Rachel Seaton.
Some of my fondest memories are of car journeys immersed in music. They were not necessarily remarkable drives – it was the music that made them memorable. There is something about listening to music in a car – the enclosed space, the lack of distraction, the possibilities of high volume – that means it becomes all encompassing, you can focus on a melody, a beat, a rhythm while your mind drifts elsewhere.
A childhood drive through France will always be associated with The Beatles Red Album; a birthday trip to the beach with Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Some of my favourite music has been discovered this way… A late night drive home through country lanes, my parents just returned from a work trip, sitting on knees because the car was so full of cases, Nirvana Nevermind played at full volume. Or a slowing of the car through Ipswich suburbs on a visit to my Grandmother to allow Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song to play all the way through, so loud that I’m sure they could hear us streets away.
The most enduring of these memories is another from my childhood: tired and returning late at night from a trip away to who-knows-where, driving down the motorway through Port Talbot – an industrial cityscape: cranes, towers, chimneys lit up by a web of lights and flames – the rain on the windows catching the lights from steelworks and cars alike… I drive through Port Talbot often still and every time I think of the album that was playing that night - Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs. Rough, bedraggled, melancholy, menacing and beautiful downtown New York music, brought to life in urban South West Wales.
My latest discovery is The Imagined Village’s self-titled album, in particular their song Cold, Haily, Rainy Night. The drums, the chorus of singers, the fine drone of sitars, and the story-telling lyrics make for perfect driving music – a song to take you far away from the present whilst simultaneously anchoring the moment in your memory forever.
SHARE THIS
What a gorgeous article – I absolutely agree! So many car journeys I’ve had have been characterised by the music that was played. Ben Howard’s ‘Old Pine’ will always remind me of my summer holiday in Dorset this year, it was such a special week. ‘Life In Technicolour’ by Coldplay will always be my ‘going to uni’ piece of music, as it’s what I was listening to after picking up my A Level results a few years ago.
And once, when I was about 4 or 5, my parents were driving along and asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to listen to in the car, and I replied: “seeving hoff”. As you may expect, they had no idea what I was talking about. It was only hours later, after puzzling over it in bewilderment, that they realised I was referring to a track from the soundtrack of ‘The Mission’ by Ennio Morricone, which they listened to fairly often. The track is called ‘On Earth As It Is In Heaven’ – a piece of music I find almost too beautiful to take in, and if you listen to it you will hear at the climax of the song why I had assumed it was called ‘Seeving Hoff’. Reading this article made me listen to it again for the first time in years, and it made me cry – it’s just perfect.
This is so true! Music has such an ability to transport us back to places, people, events and activate the deep memory. I’ve always said that Bob Dylan has written the sound track to my life. I told this to my middle son one evening only a few years ago: 1967 MG Roadster, top down, taking him to cricket club coaching in a village on the coast a few miles away from our home here in Cornwall. Why he asked, as Mr Dylan’s Time’s They are a Changing gave way to Forever Young blaring out in the lanes entertaining or scaring the livestock. I explained meekly – the music of my youth, of concerts and places I went when I was his age!
Earlier this summer, as he spent his last summer here before starting his career as a teacher in Yorkshire, he drove me somewhere in ‘the little car’ I’d bought for all of them to learn to drive…. on the iPod suddenly came Forever Young, the tears came too. Mummy why are you crying? You told me once going to cricket that Bob Dylan had written the soundtrack to your life, so I listened too and I love this music and the poetry too now!’ – he answered his own question.. the tracks of my years and tears.
Go on to iTunes and enter ‘Cars & Guitars’ and ‘One for The Road’ into the search box and you’ll find my ultimate road music compilations – enjoy and drive safely!
Without music, our lives would be so boring. Just like yourself Rachel, from a very young age i enjoyed listening and singing to music while travelling in my dad’s car to our nearest town on shopping trips. Feeling totally relaxed, and happy when we would arrive in our destination. Music comforts us, brings warmth into our lives, brings joy and so much happiness to so many people. I can’t imagine driving to my place of work each morning without my radio on. It really sets me up for the day.
My favourite song has to be ” The fields of barley ” sang by sadly the late Eva Cassidy. The words are so beautiful, and Eva sang it so perfectly.
My memory of listening to the Beatles was on a long journey up to London before the M4 was built! but i did not mind as a child i was floating on a cloud, looking forward to seeing the bright city lights.
Thanks for waking up my stored memories