Monday, March 1, 2010

The Soundtrack of My Life


Every now and then we will pause to remember why music has become so important to our lives by recalling a musical memory. We encourage you to share your own memories in the comments section below. As this is my first post on the subject, I'll start with some of my first memories or rather, what my mother says were some of the the first signs of my budding musical obsession. And yes, that's me as a dorky eight-year-old doing my Robert Johnson pose.


I was into a lot of music right from the start. I remember being oddly into the song "Elvira" by The Oak Ridge Boys of all groups, while the song "Centerfield" by John Fogerty had me imagining being a major league baseball star (baseball being another of my childhood obsessions). I also distinctly remember rocking back and forth in the seat of my dad's truck while Blondie's "Rapture" rang out from the speakers - a song that Wikipedia calls one of the earliest rap influenced songs to achieve mainstream success, to which I can only conclude proves that my tastes have always been ahead of their time.


But I was a fan even before that. This, according to my mother, "Before you were born, every time your dad would turn up the radio in the truck you would kick and kick and turn and I would have to beg him to turn down the radio because you were kicking me so hard in the ribs that it would hurt. I thought it was because you hated music, but it soon became apparent that you loved music instead." Ah, the power of rock n roll!


It also turns out that the sleeping problems I have been plagued with throughout most of my life also started when I was a child (no doubt the product of my over-active imagination that only ratchets itself up at night instead of calming down). "Singing to you was the only way to get you to sleep at night. However, I made up words to the song "Lullaby" and to the Winnie the Pooh Mobile music over your crib because I never knew the actual words," says my mom.


And finally, "You also loved loud noise and excitement. I always laid you in your carryall in front of The Price is Right while I did dishes and cleaned the house. You loved the noise, and music and would kick and coo whenever they announced the next contestant and played the music they ran down to." I have no comment in regards to this.
-Travis Hare

7 comments:

  1. Debbie McGuire1/3/10 16:52

    We could also talk about the fact that you started writing poetry, or maybe it was actually music lyrics at a very young age also. Probably the fact that I made up lyrics to weird baby songs, made you want to write your own, beter lyrics. I loved the post! It's always fun to relive the past, especailly when its written by a talented writer who also happens to be my son.

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  2. anoceanofnoise1/3/10 18:06

    Aw Shucks :)

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  3. Remember when you wrote me a rap song for my 1st grade project? Lotsa lumber, oh yeah. Lotsa lumber, yip yip. Peace ya'll.

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  4. Wait. I wrote a rap song for you about lumber?

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  5. It was fricking awesome! "You'll never get a splinter and you'll never find a hole. Lotsa lumber should be your favorite store, so when you hear this song on the radio, you'll know lotsa lumber is the place to go". -Travis Hare

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  6. Man, you better have gotten an A on that one.

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