I was listening to my iPod here at work, and a co-worker walked in and asked me what I was listening to. I said, “Fleetwood Mac,” and she replied, “Ugh. My ex was a huge Fleetwood Mac fan. I can’t stand to listen to them, now.”
So that got me to thinking. My ex almost ruined a whole bunch of songs for me. Heck, he almost ruined entire bands and musical genres. But, over the years, I have reclaimed a bunch of them. Here are some, in no particular order and with perhaps a smidge of backstory (click to play each in Blip, the Embedding Nazis are at it again):
Love Song by Tesla. The first song I ever couples-skated to, and it was with my ex, waaaaay back in the beginning when we were first crushing. He was a really bad skater who couldn’t even go backwards, so we had to do that dorky hand-holding thing. Ahh, 1989, I hardly knew ye.
She Talks to Angels by The Black Crowes. We listened to this album over and over and over while sitting up in my ex’s room. He really REALLY can’t sing. Doesn’t stop him from doing it, though.
Thank You by Led Zeppelin. We played this song for “our” dance during our wedding. Oh, what a farce. My family must be forgiven for what they allowed me to do, I was so frickin’ pig-headed.
Hey You by Pink Floyd. Now, I can only take the Floydsters in small doses, but there are several songs I like. This one, Comfortably Numb, a couple of others. My ex identified with the protagonist in this song. Laaaaaaaaaame.
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. I never did lose my Queen love, but it was YEARS before I stopped transposing my husband’s off-key voice over Freddy’s in my mind.
In The Mood by Robert Plant. My ex was actually the one that introduced me to Robert Plant’s solo stuff, and I spent a whole summer listening to Now and Zen and Manic Nirvana. Now the songs just make me homesick, reminding me of sitting up in my room at Grandma’s, on my bed, with my headphones on.
Love My Way by the Psychedelic Furs. Me and my ex and a friend of ours spent a day in Boston one weekend, and we picked up a handful of CD’s while we were there. We got the Furs’ World Outside album and listened to it all the way home. This song isn’t on that album, actually, but it’s one of my faves.
Jane Says by Jane’s Addiction. It was the early 90’s. We both had jobs on the closing shift at Burger King, and we’d put this CD in a CD player on top of one of the counters. Same with Nirvana’s first CD. Don’t miss them, particularly.
There’s a bunch more, but this is a sampling. Many of the CD’s got lost in the Great CD Wars of 1997. Now to be found in the bargain bin at Zia Records, I’m sure.
Snerkology 