The Soundtrack Of My Life

          Yesterday I pondered which television show of my childhood was most representative of my life.  Today I will stay in a similar vein as I return to a musical theme.  A few weeks ago a piece was posted by Jessica, the Modern Day Drifter, on her  Country Girl blog about The Soundtrack To Your Life.  She proposed the following:

What would be the soundtrack to your life? What songs would be included that can sum up past events as well as things in the present?


            This challenge was right there in my train of thought at the time, since I was busy posting favorite albums and music.  I thought briefly about the concept and started this piece to file away for my "blogs to be posted in the future" file.  Well, the future has come and it is now.  I am pleased to accept the Modern Day Drifter's challenge as I present:
 
The Soundtrack of My Life(Click titles to hear the songs)

Sabre Dance -- From Aram Katchaturian's Gayne Ballet Suite, this energetic tune was a standard of juggling and other circus acts.  My parents used this song in their act and it is a piece of music that resonates from my childhood.

The Ballad of Davy Crockett-- Coon skin caps were all the rage in the 50s and every boy loved the legendary Davy Crockett.  I was no exception.
 
Hound Dog --I may have liked Davy Crockett, but even at the age of five I could see that Elvis was where it was at when it came to impressing the girls.  I had my Elvis impersonation that I liked to entertain people with.
 
The Wayward Wind -- My family had already done a good bit of travel and made a few moves when this song caught my attention in the late 50s.  I could identify with the song because traveling had gotten in my blood.  At one point my parents took my sister and I to see Gogi Grant, who had hit the charts with her version of the song, at a showplace in what was then a little town out in the desert called Las Vegas.
 
Sugar Shack -- When my family moved from San Diego to go to Northern Indiana this song was at the top of the charts.  Rock music had not really caught on with me, but this song started breaking my resistance and I started following the pop music trends.
 
Good Vibrations -- By the time this song came out I was living in East Tennessee.  I was a big fan of the Beatles and the Beach Boys and music in general.  The music was continuing to  move in new directions as the artists began experimenting. The psychedelic leanings of Good Vibrations and Sgt Pepper kept me searching for more new, consciousness distorting sounds.
 
Goin' to the Country --Living in Tennessee near the Smoky Mountains brought me closer to outdoor activities such as hiking and camping.  Also, I began to appreciate country music as country rock began to catch on in a big way.
 
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere --Neil Young became my favorite artist.  This song expressed a yearning I was beginning to have to do something with my life.  I was an adult. I wanted to travel and have adventures.
 
Open Road / The Magic of the Open Road --- These are two of my own songs that I wrote about being on the road.   They were part of a musical I started writing in the mid 1970s.  It would be appropriate to have some of my own compositions in my soundtrack.

In a Persian Market-- This is magic music by Albert Ketelbey.  In the late 70s I got my wish to travel and have adventure as I joined a traveling magic show.  This music was used in the show and was a piece commonly used by magicians and in circuses.

California --I'd never heard of this song by Phantom Planet until I started making this list.  I was looking on the Mixpod playlist maker for a version of a song called "California" by Compton and Batteau but could not find it.  Actually I kind of like this song better.   After many years on the road, my wife and I headed to Los Angeles with our three kids to settle down.

Beethoven's 7th Symphony  2nd movement  --- The 90s were are period of ups and downs for me--divorce, raising three daughters as a single father, a lot of work, loneliness, and finally finding someone new and gettting remarried.  This music by Beethoven to me expresses a range of human emotion from melancholy to soaring triumph.  I hope even bigger triumphs are in my future.

Writer in the Sun -- I hope this song will reflect who I am many years in the future. 

In My Life-- What better song to sum up one's life.
 
               There's mine, what about yours?   What kind of soundtrack would you like to have to accompany your life story? 

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