Songs that Remind me of People

Often when I hear a song, all I can think of is a certain time, place or person. I thought it'd be nice to share some of the songs that remind me of particular people. Because when people tell me a song reminds me of them, its usually the best thing ever. I think I like it because we work pretty hard to create this image of ourselves (see Duncan and my talk about style below) and hearing that things remind people of us is like an affirmation that you made it work. Also its just generally nice to know people are thinking about you.


John McNairnay - Van Morrison's Whenever God Shines his Light on Me

When we were growing up my dad almost always did the dishes. And he almost always whistled this song. The funny part is, me and my sister both remember hearing the actual Van Morrison song for the first time, years later when we were grown up. For us, the melody had just always been equated with my dad doing dishes.  It actually took me a while to figure out what song it was because all I had do go off was the melody and typing “dun dun du-da dum dun dun du-da” into google didn’t do it.

Danielle Sheedy - The Doors' Alabama Song

Dani and I both got pretty heavy into music at a young age. Granted when we were eight it was different bands, for me Radiohead and Queen and her Sherrill Crow and Tom Petty, but we met in the middle with some stuff. My brother was part of Columbia record club when he was a teenager so there were always a million classic rock cd’s around the house. And I’m pretty sure about 90% of the Doors discography. Somehow in all of those records we found this song and it was a main feature of our lives for a month at least. We definitely choreographed at least one dance to it. Its not so much that we didn’t get obsessed with other songs, just that when I picture those projects I think of this. And In the Life of Today. And Fight for your Right. All other stories. 

Emily McNairnay - Michael Jackson's Keep it in the Closet

When my sister was in high school she taught a dance class for junior high girls and I took it. We did this super awesome dance to this song and I swear to god I still remember some of the choreography. That was probably the most fun dance class I’ve ever taken and this song always reminds me of it. Its actually one of my favourite Michael Jackson songs and its totally underplayed. And I probably would never have heard it if not for that class.

Laura Harlos - Bikini Kill's Rebel Girl

This song and certain Misfits songs will always remind me of Laura Harlos. She was my primary riot grrrl/teenage angst partner and this was totally our sound track. Although this video is super super cool, the visual I usually put to this period of my life are the comics Laura and I drew of our alter egos who had awesome names and broke boys’ hearts. Xoxo a million.

Levi Foy - Salt-N-Pepa's Push It

Once Levi told me sometimes when he’s dancing he asks himself if I would do a move he’s thinking about, and bases his decision to bust it out on that. Obviously that was pretty much the best compliment I’ve ever gotten. For some reason that exchange reminds me a lot of this song, I’m pretty sure its because we’ve danced pretty hard to it a few times together.

Jenna Drabble - UGK's international Players Anthem

When Jenna went to India I made her a mix CD and put this song on it. A while later after she came back we were at a party and when it came on Jenna said it reminded her of me. I guess because of that this song always reminds me of our friendship. Not just that exchange, but also picturing us both being excited about it coming on. Its definitely one of those songs that comes on and we leave whatever conversation we’re in to find each other. Songs that do that are one of the best things about having girlfriends.

Alysha Humphreys - Lykki Li's I'm Good I'm Gone

The song that REALLY reminds me of Alysha is Dance Dance Dance, but I like the way this video looks way better so I chose it. Alysha’s always a few steps ahead of me with everything, mostly music and fashion. It was the same with Lykke Li. She kind of had to convince me to go see her play when we were in New York, it turned out being one of the best live shows I’ve seen. What convinced me I think was hearing her covering a Rick Ross song, and when we saw her she did A Milli. It was adorable. There’s a lot of songs that remind me of that trip (turn my swag on, any Michael Jackson, pop champagne) but this album reminds me specifically of Alysha in New York. Beyond that, this girl reminds me of Alysha. Not the kind of crazy scandanavian songstress thing she can have going on, but some of her lyrics, her style, there’s some similarities.

Murray - Rolling Stones' Wild Horses

There’s a lot of songs that remind me of Murray. We both love music and are generally always in each other’s business so we have a lot of discussions about songs. Especially because he’s a music person and I’m a lyrics person. I chose this one cause its been on my mind this weekend. These buskers were playing this song at the farmers market – an adorable dead head couple. Emily pointed out the girl looked just like Milly from Freaks and Geeks when she turns rock and roll. It seemed like a weird choice but it instantly reminded me of Murray. We talk about new stuff that’s coming out sometimes, but my favourite is when we both get into old stuff we haven’t heard, or haven’t paid attention to before.