Soundtrack

I was going through some old journals–I’m moving; “I was going through some old . . .” is the way most of my sentences start these days–and I found my old Brene Brown scrapbook and one of the pages was a personal soundtrack, five songs that summed up my life. I looked at my choices and thought, “Who the hell is this woman?” So I did a new list. The only one I kept was the John Hiatt, and I’m not even sure that one’s right. So here’s my new list:

Sara Bareille’s “Love Song” (because it’s the way I now feel about publishing and writing romance novels)
Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (because good friends are everything)
Lizzo’s “About Damn Time (because it’s about damn time)
Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance” (stop talking and start living)
John Hiatt’s “Child of the Wild Blue Yonder” (because I couldn’t think of a fifth new one and I like this song)

Your turn. What’s your soundtrack for where you are right now?

44 thoughts on “Soundtrack

  1. “This is my church” (not religious) by Maren Morris, and “Rose colored Ray-bans” (which I think is called something else) are on constant repeat in my head the past week. They help with the anxiety. And the voices šŸ˜‰

  2. This month is when my dad passed away 11 years ago, so I’ve been listening to a lot of Big Band music in his honor.

    Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
    Sing Sing Sing
    Pennsylvania 6-5000

    Just to name a few

    1. My dad, who’s been gone 22 years this summer, loved big band music, too. He also loved ballroom dancing. I only got to see him dance once, but it was like watching Fred Astaire. šŸ˜

      Thanks for reminding me!

      1. My dad was a great dancer, too – he convinced me I could dance, when I danced with him. Loved the slow foxtrot (aka the quickstep), especially.

    2. Oh, how I wished I could remember my dad dancing. He had a great record collection which he would play loud. (Mother admonished him many times), he would play the same songs on the piano, loudly. Loved it. Best memories of classical and Mantovani orchestra LPs. Passed when I was seven. So much was lost. Rachmaninov was a great favourite.

  3. Instant memories of speeding down the interstate singing Child of the Wild Blue Yonder at the top of my lungs. šŸ™‚

  4. I have always liked Let It Be, and it’s my all-time fave now, because they played it on the intercom at the surgery center just before I was wheeled in for my first cataract removal. It helped me relax further, and the hydroxyzine pill worked!! My blood pressure was lower when I left than when I went in, and the team I had this time was much more careful with me using that nasty BP cuff. That was yesterday, and today, I can see so much better and clearer out of that eye. Thank you to everyone for your good wishes.

    1. They played Let it Be on the radio as my husband and I were driving to his mom’s house after his dad’s funeral. I think that we were both stunned by it. You hardly ever hear the Beatles on the radio anymore and it was so perfect.

    1. Lisa, thanks for your suggestion that I get “chemical assistance”. It made a real difference in my life!

  5. I think my soundtrack has always been a Simon & Garfunkle album. It’s just that I’ve gone from Sounds of Silence to Bookends.

    “Can you imagine us years from today sharing a park bench quietly; how terribly strange to be seventy…”

  6. It’s funny, there are songs that can make you cheerful just by listening to them. Or on YouTube, just by watching. I love the happiness visible in the top videos of “Walk of Life” (Dire Straits) and “Closer to Fine” by the Indigo Girls. And songs that connect with my history like “Surrender” (Cheap Trick) or “Just Dance” (Lady Gaga). But I also love a lot of songs that just make me laugh, like “Uptown Funk” (Bruno Mars etc.) or “Baby Got Back” (Sir Mixalot).

    This is Bob Dylan’s birthday — he turns 82 today. He’s basically my favorite songwriter ever, and during college he replaced the Beatles in my heart in terms of writing songs that are increasingly self-searching and philosophical. I’m not philosophical today, though. Today’s my first of six consecutive days off, so I’m about to embark on major yard upkeep and bamboo battling. By Saturday I hope to just lie down and nap a lot.

    All my fingers are crossed for the return of Emily to her home base. I’m so glad that so many Argh-ers have made suggestions. Please keep us posted?!

  7. It’s usually the last songs I heard or read about. This week for instance Netflix had a series about travelers stuck at an airport during a blizzard in Norway at Christmas time (you think). It was a six-part series (I can’t remember the name). In each episode there was a Christmas song and one jumped out at me Auld Lang Syne sung by Rod Stewart, beautiful. Then yesterday I read the obituary of one of Boston’s TV personalities, Miss Jean from Romper Room at age 90. Running through my head was Magic Mirror, Bend and Stretch and so on. What struck me sideways were the comments by grown up children, adults now couldn’t help commenting that their names weren’t mentioned during the Magic Mirror segment on the show. That was what they remembered from sixty plus years ago. They could have been in school by then.

  8. I’ve been on a Crowded House / Neil Finn kick for a while – got to see the band in concert last week and still coming down from that. My favorites – in no particular order –

    You better be home soon
    Sister madly
    She goes on
    Nails in my feet
    Something so strong

    Here’s the video for Nails
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqxobKeH4Zs

  9. My introduction to Umbrella was this video (which shows up on Twitter periodically with the rule that if you see it, you have to share it–it never fails to make me smile) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPCJIB1f7jk

    Agree about Love Song. I was just listening to that yesterday. She also does a great (profane) song called “Sweet As Whole.”

    I like “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, because it always cheers me up. “Follow Your Arrow” by Kacey Musgraves, because it’s about doing your own thing and not worrying about what other people think because you can’t please them. “One Voice” by The Wailing Jennys because it makes me feel connected to all the good people out there.

    And “All Will Be Well” by Dan Wilson, because it makes me think of Jenny saying “All will be well…”

  10. “Lost in the Brass” from a musical called Band Geeks.
    “There’s A Fine, Fine Line” from Avenue Q

  11. Jenny I adore your books. That said if writing romance novels is as painful for you as that first song makes it sound – I hate that for you.

    As to a personal playlist for me I’ll have to think about that for a bit.

  12. My personal playlist is all classical all the time, and I don’t think it’s changed much in sixty years. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, pretty much in that order.

    But as to what I’m actually listening to recently: very little music, mostly birds and wind.

  13. My work playlist is Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Books I and II, which provide hours of structured instrumental music that keeps my brain calm. And, for some reason, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, a long Wagner opera where nobody dies.

    For a playlist it’s something like

    About Damn Time – Lizzo
    Burning Down the House – Talking Heads
    Desperado – The Eagles
    Pacing the Cage/Put it in Your Heart – Bruce Cockburn (a twofer)
    Something to Talk About – Bonnie Raitt

  14. My subconscious does my playlist. Half the time I don’t know why I’m singing the song was in my head. This week I went to a party based on the 60s and we sang so many wonderful old songs, Pete Seeger and many more the one that is currently running through my head is the Times they are a changing.

  15. Hm. Right now?

    Concrete Blonde – Probably Will
    Leonard Cohen – Everybody Knows
    Mono Inc – Voices of Doom
    Lindsay Sterling – We Are Giants
    Mac Davis – Hard to be Humble

    …Looks like I need to go break out the Cheer Me Up playlist instead.

  16. Soundtrack around here features Twice and Itzy (K-pop) so I guess that’s my current soundtrack. The Feels, Can’t Stop Me, Fancy (Twice) Sneakers (Itzy). With bonus tracks from Taylor Swift like Holy Ground, Starlight. Dunno if I have an anthem but if I did it would involve fixing a project house, ha.

  17. No playlist per se, just melodies or words to a song pop in. I do love Texas – Tango song video with Alan Rickman. If crazy day, spiritual music works well, get lots done. Beatles, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Three Dog Night (Mama Told Me Not to Come), and current pop songs, of which, I don’t know who sings unless I really like it, example: Dua Lipa/Elton John Rocket Man.

  18. I recently introduced my hubby to the Dixie Chicks, now know as just the Chicks.

    I think that he enjoyed Earl Had to Die. Or was just afraid to cross me. Wise man.

  19. Leonard Cohen ā€œFirst We Take Manhattanā€

    Cat Stevens ā€œTroubleā€

    Eagles ā€œTequila Sunriseā€

    Phil Collins ā€œIn the Air Tonightā€

    Bruce Springsteen ā€œDancing in the Darkā€.

  20. While my songs may have changed a bit, the themes don’t seem to have.

    Then it would be Bon Jovi’s It’s My Life, now it’s NF’s Hope. By the way, if you listen to Hope, I am not responsible for any actions you may take as a result.

    Then – Alice Cooper’s Poison, now – Sam Smith’s Unholy.

    Then – both of the different songs named Jump by Van Halen and KrisKross respectively, now – Jump by BTS.

    I’m just happy that I am back to listening to the radio! It means that while I might still be physically burned out, my mind has recovered enough to respond to the emotion a wide range of music elicits.

  21. I couldn’t possibly choose only five songs to sum up my life, but I can easily choose five that I *always* love no matter what my state of mind. In no particular order:

    Leonard Cohen – Closing Time
    Kirsty MacColl – In These Shoes
    Barry Manilow & Bette Midler – Slow Boat to China
    Doris Day – Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
    Leslie Odom Jr – Let’s Start Tomorrow Tonight

    Bonus dancer trivia: those are, respectively, West Coast Swing, cha-cha, foxtrot, rumba, and foxtrot again. I like foxtrot. šŸ™‚

  22. The Thank-goodness-we-are-finally-home playlist:

    Late in the evening – Paul Simon

    Lay lady lay – Bob Dylan

    Landslide – Fleetwood Mac

    Don’t let the sun go down on me – Elton John

    Little Talks – Of Gods and Monsters

    Bonus track:

    Oh Yeah – Yello

    We are home. We are happy. The beasts are over the moon. The house doesn’t even really smell like smoke but I’m still going to do a really deep clean before we go away next week. If I can’t get it all done before then, I’ll finish when we get back.

  23. I don’t really think of my life that way, but I guess right now it’s probably
    When I’m sixty four
    Time after time
    Hallelujah

    And one of my favorite poems, scaffolding, by Seamus Heaney.

    I guess these are all about my marriage —-not about my kids or the work I’ve done—but I can’t think of songs that capture those .

  24. ā€œWhat’s Love but a sweet old fashioned notion.ā€ Good phrase for the writers of romance, and RIP Tina.

  25. I couldn’t design a playlist like the 10 songs of your like on that bbc show (desert island disks). But i can do one for right now.
    It’s the music of when I went to school (grammar school) that’s most vividly stuck, maybe because it’s when then the music videos began to be popular. Or it’s got something to do with that very important phase of life. I know the music ofcmy thirties/forties didn’t impress me as much. It’s nice that the 80s music has a comeback now, the kids somehow like the same music as me šŸ™‚
    Which is true for my kids’ taste as well. I’ve reconnected with music through kid nr 2’s spotify plsylists. So now when I need to get into the flow at work, I play One Direction, Harry Styles and Niall Horan plus also Ed Sheeran.
    But some tracks pop up espescially:
    Night Changes (OD)
    Love of my life (I LOVE Queen; this is VERY dearso cannot played on repeat)
    As it was (Styles)
    Lost on you (LP, a recent discovery)
    505 and Why’d you only call me when you’re high (Arctic Monkeys)

    I rarely listen to the lyrics though.

    The music of my childhood

  26. I wake up with music in head and Depending on the day, I have three playlists I’m have thrumming since about December. One is for working out and moving my body and getting energy up, the second is for soothing and playfulness and the third is for nostalgia needing to belt out and sing along.

    This is a glimpse into one

    The littlest birds- the be good Tanya’s
    Forever. -Ben Harper
    Love is all. -the tallest man on earth
    Scar tissue. -red hot chili peppers
    Song of sorrow. -Elle king
    I lied. – lord Huron & Allison Ponthier
    Bird in a house -railroad earth
    A change is gonna come -Otis Redding

    I’m love some other ones above new and old and am curious about a few other I haven’t tried yet, thank for sharing! Just as good as book sharing.

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