Remember the first time
I am sure that it has happened to all of us at some stage. That moment when a new song that you have never heard before is played on the radio. And in that instant, you know that this particular song will be with you forever, one that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. And in the future, you will be able to remember the exact moment and where you were when you first heard it.
I was just chilling with the wife and some friends at the weekend, and I asked that very question. And I was right, my wife and friends had their own personal favourite list of songs. Songs that burrowed into their soul the very first time they heard them and has not left them since.
For me, it’s a pretty varied list of songs. Songs from different eras, and vastly different in genre and artist: Tubular Bells, Apache, I am the Walrus, Sympathy for the Devil, Mr. Blue Sky, Fanfare for the Common Man, I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles, The boy does nothing, to name a few.
However, it must be a certain version of a song. The very first time I heard With a little help from my friends by Joe Cocker it became one of those songs. But the cover version by Wet Wet Wet makes my ears bleed.
But then there are those songs, the songs that make a bigger impact, songs that end up shaping your very being, creating a sense of who you are. When I was a teenager, I heard She’s So High for the first time. I played that song repeatedly, but I was hooked from the very first listen. And from that day Blur and Damon, Dave, Alex, and Graham have pretty much owned my soul ever since.
You cannot beat that moment when you are introduced to a song for the very first time. The first time I hear a song, fall in love with it and know it’s going to be in my soul forever, is one of the best feelings in the world.
In the past music has saved and turned my life around. Hopefully, you will find a song that can mean the same to you in your life, one that becomes part of your soul, a song that creates that special memory of when you heard it first.