I met him when I was just 18 and a freshman in college. He was 17 and attending the same junior college. The first thing I noticed about him at work was his gorgeous brown hair. When he approached me to talk to him, I became entranced by his freckles and blue eyes.
His name was Niall. A good strong Irish name, but pronounced phonetically as in "Nye-all" not the Irish way of "Neal."
His mother was divorced from his father, and she had returned to using her maiden name: Shanahan. I was hooked.
Thus began my passion and soulful connection to Ireland and the Celtic spirit.
We used to spend hours and hours in his room after classes and before work, lying in bed talking, listening to music, and...the usual other stuff. *grin* We listened to an alternative rock station that I'm sure no longer exists - Z97.
One lazy warm October afternoon in 1980, this song came on the radio, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. This, this was what solidified the forever existence of my first love and the everlasting love I found in the music of this group. (Note: the version I heard was NOT this one; the version I heard was a bootleg version recorded at a club and smuggled into this country by a friend of the radio deejay.)
I had no idea that my love affair with this band would continue through to now and, most likely, forever more. I couldn't conceive that this song would move me so much that I was compelled to move to the desert:
...or that this song would make me want to drive very fast with the windows down and the car stereo turned up so loudly I can't think:
I'm not like Starrlight; I can't analyze songs. I can't decipher lyrics, and I rarely know the whys and wherefores about the writing of the song. I'm a Philistine when it comes to listening to music. My reaction to music is visceral. I just know when music makes me weep, makes me laugh, makes me dance and twirl. When music permeates my soul and drives me to distraction or melancholy or joy or dreaming, then, then it becomes my love. A long-lasting, forever in my heart and essence love.
The experience is truly magnificent.
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Ah, first loves! How romantic Songbird! :)
whoa.
not so much a philistine my friend. You explain the music from within...how you feel the tune.
there are markers along the path our life takes...it is a gift to be able to recognize them.
Hello Hello! Yeah Yeah Yeah! That is all I can think of when I hear U2. They are good, but they are U2. That is all I will say.
I remember my first U2 as well, Desert. Diana's record store Eugene Oregon 1981. It was I Will Follow and I was 12. I bought the 45(!!!) and they have been the soundtrack of my life ever since.
I totally hear you on the windows down drive fast to Beautiful Day. It is a song that never EVER fails to make me feel better.
What I love about U2 is the way they put things into perspective.
I don't have a first love, but I do have a first crush.
So what happened to yor first true love? Was he your first hubby?
When my husband and I were first dating, we were hanging out one afternoon listening to the radio. "With or Without You" started playing.
I said, "I Love You Too.......the band."
We still laugh about that.
I love to "listen" to Starr talk music. She and Vinny really have a way of telling us why the music is good and why we should take a listen to it.
But you get music...or I should say that music gets you...the way it does me. Straight to the emotions. I can't tell you why it's good, I can only tell you whether I like it.
for a second I thought Travis said he loves to listen to Star Trek music.
been hanging in bagwine too much.
it takes a special ear and talent to feel music as you do...as well as bond...thanks for the great clips..
Mary: It was a magical few months.
Katherine: Very true. I had no idea at the time (I was a naive 18) how much of an impact this first love with Niall would color me for the rest of my life, nor how my love of this music would carry me and sustain this long. I still smile when I think about how my taste in music was shaped by what Niall and I heard during that time.
VA Loans: To each his own.
Starrlight: I remember 45s! You're right; U2's music can sometimes put a new perspective on things in one's life. Bono's reason for writing Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own never fails to bring tears to my eyes, remembering my own troubled relationship with both my mother and father. It contains words that I never uttered to my mother or my father that I wish I had.
Sis: While Niall is my first love, I was really talking more about how my love of U2 has endured. That's a love that's everlasting for me.
Daddy Forever: No, my first husband is NOT my first love. My first love currently lives in Boston, never married, and works for a medical equipment/pharmaceutical company. His mother retired to Ireland, ironically enough.
Karmyn: A play on words I've used myself!
Travis: I agree; Starr and Vinny do a great job analyzing music, and I gain new insight into music by reading their reviews. But I still rely on my own physical reactions as to whether or not a particular piece of music has a "keeper" value to me.
Katherine: Matty has a way of warping the one's way of thinking, doesn't he?
Teamster: Thanks. I'm not sure how musically gifted I am; very talented people have complimented me on my "musicality," and since I trust these highly trained people, I supposed I shouldn't doubt them, right?
I knew that the end was near for my last boyfriend and I when we got in the car to drive to my grandparents house the night that my grandmother died.
It was around midnight and as usual when the car started so did the stereo. It was Joshua Tree, specifically One Tree Hill. He shut it off and said "we don't need sad music right now" and I knew right then we were gonna break up.
While the song is written as a tribute to a band friend who died it is in no way to me a downer. Even as I was driving over to help prepare my grandmother's body to go to the funeral home. The song made me feel better not worse. I knew he didn't get it and never would get it. Hence he would never get me.
I like to analyze songs...but only if they get me somewhere in the gut. I'm 40 and for 28 years Bono and Co have been my touchstone. I think I learned more about being a good person from their lyrics than I did anywhere else.
no Three Dog Night? tsk. ha ha
You and I listen and react to music exactly the same way. Exactly. It's good to have a kindred spirit.
**hug**
U2? They're okay I guess. hehe ;-)
I'm not a music expert at all. I either like it or I don't.
Physical reaction to music is the most important reaction we can all have. Thanks to Travis and yourself for the kind words.
I only put into words the way the music effects me personally...
follow-up....All I can say is U2 is magnificent and rock an roll at heart.
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