Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Music and Me...



Music seems to be a popular blog topic, I’ve read a number of posts on it this week and have decided to add my own 2 treble clefs in. My life is has it’s own musical soundtrack. I can pinpoint what was going on in my life in any given moment by a song. Bad relationship Evanescence, Linkin Park, was getting a lot of play. First time I fell in love J-Lo’s “Waiting for Tonight” First kiss Jay-z’s “Can I Get a...” When I finally had the strength to pull myself out of the bad relationship it was Liz Phair’s “I Am Extraordinary” that had my feet tapping.

I have a passion for music, I can’t be without it. I have lyrics and names of songs and bands floating in my head at all times. I’m like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to music. The funny thing is sometimes I know songs from way before my time and have no clue as to how I know the lyrics. I blame my mother. When she was pregnant with me she spent the entire 6 months with a pair of headphones attached to her belly. She’d be on the bus, the subway, appointments and her job sharing her music with me. She had one of that walkman with the 2 separate headphone jacks so that 2 people could share one walkman. All day long I’d be listening to the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dion and The Belmonts, Fats Domino, Bach, Pavarotti, Sills, Beethoven, Grand Master Flash, The Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin, Billie Holiday, Etta James. Her taste was eclectic and she passed it on to me.

When she went into the delivery room she even had her own mixed tape playing. The first song I ever heard outside of the womb was Bach’s Cello Sonata followed by Ode to Joy. They are still favorites along with Swing music and a mish mash of others. I was the only child in kindergarten that knew the lyrics to The Buzzcocks “ Ever fallen In Love” and The Sex Pistols, “Anarchy In The UK”. I was really popular with the teachers…lol

I was born three months premature and had a host of health problems as a result. While hospitalized my mom noticed that whenever there was music on it seemed to calm my heartbeat and I drank more milk,so she managed to have her walkman with the headphones draped over her shoulder every time she breast fed me. When the nurses saw that my mom had a point in how I responded to music one of the nurses brought in a radio and had it tuned in to CBS FM 101.1;a really popular oldies station out here in New York until recently when it changed it’s format this summer. From then on there was always music playing in the preemie ward. All the preemies were rockin’ to the oldies!

Now I’m reading that Musical Therapy is an emerging practice in the USA for premature babies. The study says that music has been found to bring down elevated heart rates, elevate oxygen levels, and that it helps neural pathways develop. It seems that my mom was onto something back in 1982! Who knew, the woman was ahead of her time ?

I wonder if any of the other preemies I shared space with grew up to be as passionate as me about music and if anyone of them share the distinction with me of having Ricky Nelson’s “ I’m a Travelin’ Man” (1963) being their all time favorite song?



Posted by @ 6:17 PM
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