Sometimes you listen to a Song so many times somewhere, it reminds you of that place every time you hear it again. Or maybe you’re eating dinner and hear a song that you like. You’re home six months or four years later and you hear the song again. You’re temporarily transported back to that place. That’s what these are, the songs of the places from the past.
Night shift
We’re sitting at a little restaurant looking out over the main street of Puerto Viejo as the night unfolds. We sip our drinks as the song booms around us and the night unfolds before us. People mingle and chat, biking past or perusing small shops lining the street.
Take me as you found me
We just got to the hotel in New Zealand, all of them, and have turned on Anberlin to aid in unpacking and settling in, taking in the views while we do. It’s always the first song played, progressing into the rest of the Album as we start to get ready for dinner or an evening out exploring.
Are you satisfied
I’m sitting on my bed in my dorm room my sophomore year of college. I’m looking around YouTube for something new and stumble on Marina and the Diamonds. I listen to the whole album for the next week at least. Now I’m in New Zealand, listening as the scenery flies by out the window.
Missed the boat
I’m on the bus in Germany playing the Super Mash Bros when we hear the delicate intro to Missed the boat. Now we’re playing the song and the outskirts of Munich are my personal music video.
All my friends
This time I’m on a bus in Taiwan. I’m probably going to Jiufen. Or Kaohsiung. Or Hualien. Or Taipei. We’re flying up the hill from Ruifang to Jiufen and I feel like I’m on the Knight Bus in Harry Potter. I’m just waiting for a shrunken head to start preparing me to squeeze between the two buses we’re speeding towards. It doesn’t happen, but I did feel a little car sick.
Girl
Here I am unpacking again, this time I’m in Ecuador. We’re staying somewhere between Riobamba and San Andreas. The room is bright with white tile floor and windows overlooking the street below. Itunes goes through the rest of my Destiny’s Child while we get ready for a mystery adventure that night. It turns out to be a crazy party bus to Riobamba.
Red Dead redemption soundtrack
It’s my first time on a houseboat and we need the right music to set the tone. It’s Red Dead Redemption as we push through the waters of North Lake Powell. The next morning it was our alarm, and probably everyone else near us in Iceberg Canyon, too. Now t’s the soundtrack of most of our desert driving.
War Paint
I’m packed into a shuttle with a few too many people somewhere in Central America. The High On Life youTube channel is my playlist for the next two and a half months. It’s not relaxing at all, but now I’m excited for whatever I’m about to do wherever I happen to be going.
Mirrors
The boat was following a steady rhythm on the waves between Bluefields and Big Corn Island in Nicaragua. It wasn’t just Mirrors, but the whole 20/20 album. Justin Timberlake was serenading me over the waves to my now favorite little slice of paradise. Fears of being sick were eased while I watched the waves roll beneath us.
Do you have a song that reminds you of a place? What song and where?
