Sunday, January 24, 2010

Blacklisted


In previous blogs, I've discussed the idea that songs and albums are associated with time periods in your life and memories. Not all of these memories, however, are positive. Sometimes you are faced with having to give up an album you love, because the memories associated with it are just too painful.
Ryan Adams' disc "Love Is Hell" was released the year I got my heart broken. I listened to it every night as I cried myself to sleep. I have tried on several attempts to listen to it since that year, but it is just too difficult a listen because of what I was going through at the time.
David Gray's "White Ladder" used to be a favorite of mine, but after a rebound went sour, it started collecting dust on my shelf, too.
Dave Matthews has a song from his solo album called "Stay or Leave" that perfectly captured my life at the moment in time it was released. I am happy to report it didn't suffer the same fate as the others. After several years, I was able to put it back in rotation.

Do you have an album you are no longer able to listen to, and why?

6 comments:

  1. ah E! Stay or Leave has the same effect on me. I can hardly listen to it to this day. I try..and sometimes I do..but I end up teary eyed.

    nightswimming by REM makes me melancholy..reminds me of a week in South Beach. bittersweet memories.

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  2. REM is one of those bands, I think in part because of Stipe's haunting voice, that makes you feel emotions even more deeply than with most music. Does that make sense?

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  3. there are a couple songs that seem like they were written about my exact situation or past loves, and listening can jerk some tears... but i like that.

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  4. I lost a lot of music when Rob died. A LOT. And it's not even stuff personally significant to me, it's the stuff he liked so much that I was kind of "meh" on... Everclear, Counting Crows, most 80's pop... "Round Here" fells me. "I Took Your Name" by REM was his ringtone, mostly for the title ;) but the iPod only managed to throw that at me once on shuffle, before I took it off. Violently. "Monster" is still my favorite REM album, just has to be the expurgated version.

    Though, it's funny, things that I blacklisted long before he died, I found myself making the effort to power through around Christmas, namely "Long December" by Counting Crows and John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)", both of which I associate with my father's death when I was 14, even though "Long December" didn't even come out until years later. "Happy Xmas" came on the radio when we were picking my brother up from the airport when my dad died. No other song has ever made me hyperventilate every time I hear it. This Christmas, though, I said enough is enough, still had to hold on tight every time I heard it, but I didn't once turn it off. For some reason, so many people found this so AMUSING... in fact, last year I mentioned it one day on Facebook, and a friend actually called me and sang it on my voicemail!

    Only recently did I discover that my brain had blacklisted Pink Floyd's "The Wall", without my knowledge. An album that I truly loved as a pre-teen, but I was a pretty miserable pre-teen apparently. I recent listen after a many year hiatus put me in the most serious funk for days. It was unshakable. It makes me sad, as I really do love the album... but our time together is done.

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  5. Wow, that was a very long and thoughtful response. Thank you for that, H.
    Peter: Glutton for punishment?

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  6. Hah... I think every time I post a comment- the comments are no place for writing a blog of your own! :)

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