THE TIME MACHINE

I have found a way to travel in time, although I hardly control when it happens. Music has the power to do that to me. Every once in a while I will hear a song and instantly I find myself back in a time or place. It does not happen often, but when it does occur the link is profound. I am transported.

Each time "Love My Way" by the Psychedelic Furs is played I see my friends dancing; slow as though under water. I see the very precise angle at which my friend held her cigarette as she slid languidly on her small patch of ground with whatever rail-thin, British guy she had on her hit list that month.

"The House of the Rising Sun" was a song belonging to another generation, but to me it will always represent the train. I will forever envision a bunch of strangers, at two in the morning, in the bar car when somebody produced a guitar and knew how to play this number. That feeling of never wanting the morning to come or the ride to stop.

I cannot help but notice that most of these memories are tied with youth. People will refer to "their song"' ; the one that they remember from their first date. Why does this connection to music stop as we grow older? I still love all varieties (except country and rap) and a sad bit of music in film can move me to tears when I am alone. Yet, I cannot think of one song, past a certain age, that really has that same bonding element. I will enjoy it---but it does not pull me back. I think that's sad, somehow.