Memories...
Music has been called the soundtrack of our lives and we tend to both like and remember songs that we associate with new and special events. In my case, for purposes of illustration, when I think of my first date I hear To Sir With Love by Lulu; first high school dance, Mr. Soul by Buffalo Springfield; first college party, Born On The Bayou by Creedence Clearwater Revival; first USC baseball game, Y.M.C.A. by The Village People; and the most recent wedding that Mrs. Bear and I attended, At Last by Etta James.
We also like songs that remind us of particular places. One morning I got off of a plane in Tucson, and as I climbed into the rental car and turned on the radio I heard Linda Ronstadt singing her cover version of Chuck Berry's Back in the U.S.A. Yes, she is in fact the "local girl made good" in Tucson, but I'll never be able to hear this cover without picturing a bright, sunny, morning in southern Arizona.
Similarly, to this day some of us visualize southern California when we hear the Beach Boys... Interestingly, Metro Media Radio's Million Dollar Weekends in the Southland always began with a Beach Boys song and the phrase: The Beach Boys are southern California, and southern California is the Beach Boys!
In My Life
Each year I used to visit a cousin in Palo Alto, California during the Christmas break period. That's when we would drive our bikes to White Front to buy the latest Beatle album. This is why, to this day, whenever I hear Beatles '65, Beatles VI, or Rubber Soul, I'm transported back to the clear and clean streets of P.A. and nowhere else. And this is probably why these are my favorite Beatle albums.
Invincible
The smart people who make movies, of course, know all about the connections we make between what we see (the visual) and what we hear (the audio). They understand that if viewing a select film is pleasurable, we'll want to own the music we associate with the positive visual images. The music then serves as the literal soundtrack of an acquired - if artificial - life.
I've Got A Name
What's quite amazing to me is how a film can not only cement our musical preferences - and don't we feel superior when one of our favorite songs is used in a film - but it can also cause us to re-examine and even reverse our preferences...
I was never much of a fan of the music of Jim Croce. That is, until I saw the film Invincible... The movie begins with Croce's I've Got A Name being played behind the highly visual opening scene. As soon as the film finished, I decided I wanted to hear more of Croce's work.
So today it is not unusual for me to play Mrs. Bear's copy of his original greatest hits CD. I'm also considering adding the new remastered and expanded 20-track collection of Croce's best to our music collection.
What a turnaround: I went from dis-interested to being interested and now very interested simply because a Jim Croce song was used in a key scene of an inspiring film!
Photographs and Memories
Jim Croce's music happened to be included on the soundtrack because he was born and raised in Philadelphia, and Invincible is the true story of Vince Papale, who went from East Philly bartender to member of the Philadelphia Eagles football team. On such a slim reed, I rediscovered and finally heard Croce's fine music.
Next in this series: How movies have heightened and revived musical careers and legends.
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