The Importance of Music: Writing 101, Day 3

Today’s Prompt: Write about the three most important songs in your life — what do they mean to you?

Today’s twist: You’ll commit to a writing practice.

"Cure for Pain"  by Morphine

During my senior year of high school and freshman year of college, I spent a lot of time at a local coffee shop named Lava Java.  That is where I was first introduced to Morphine (the band, not the drug) and the song "Cure for Pain".  The song still takes me back to that place and time.  Lava Java was my version of the bar in Cheers.  I met a lot of interesting people there, including my husband.  The coffee shop had bar seating, which made it easy to go there alone and to meet new people.  There were couches and comfy chairs.  The art was always interesting, and one show in particular drew outrage from the local church.  They especially hated the life-size photograph of a nude woman doing a headstand that hung right by the front window.  One of the co-owners was always grumpy and even instituted Mandatory Tip Night.  In fact, his grumpiness helped me to meet my future husband when the owner kicked a group of us out of the cafe because we were laughing too hard.  I read my first poem publicly in Lava Java.  I later went to see Morphine live.  A.May.Zing.  Unfortunately the lead singer died, so the band no longer exits.

"Desesperada" por Marta Sánchez

This song takes me back to my student exchange to Chile.  I made some amazing friends there, and this song was the bees knees.  I seem to remember my friends and I making a video of ourselves singing this song together, but I have never been able to view that videotape and now I no longer even know where it is.  Well, it might be better if proof of that incident were lost forever anyway.  I learned all the lyrics to that song, even though I spoke very little Spanish.  By the end of my six months in Chile, I was pretty much fluent in Spanish and I cried and cried when my parents made me come home.  Oh how I wanted to stay.  Now I am a Spanish teacher and I listen to music in Spanish on a daily basis at work.  Who knew one little song could lead to a career?

"Missing You" by Christy Moore

Christy Moore.  Anytime I hear him, he takes me back to my childhood and my birth country, Ireland.  My mom made Irish soda bread for Christy Moore once.  He performed a concert in my village and he had very specific backstage request, one of which was homemade brown bread.  So cool.  "Missing You" is an especially powerful song for me because it's all about emigration, and my family is still dealing with emigration.  My cousins live in many different countries:  Canada, U.S.A., England, Germany, Australia.  I have friends and family all around the world because jobs are scarce in Ireland.  This is one of the few songs that can make me cry.

Reflection on Day 3:  This was a really easy post to write.  I thought I would have a hard time thinking of important songs, but they just came to me.  Fun prompt.