Do you ever have a memory so strong it causes you to stop in your tracks? For me, it’s usually associated with a smell–which adds up because smell is connected to the part of our brains associated with memory. For me, there’s a really specific smell that brings me straight back to elementary school: the smell of hot pavement. The memory enhances if it happens to be a sunny day in early summer.
It’s not an unpleasant feeling. Of course, I get the pang of nostalgia whenever I experience that, but it doesn’t hurt. It feels nice to remember those innocent times on the playground. The same way that a specific Bath and Body Works perfume will make me think of high school, or the smell of Folger’s coffee will remind me of my campus job during college. It’s nice to have memories come to your mind, even if they’re uninvited.
Day 6: Paris or Amsterdam – Basia Bulat
In “Paris or Amsterdam,” Basia Bulat is missing someone. I saw her in concert in 2013 at a local college. She was an opener for the band I was seeing, but she was so good. She played dulcimer and has this beautiful dulcet, bell-like voice. She sang this song and dedicated it to a friend of hers who loved to travel. The melody is elementary, melancholy and lingering.
Yesterday I thought I saw you
Crossing at the corner light
Voices ringing through Royal York station
Run down the stairs, it happens often
Every time I feel myself unraveling
I can tell myself that you’ve been travelling
All this time
Basia is missing someone from her life. She didn’t explain where this person was, and it could very well be that this person is, well, gone forever. But whatever the situation, it’s hitting her hard, and she misses this person and their memories a lot.
Now anytime I hear a laugh as bright
You come to mind
Borrowing your coat
Your courage walking
They’re always asking
If I mind it
I just tell myself that
You’re still travelling
You could be in Paris, or in Amsterdam
All this time
Certain things remind her of this person. For Basia, it’s laughter. Without invitation, memories of her friend spring to mind. She seems to have mixed feelings about it–a little bit hesitant to miss her friend, but welcoming memories of her. A refrain in the song is this call:
Come to my mind, come to my mind
Come to my mind, come to my mind
It’s a really sweet song that could be applied to a number of different scenarios–moving away from your family to college. A breakup. Someone you love dying. All you have to do is let the memory come into your mind.
Day 7: Suicide Saturday – Hippo Campus
I love songs that juxtaposes the melody with lyrics. The melody may be really breezy and fun, but the lyrics could be a bit dark, or have a deeper meaning. “Suicide Saturday” has this vibe. Keep in mind, this isn’t a song about actual suicide, so there’s nothing triggering in the lyrics other than that word. The band describes it as “social” suicide, especially for a young person who is trying to find a balance between being themselves and fitting in.
The narrative of the song focuses on a girl–probably a late teenager.
I heard it told by her mother old
She could try, she could try it
With the power of tin and a bottle of gin
She was wise, she was wise to it
Cocked her father’s gun, like the oldest son
She could try, she could try it
Blessed by the bed where she laid her head and calmed to a dull roar
She seems like a bit of a tomboy, and perfectly okay with that. That might play into the breezy sound of the song. She’s comfortable in her own skin, which is accentuated in the second verse as well.
She felled the streets ’til she heard the screams
She could drive, she could drive it
That was where she’d buy her time, yeah
Her friends were crazed in the solemn rains
She could try, she could try it
I met her once, she was tight, she was tight
She was tight, she was tight, she was tight as hell
The band has said that they wanted this song to “mess with people,” to be a breezy, “catchy” song but also catch them with the dark undertones. Teenagers are exposed on all sides to peer pressure, and when the band was growing up in the 90s, the ideas of self-care wasn’t really in vogue, and party scenes could be wild. Teens were and are susceptible to falling down some rabbit holes. The girl in this song is being influenced heavily by this culture, no matter how true to herself she remains.
Oh oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
It was a suicide Saturday
Oh oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
In a summertime kinda way
Audrey D. DeBoer 