Tuesday, October 17, 2006

You were trying to throw your arms around the world

Allow me a moment of nostalgia. It's the early 90s and if just that doesn't mean anything to you, then I have nothing more to say. Me, as we say in Québec, I was in my late teens.

I fell in love for the first time, and for the first time of many I thought that was it, I had gone as high as I could go. Crazy kid. It's 15 years later and I wonder how much has changed.

I've been reminded of a couple of albums from back then, in the days when I was oscillating between cassettes and CDs, that have brought that all back. They're both by U2. They are Achtung Baby and Zooropa. Everyone knows those records changed everything for U2. But, right, they also changed everything for me. And here I am. I wonder if anything has changed so much after that. Or if it ever will. I have a feeling it won't, but then, I know nothing.

See if this makes you feel anything:

You're dangerous cuz you're honest
You're dangerous cuz you don't know what you want
Well you left my heart empty as a vacant lot
for any spirit to haunt
hey hey sha la la la, hey hey
You're an accident waiting to happen
You're a piece of glass left there on the beach
Well you tell me things I know you're not supposed to
Then you leave me just out of reach
hey hey sha la la la, hey hey cha la la
Who's gonna ride your wild horses
Who's gonna drown in your blue sea
Who's gonna ride your wild horses
Who's gonna fall at the foot of thee
Well you stole it cuz I needed the cash
And you killed it cuz I wanted revenge
Well you lied to me cuz I asked you to
Baby... can we still be friends?


I think I'll let these soundtracks play, and remind me only of the great feeling of "in love" for the very first time. I'm thankful for a)having been there and b)never having to be there again. Love is blindness, I don't want to see, won't you wrap the night around me... a little death without mourning, no call and no warning, baby a dangerous idea that almost makes sense.

I wonder what other music overwhelms a moment of life so much that it becomes a true soundtrack. I mean, in the sense that when you hear it again (and these are albums, not just songs) you are there again. Like they say on the news: Not for a day, not for a moment, not for an hour... in the whole period of time when you were... what?

8 comments:

Heather said...

It's funny how music can automatically zip you back into time; emotionally, in any case. Thanks for a nice post.

Eve said...

That is amazing (and those U2 albums do it for me too, although they take me to a different emotional place.) The sense of smell is also strongly linked to memory, amazingly so.

Does that make you sad to remember how emotionally naive you were? It does for me. Like in the play "Our Town." You can't go back and, besides, would you really want to anyway?

Isabel said...

Eve, it's so far back in the past that I don't get that "kick in the stomach" feeling anymore. It's only good. And anyway, I'm pretty much just as naive today as I was then. The only difference, now I *know* I am and then I had no clue. :)

Javier Sanfeliú said...

wow, qué buen disco, ¿no?
saludos

AWB said...

I think it´s interesting when those things happen (love) and we think for a second that we are the only people in the world experiencing that feeling to that degree of intensity.
Then we start to think that that song takes on a whole new meaning, but in a secret just for me sort of way.
U2 is a heavy hitter there, James... so many.
then years later, we find out that we weren´t alone in our thoughts.

Eve said...

That's good. I know what you mean, that kick in the stomach feeling is gone for me too. More just kind of wistful for the person I thought I was.

Hahaha, so true about naivete.

Also - it's like being sick. You can't remember the physical sensation.

steve said...

I had a dream last night about a party (well a couple of parties all rolled into one memory flush) and the theme songs to the parties/dreams/memories are all on Achtung Baby... this morning I eagerly sought out the album, ripped to mp3 and have been listening to it over and over again for the last 4 hours... found your blog quite by accident and thought I would add my nostalgic moment

steve said...

Sorry if this comes though more than once - had a session error...

I had a dream last night about a party i went to so many years ago (actually the dream was about a whole lot parties all rolled into one memory flush) anyway the theme songs to those parties are all on Achtung Baby... this morning i eagerly sought out the album - ripped to mp3 and have been listening to it over and over for the past 4 hours...

it then got me remembering another great album that themed parts of my life - Massive Attack (Collection CD1)

thats all - my little bit of nostalgic blog-nonsense

 
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