When the news broke last week that Third Eye Blind would be coming to Chestnut Hill, a volume of my musical history was taken from the shelf and dusted off. Let's take a step back to 10th grade, when I thought that I was extra cool. I thought I was so cool, in fact, that a few friends and I convinced ourselves that we could pool together our large pubescent egos and lack of abilities to form a band. My peach-fuzzed self was designated, partly due to my own bolstering, as the lead singer. Since none of us knew how to write songs, we decided that we would get the juices flowing by preparing a set of covers. I proposed that we try "How's It Gonna Be" by Third Eye Blind, mainly because the vocal range was relatively limited. Though we never perfected the song, and our band lasted about as long as it took my friend's mom to make us a frozen pizza that day, I fondly look back on this stupid piece of my adolescence.
This speaks to one of music's most fundamental and exciting powers: its inseparable connection with memory. Some might be inclined to call this effect nostalgia. I'm not suggesting that music causes us to remember circumstances that we otherwise would have forgotten; after all, I'm quite sure the memories of my short-lived cover band would have survived regardless of Third Eye Blind's touring plans. All I know, and I think we all can agree, is that music has the mysterious, impeccable power to transport us back to past events, moments, and even split-second thoughts. For example, I don't think I was the only one to discover Sublime in seventh grade and then onwards give the band a prominent spot on every summer soundtrack since. I may, on the other hand, be the only one with a special affinity for R. Kelly's "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time," stemming from a special time in my life when I got revved up belting out this ballad with other guys at "Servant Camp."
But don't judge. From that hip Christian rock CD that never left the speakers on your fourth-grade family reunion road trip, to that lovely Lil John jam that first made you appreciate the combination of girls and unsavory hip-hop, you know we've all been there. Tunes remind us of how it was.
Though I may regret it, I just thought I'd put that out there.
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