Soundtracks -- Part Deux (Marty)

Ladies --

I have pictured my entire life as a movie, and all of my big scenes have a soundtrack.
The Dance (Recital) Years. Lee Ann and I would hop around our living room making up dances to Madonna and Billy Joel, mostly because that's what was around the house. Our friends (and I'm sure yours too) would always give us 45s as birthday presents, so we had plenty of those around. Dan Fogelberg, Commodores, Eagles, Steely Dan, Lionel Richie, Madonna, you name it. It was a sad day when all of our old 45s were stolen out of a storage space my father was renting before moving into his new home, years ago. I can't listen to "Borderline" without doing my sister's choreographed dance in my head, if not in actuality.

And now, for your viewing pleasure.....--> my 80s hair.


The High School Years. Now bear in mind that it is *not* my fault that I was a teenager in the 80s. I glam-banded it up with the best of them. Mid-high school White Lion and Cinderella were frequently heard bellowing from my silver Rabbit convertible; there was rarely any doubt as to who was coming down the country road. Beach trips in this car became frequent after I turned 17, and by then I was dating a DJ far too old for me (thanks Mom and Dad) who turned me on to a lot of dance mixes, including Beastie Boys, Taylor Dayne, Bananarama, Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam, and of course...the sexiest man in purple platforms, Prince. My church youth group (I really loved being raised Episcopalian) took us to SEE PRINCE in a city TWO HOURS FROM HOME when I was 14...this a year before they took us to New York City for a week when I was 15, where I bought a pack of Newports in Yankee Stadium and then teetered around all highed up for an hour trying to find our seats. Newsflash: Newports will put even an avid drug user on his ass. But I digress...so Prince was my first live concert, and holy GLORY was it fantastic! I can listen to any Prince album at any time, but I have a special place in my heart for Purple Rain. Watching him stroke his guitar into ejaculation...words cannot describe. By the time for Governor's School came around, the summer before my senior year, I was ready for something different, and I got it in spades. All of the artsy/theatrical/vocalist/musical kids I hung out with that summer had something different going on...Berlin, Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Talking Heads were the music of that summer. I introduced many of them to Heart, still one of my favorites. Every time I go back to Old Salem I make sure to have a Berlin CD in the car. If you measure the age of a friendship by if you keep in touch, then my two oldest friends are from that summer. David is in LA writing screenplays (and we have had a long understanding between us that when his first film is optioned, there will be a small part in it for me...) and Judi is here in Raleigh, fighting through her recent separation from her husband of 12 years. My life and my music collection (thanks for all the mixed tapes David!) would not be the same without these two people...thank God for Governor's School.

College...oh boy oh boy oh boy. Literally. I met the first great love of my life about two minutes after arriving on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. A sweet Italian boy from Rochester with a penchant for Arnold Schwarzenegger movies and Miller Genuine Draft. We went to Aerosmith, Skid Row, and Bon Jovi concerts (clearly still the 80s), and listened to Winger and Poison (when we thought noone was listening) and lots of Eagles. I remember that Ozzy and Lita Ford duet "Close Your Eyes" making a regular appearance as well. After our horrible breakup three years later, I found another sweet boy whose tastes were remarkably different; hence I was introduced to the Allman Brothers, Robert Cray, Van Morrison, Public Enemy, Dire Straits, Sting, and tons of others that are today some of my very favorites. I float into the past every time I hear "Into the Mystic" or "Little Martha." My college roommate of three years had this mad crush on (read: wanted to be) Stevie Nicks, and so I fell in love with a lot of her solo stuff as well. But the roomie went by the wayside several years later when I learned she had tried to sabotage many of my college relationships; I have no friends from that time except that the second boy (now married and living in California after getting out of the Peace Corps) and I still email occasionally.

Which brings us back to Do. Wow...I just had no idea what to expect when I moved to New Jersey. By way of illustration -- take a hard-boiled egg and shove it into an olive jar. That's kinda what happened to me when I moved to NJ. Southern through and through and having never lived outside of North Carolina for more than six weeks, I was in for a rude -- and I do mean, RUDE -- awakening. Enough said about that. Melissa Etheridge, Gin Blossoms, Concrete Blonde, Counting Crows, Something Fierce, Edwin McCain...I found all of these in my three-year-three-month stint in the Garden State. I absolutely FELL IN LOVE with the Grunge period and these are still bands in my car player most often...Nirvana (I was among the heartbroken millions when Kurt died in April of 1994), Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Temple of the Dog, you name it I love it. But by far, my favorite New Jersey discovery is my two next-to-oldest friends, the women without whose opinion no big decisions are made: the esteemed and beautiful Alessandra, and the honorable and lovely Linda. Funny, Linda, that you mention that your soundtrack with Alessandra is a bit blank...I really don't hear music in my head when I think of you, except what you goad out of me around the fire (which, as we know, was years later). I know we had that unfortunate Hootie and the Blowfish thing, but in my defense, I was enamored with them because my sister had seen them perform in a bar in Sylva, NC (the very western part of the mountains) before they were famous, and she famously jumped up on stage after their first set to hug Darius Rutger and to let him know what the band's flaws were...it was the closest I had ever come at that point to knowing someone who knew someone famous. Thankfully Seema talked me out of stalking Dean Cain, but again I digress...OH! Actually, there was the summer Marion and I came up to see you and rented that convertible in Boston, and we drove around all week listening to Liz Phair's "WhiteChocolateSpaceEgg" and another album of hers that escapes naming right now. I do remember you and Chris in the back seat (I'm sure you only had Gwenyvere, and she may have been with your sister) singing right along with us to "Johnny Feelgood." Or maybe just you. But I completely disagree with Alessandra on "Achy Breaky"...that was *not* the most repeated song we had to suffer through at the pool table while you were getting your dance freak on; "My Maria" is the one that totally sticks in my head, although I concede that my year bartending in that country bar in North Raleigh in '96-97 could be what stuck that song in my head. Alessandra and I, however, have much in the way of a soundtrack for the Princeton years. Many evenings out in the field behind the florist with tikis, beer and boombox rang with the Neville Brothers "Yellow Moon." Our pool sharkin' nights were generally filled with any Lynyrd Skynyrd or Allman Brothers on the juke, specifially "Midnight Rider" and "Sweet Home Alabama." Alessandra, I think you thought it my anthem for being from the south, but Alabama is a world away from North Carolina. I loved the gesture nonetheless. Our pool sharkin' days almost came to an end one night in the Gables, when an unfortunately toothless man angrily banged his cue across the table to rattle us, just before Al sank the game-winning 8-ball shot. I think after we were followed to the car that night, we decided the Gables was not for the faint of heart...and we never went back. That may coincide with the Weekend of Bacon...but, once again, I digress...

Princeton 'til now...and In the Way Back Machine. My first year back in NC I bartended at several clubs, one of which was a dance club. The 'tenders danced on the bars ala Coyote Ugly, and I refer to that as The Dance (Club) Year. A return to dance mixes and staying up all night took thirty pounds off me and introduced me to those cheesy-turned-danceable mixes from Cher, Celine Dion, and such that were so popular at that time. There was still some sexy groove music coming down, and ten years later, Prince was still putting out tunes so hot your inhibitions melted. "Gett Off" always got me up on the bar to shake it, and my hotness (believe me, I'm laughing) got the attention of one short froggy patron...now famous for being the man that got me to say "yes" and actually follow through. Down the aisle. On the beach. In St. Croix. My soundtrack with him is limitless...the Toadies produced "our song" which, if you listen to it, will make you go "um, what?" He (being a teenager in the 70s), introduced me to Kiss (a band which I had managed to stay away from all those years until I fell in love with a live show) AC/DC and Boston. He famously got up onstage with our reception band (the first time I ever heard him sing with a band) and belted out "Brick House" to me. Everyone was stunned. As the years went on and we began to sing together (in our living room with the ultimate karaoke hookup) we have rediscovered some old favorites together -- Charlie Daniels Band (sung at the top of our lungs in a rain storm with the top down driving back from the beach) Elton John, Styx, Billy Joel, Journey, and new singing favorites, for me Melissa Etheridge, Concrete Blonde, Shinedown, and Pearl Jam (which I totally rock out...Marion says I should start an all female cover band and call it Gearl Jam). My darling husband has been singing with a Grateful Dead cover band they cleverly named "Better Off Dead" and so I've had a complete inundation of Dead music...another band I never really got into before my husband began to sing it.

Despite my general aversion to country music, lately I listen to Sugarland (because I have loved Jennifer Nettles since I first saw her perform in Black Mountain and I think she is some kind of sexy). Jimmy Buffet really has me going lately; I'm hooked ever since we went to Florida and have been at the beach in South Carolina lately. India Arie's debut album I know by heart. Edwin McCain does a cover of Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet" on The Austin Sessions that amazes. Chris Isaak's "Heart Shaped World" is an achingly beautiful album, and is best heard driving with the top down under a full moon on a magnolia-blossom and wisteria scented two-lane country road. Alessandra-- need some good old Lousiana bluesrock? You HAVE to listen to Marc Broussard's "Carencro." Concrete Blonde's "Live in Brazil" is brilliant. "Take Me Home" begins: "Pick up the phone, I know you're there, it's almost closing time./And we can toss down one more shot before last call./Are you ok? I swear to God I've got to get out of this house/I miss the days when I'd just not come home at all./So don't you cry it'll give you lines around your eyes./ You've got to try not to live so much of life alone./And if you see me getting crazy at the bottom of the bottle/ take me home, take me home, take me home." It makes me think of you both and my fantasy that one day we'll all live close enough together to make last call on a regular basis. Once a dreamer, always a dreamer....but let the music play.

Marty