in that process is on it's way. I am 10 days from my one year anniversary and so much has changed. But when I wrote this music memory 18 months ago, I had no idea. I had no idea that Michael Jackson would be dead a little over a year later and I had no idea the growing I would do in that time. But I have grown, and it's been thrilling.

Patience, Perseverance & Birthday Cake

When Michael Jackson's album Thriller came out in 1983 it was a hit with everyone. The songs caught everyone’s attention and the videos were unlike anything anyone had ever seen. That fact was never more apparent than with the release of the video for the title song.

Life was different in 1983. The internet didn't exist and that meant you couldn't Google "Thriller" and watch the video on YouTube whenever you felt the need. As far as I knew the only way to catch it after the world premiere was to tune into MTV and watch. Endlessly. Or at least as long as your parents would allow.

In April of 1984 I celebrated my 12th birthday and was lucky enough to have a slumber party with about 6 of my closest friends. At that point the Thriller video had been out about 4 months and it was still as popular as ever. My friends and I all had posters of Michael Jackson in our rooms and some of our guy friends had even finagled the "jacket" from their parents, but the video, was the most attainable. That evening we made our beds on our living room floor, lined up our Cabbage Patch Kids, and turned on MTV. We waited and prayed that the video would come on. Eventually it did.

Being me, I had wanted to write a letter to MTV begging and pleading for them to play it that night. I'm not sure why I didn't, or maybe I did but it never found its way to the mail. But after hours of being pre-teen girls and making someone watch the TV at all times we were rewarded. I don't remember if it was part of a countdown or just random, but excitement spilled over that night at my house. As a group of 11 and 12 year olds, the Thriller video allowed us to do what we did best. Scream.

"It's so scary!"

"Did you see his eyes?!"

"The Zombies are dancing!!!"

"That laugh is so scary!!! AHHHHH!!!"

I have many memories associated with my 12th birthday party. We had a lip syncing contest (ala Puttin' on the Hits) and stayed up late. But Michael Jackson's Thriller and it's video will always remind me of that slumber party and that with patience and perseverance in the 80's, you would eventually see the video you wanted to see on MTV.

Music Memory Monday

Last week I received an email saying that JamsBio, the website where I used to write out music memories was going to shut down to focus solely on the magazine portion of the site, and therefore the memories people had posted would not be available for an indefinite amount of time.

Well, panic set in and I promptly saved all my memories and now plan to post a new one every Monday. They are in chronological order by year, and I hope you enjoy and possibly even- relate.

I Got My MTV

On Labor Day weekend 1981 my Mom and I had a new beginning. We moved out the house we shared with her boyfriend of two years and moved into a duplex a mile or so away.

My Mom was 19 when I was born, we grew up together and the boyfriend had infringed upon our relationship, so needless to say I was a happy girl.

Not too long after we moved in some salesmen were going door to door to get you to sign up for a cable box so that you could have this new channel called MTV. I had heard about it from all of my fourth grade friends and I knew I wanted it, and I was able to convince my Mom to sign up.

The salesman returned with a wood grain and black box that had about 13 or 14 buttons across the top. He promptly hooked it up and pushed what I believe was button 13 and there it was, the video for Quarterflash's "Harden My Heart". My introduction to the greatest thing to happen to music in my lifetime began with a lady in a black leotard running down a dark hallway. When she wasn't opening doors in the hallway she was wailing on a saxophone. That song and that video were permanently etched in my mind for all of eternity as my introduction to music television.

And here, my friends, is the gadget that gave me music videos 24 hours a day. This picture was taken at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. Yes, you are officially old when items from your youth are in a museum.