Making people and ideas findable

In Which Todd Takes His Cue from Robert Fulghum...

...that's right, the All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten guy.

In the process of moving my stereo equipment and various 45s, 33s, tapes and CDs to my true love's house, I've had the chance to get reacquainted with a few old friends, many comfortably in the OverEasy universe, and some less so. While reexploring these songs and albums, she and I have been pulling together a common songbook for the two of us, conjuring up something that's not just mine, or hers, but ours. (Keep your Doris Day references to yerself, dammit.)

The following quote from the introduction to Robert Fulghum's book Words I Wish I Wrote has inspired many a mixtape for my friends, and I happened to stumble on it again while puttering around the house and listening to audiobooks. It's somewhat excerpted to cut to the chase, but here's what he said:

“If your life were made into a movie, and that movie had a...soundtrack, and I went to a record store to buy a CD of the music, what would be on it? What mood would it leave me in when I played it?

"The questions necessarily impose limitations. The music must fit on a single CD; choices must be made. No defense of choice is necessary. It’s assumed the selections will be idiosyncratic, combining some music in the common realm with bits and pieces of melody patched together from who knows where. The music of the soundtrack of a life will not be original, but it has passed into us, left its sound in the jukebox of the mind, become part of us, and we will likely pass it on.

"Choosing is not easy.”

Indeed. My own efforts at this have been thwarted, frankly. A single CD? One? Yeah, right. The last time I tried to boil my tastes and backstory down in music maybe a decade ago, I came back with 45 hours of music scattered across 18 MiniDiscs, 6 core recordings (including one built around roads I've driven in my life), 6 in the OverEasy vein and the last 6 acting as the instrumental score. Another friend is routinely turning out double CD sets every couple of years, comprised of stuff that moves him, or that served as backdrop to his life.

Another thing to consider, a quote from another guy I consider quite the master of his form, jazz composer/musician Henry Threadgill: "Music should go right through you, leave some of itself inside you, and take some of you with it when it leaves."

That is what music does to me, quite often on a daily basis, at least once, whether new or old, borrowed or blue.

I'm hoping to post one or two of these songlists soon to give you a flavor for this, but you can also safely assume that any given episode of OverEasy catches a fair bit of this philosophy, the "mixtape dynamic" if you will, the feeling that the music must move the listener, and not just sit there as background. You can take a look at wttsfm.com for more.

For now, your turn: pick a format, preferably NOT an iPod playlist, but a finite time frame, say a 50-odd minute vinyl album - ah, hell, I'll be generous here, if Aretha Franklin's 30 Greatest Hits ran 100 minutes across two records, I think that's a fine standard, since it was good enough for her - a 110 minute cassette, an 80-minute CD or my old MiniDisc limit of 161 minutes and 58 seconds. Now, try to find a way to hit the high points of your personal soundtrack in that time frame.

I'll warn you, it's difficult. I've failed at it repeatedly myself...but now that I have a new story brewing, one with the most incredibly savvy significant other I could ask for, and two great kids to boot, I'm finding a way to document us all in some sonic detail. Now, I'd like to see what you come up with.

Comment

You need to be a member of Smaller Indiana to add comments!

Join Smaller Indiana

Comment by Todd Berryman on June 2, 2009 at 7:00am: David - good to hear from you!

I like a lot of stuff in your post, especially the record label approach. This line really jumped out at me, though:

"I would argue...that if one has lived a life worthy of a soundtrack, they probably can't fit it on one album."

True that. What would Sir Edmund Hilary's, or Tenzing Norgay's soundtrack have on it? Or that pilot who saved his entire planeload of people a few months ago by taking his plane into the water?

And yeah, there is an evolutionary process afoot. The me who put together a mix CD in college wouldn't be the same me doing it now; more information has accumulated, more listening has happened, my tastes changed, shifted, expanded in some ways and contracted in others. Then: more DBQ, XTC and NRBQ, and a slew of other alphabet soup bands. Now: more Rufus Wainwright, more from the Court and Spark, Jeff Buckley too.

I think of that documentary filmmaker who goes back to the same class of kids every seven years to see what's happened in their lives. He first filmed them at age 7, and is now in their mid-50s, I think(?). It would be interesting to have done that, all along - to make a mixtape/disc at age 14, then again at age 21, then 28, then 35, just to watch the world shift. What would get prioritized? (I think I'd rather have a shorter interval, maybe five years, or three, but you get what I'm saying here.)

Jennifer...love everything here, especially the first paragraph...it does make a certain sense to do a timeline, or emotional roadmap, if you're going for the personal mile-markers version, which is kinda like what I did in a couple of the MDs for Monobox (the 18-MD set mentioned above), one of which was a more direct historical selection. The blessing of doing that overall project on MiniDisc was that I could sometimes lay the songs down and then figure out what story they were trying to tell me - for example, the "road" songs collection I mentioned above. That one simply started out as songs which I enjoyed most while driving, and no logical sequence suggested itself, until I thought about which road I was on when the song clicked for me. Could be a city street, a highway, an interstate, whatever, but there would be some landmark associated with it...in one case, it was Frank Sinatra's "Only the Lonely" while driving from Indy to Bloomington one late humid September night, and the combination of moving 55 mph against the lugubrious tempo of the song gave it a dreamlike quality that it never quite had before. In that moment, it was an intense experience, while driving, of connecting totally with a song...and also simultaneously the feeling that it might be the saddest song ever committed to tape.

Another one was hearing a Firefall song on the way to see a balloon race, ahead of the Kentucky Derby maybe 27 years ago. The song has no real meaning connected with the event; it just happened to be playing in the car while we were on the way, and yet even now when I hear it, it's a misty early morning, slightly cool, and there's a skyline filled with hot air balloons.

So, I take it that you're journalling out a few mile markers, and then seeing which songs fit a particular entry or mood? Or is it the other way around, listing out favorite songs and then trying to fit the experience to the song? (Sorta like those musicians who can write from the title out...and yes, Paul McCartney, I'm looking at you here.)

I will be very curious to see where you'll take this. And, I have to admit, I'm now starting to think of doing another collection of my own, too, exploring my history a little less obtusely, and more head-on, along the same lines.

There are some methodologies trying to work themselves out for me, here. Thank you both!

Comment by Jennifer Wright on June 1, 2009 at 2:22pm: I think a major effort in this endeavor isn't simply picking music that resonates with times in our lives, it is putting *thoughts* together about our experiences, and making *meaning* of those thoughts. This is the hard part. Once that is accomplished, the thoughts should be recorded (as a musician might write lyrics first, then compose)- so that the thoughts do not get lost.

A barrier to success in this process might be that of musical repertoire...do we know the apppropriate music to frame our meaning-making? Would it magically come to us or would we have to consult with the music medicine man (would that be you, Todd...that is what you are to me, in a lot of ways, from Overeasy to personal communication)? The exercise of creating the Music of my Life *with* someone who knows me very, very well, and yet isn't afraid to compliment my own perspective and clouded self perception would make for a richer, deeper and very interesting experience. Our soundtrack might be tainted by our inflated egos, the critical judgement of our own weaknesses, or our novel ideas of what we *wished* we had done. It might be filled with joy and regret, within two songs of each other.

I think my soundtrack would be a compilation of mile markers in my life. Points at which I've either left the exit behind, or I decided to get off the interstate, or the time I took the detour or the country, scenic route. I could encapsulate one day with one song or an entire decade with one song, depending on how sharp the curve in the road.

The thought of this experiment is intriguing, admittedly, and as I face four days in Washington D.C. for business this week, I shall write down some of my thoughts and try to make meaning of them, while I'm not listening to the speakers and lectures.

Jennifer "Josie" and other names....

Comment by David Sipe on June 1, 2009 at 9:31am: Todd,

An internal retrospect through music limited to what you can fit into the confines of an album. I love the challenge and idea of it. As you said, you've tried on a few occasions to create such an album.

I would argue (not to be confrontational) that if one has lived a life worthy of a soundtrack, they probably can't fit it on one album. Again, part of the fun is the challenge of TRYING to get it all on one.

Life's ups and downs may create an album of near schizophrenia. The high fun of track 1 -Dire Straits -Twisting By The Pool- followed by introspective thoughts of - Indigo Girls - Galileo - perhaps an angry day described by - T.S.O.L. - Colours ( Take Me Away ).

I'm sure you get my point.

Consider life as dynamic. Ever changing, learning, growing. New songs (or old songs introduced to you as new) come along and you look at life in a whole new way. Once upon a time I knew a bit about you. You're living your dream and some of who I knew is still you, but I'm sure you've changed. Life offers us phases. Celebrate those phases with a soundtrack. Consider perhaps being your own record label. Release the sounds of your life and title each album according to who you were at a certain time.

I'll see what I can do according to YOUR rules. When it comes down to it, I have to admit I am a bit envious of those that can put into words or music my thoughts and feelings better than I. I guess it's why many are rich and famous. They offer a service. They are able to bring out of us what we are not able to do. We must find it valuable, we all must WANT that.

Thanks for the thoughts my friend,
Dave