here comes the rain again

It's Friday and my boss is out of town, so I'm watching the delicious rainfall outside and not really thinking about much at all. Suddenly, the sultry voice of Annie Lennox is singing in my head, "Here comes the rain again, falling on my head like a memory," and before I know it, I'm no longer in Colorado Springs watching a rainy April day from my office window... it's now the late summer of 1996 and I'm soaking up another glorious Cambridge sunset from my favorite rooftop perch at St. Catharine's College, a cold Coke in one hand and a rather dishy, smooth-talking British lad holding the other...

I love that about music, how transporting and transcendent it is. What is it about the combination of seemingly insignificant words and sustained, harmonized pitch with often-predictable chord progression that just locks onto your memory like a pit bull and never lets go? I've always been a musician and a music lover, and perhaps not everyone is as emotionally impacted by songs as I am. But if we dig deep enough into the memories, I'll bet we could all come up with a soundtrack for the motion picture of our lives. Here's just a sampling of mine:

Mist Covered Mountains, Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band -- getting ready for church on Sunday mornings

You and Me Against the World, Helen Reddy -- mom and me

Every Time You Go Away, Paul Young -- the 1985 cross-country family road trip in a Buick Century

You Give Love a Bad Name, Bon Jovi -- riding bus # 814 to school every day in Tennessee, driven by Miss Polly Houton

This Means War, Petra -- election night vandalism my junior year of high school

Dogs of War, Pink Floyd -- the first video I ever saw on MTV

Right Here, Right Now, Jesus Jones -- my sister's and my car accident near Buckeye, AZ

Boys of Summer, Don Henley -- dancing on the Renfrew Ferry in Glasgow with Stewart "Blockers" Mackay (still the best-looking kilt-wearer I've ever known)

And of course, the Eurythmics and my summer in England...

The list could go on and on. Do I remember these songs because these were significant events in my life? Or do I remember these events because the music associated with them had an impact on me? Hmm... the perfect dichotomy to let simmer on a mental-backburner day such as today...