My Life as a Playlist

On the way to school yesterday, April Wine’s Say Hello came on the radio.

Mushily I look to the back seat and say…”Ohhhh do you guys remember this song?” This is the song Mommy used to put you to sleep with when you were babies. My brain zipped instantly back there. To a time of exhaustion and survival and bliss. To when the kids were babes and we were trying everything to get them down. (Who knew Classic Canadian Rock would be so effective?)

I realized that songs have become my way of categorizing and time-stamping vivid memories of my lifetime.

I started thinking of my life as a playlist and what would it include. (Jenn’s Life – A Canadian Girl growing up in the 90’s and 2000’s with a big love for all kinds of music)

If you were to hit play, here is a snippet of what you would find.

Erasure’s Oh L’Amour and Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough both take me home to a teen dance club we used to frequent on a Saturday night. White jeans sitting just above the hips, pinned down through the calves (to look like jodphurs), a floral button up shirt or V-Neck sweater and floods of Obsession or Eternity floating through the room.

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama reminds me of May 2-4. A kids right of passage in Canada, likely the first long weekend you went camping with friends, in mixed company, overloading the car with too much stuff and too many people.

Martin Sexton’s Black Sheep , and The Holmes Brothers Amazing Grace brings me back to sunny days, magical voices, workshop tents and the Winnipeg Folk Fest. What I always and affectionately have termed my Peace Place.

Spirit of the West’ s Home for a Rest will forever be that LAST big broohahaaa, get out on the dance floor, jump with as much energy as you can yelling “TAKE ME HOME!!!” at the top of your lungs, last song before the bar closed on any given university night out.

The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony brings me back to a New Year’s Eve where I danced with my friend Jake. We were 21 and that was the last time we saw each other. Shortly after, Jake was going shot for shot with vodka shooters against a group of Russians at a wedding. He ended up choking on his own vomit. (To this day you will find me rolling super drunk people over onto their side). I also have a firm belief that every time I hear Bittersweet Symphony, its him giving me a little “Hi”.

Cake’s I will Survive brings me to insanely fun house parties we used to throw when I was almost too young to own my own house. The guitar solo in the middle is one of those glorious, you just gotta air guitar, can’t help but dance kind of middles. If ya know what I mean.

James Taylor’s Fire & Rain was the night Chris and I got engaged. As JT played that song at the Molson Amphitheatre (an open air concert stage by the water), Chris had his arms around me and we gazed at the stars. When we got home that night, I had said “This was the most perfect night”. He said back “Not quite. It would be perfect if you did me the honour of being my wife”.

Jack Johnson’s Banana Pancakes was dancing in our kitchen, massively pregnant (with the best hobbit feet a girl could want) and then again dancing around our kitchen with a brand new baby. So tired but so much in love with this beautiful little boy who would make me weep just by smiling up at me.

The songs are too recent to carve out a space in my permanent playlist (yet). But I have a feeling that all our Friday Night Dance Party memories (something we do every Friday as soon as we get home) will be part of my next round.

I’m curious what does YOUR PLAYLIST look like?