Emotional Touchpoints Playlist
Songs that recall a moment or memory
I had a fun playlist idea recently that I’m calling "Emotional Touchpoints". The idea is grabbing songs that I can very specifically associate with a memory or place. Most of these memories are associated with Connecticut because that’s when I spent more time ‘passively’ commuting on a train or walking and just being able to vibe to music. I put them in semi-chronological order as best as I could remember.
Gustav Holst - Jupiter (from The Planets Suite)
This one is actually twofer for me. I think this is one of the first songs I truly fell in love with as a kid. An electronic version of The Planets suite scored an educational VHS about the solar system. I just remember hearing the narrator going over the moons of Ganymede and Europa during the middle section (starting around 3 minutes in) and just feeling this super strong emotional response to it. Lil and I also used that section as a ‘meditative/pause’ section during our wedding as well so that’s where the second association comes in. I guess you could say this song bookends the playlist.
Visual: An old VHS player connected to a television that required knobs to change the channel. Perpetually covered in a layer of dust. Elementary School Ben, staring in rapture at the otherworldly images on the screen; transporting his brain to the stars and causing nebulas to explode in his heart.
You can see the video I was talking about here (starting at about 30 minutes):
Bon Jovi - It’s My Life
This song I strongly associate with 9th grade when I discovered the site animemusicvideos.org (pretty sure it no longer exists). On that site, you could post a music video you custom made to an anime and song. I discovered a video setting Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin) to Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” and I instantly fell in love. I loved the way the action in the scenes so well synced with the music. Also, at the time, I really didn’t have access to anime other than what was on Cartoon Network (so not Kenshin) and this was my only window into seeing scenes from anime.
Visual: I can still remember the dingy, old computer lab (think those old beige box PCs) in my high school where I’d devour any anime music videos I could. I’d read the-oro.com for any US-relevant Kenshin news.
Fun extra fact: I actually read all of Rurouni Kenshin purely by text. Someone had transcribed the whole series and so that was how I first experienced the manga/anime: through a plain text word doc - no images, no sound. So you can imagine how seeing clips on screen really blew my mind.
Here is the anime music video:
Footloose - Let’s Hear It For The Boy
My high school put on Footloose as our yearly production in either my freshman or sophomore year. This was my favorite song from the production.
Visual: I was going to help some of my Drama friends with setting up the ticket booth before the show started one night. However, I had to get to the school on my own, so I threw on my headphones and got my CD player and walked the two miles to the school. However, an hour later, I still wasn’t there and I was very confused. Keep in mind, this was also in the middle of the winter with half a foot of snow on the ground. Turns out, I had missed the turn and had walked to the neighboring town. So I had to turn back around and continue trudging through the snow to get back to the school. Side note: I technically was listening to a Simple Plan CD on the walk, but I associate this experience much more with the Footloose soundtrack.
Something Corporate - Walking By
This song I associate with my best friend from high school Elly. She was the one who introduced me to Something Corporate. I’m not sure if this song was a standout at the time, but I do feel like the nostalgic sound of the song really can bring me back to those days.
Visual: A nice, upper class house in suburban Connecticut with a large, green backyard. A chubby corgi occasionally trying to chase down stray badminton shots. Then two kids retiring to the computer room to try our luck against the tough AIs in Starcraft or Warcraft while eating microwave quesadillas from the local grocery store.
Cirque du Soleil - Quidam
I got the Quidam CD from the local library and I loved the feeling captured in this song. I also loved the image of the headless man holding an umbrella. So I used that image as an inspiration for a 10th or 11th grade art class project.
Visual: Me sitting with some of my friends from the class at a four seat table. Me, not much of an artist, doing my best to capture the image of the headless man from the CD art case. Picture the old wood, ink and paint covered desks. Backpacks at our feet. Paper out in front of us drawing.
Yellowcard - Only One
I loved Yellowcard in high school and Ocean Avenue was one of my favorite CDs to listen to. I remember seeing the music video for Only One on Yahoo Music or maybe on MTV. I loved the shots of the lead singer diving into the crowd. At the same time, I was really enjoying the manga “Girl Got Game” that followed the developing relationship of two basketball player love interests.
Visual: Ben attempting to draw a comic (my manga drawing skills had improved since the Quidam painting lol) of the two characters from Girl Got Game but using the visuals from the Yellowcard music video while obsessively listening to “Only One” over and over for inspiration. Kyo, the girl and main character, is in the crowd while Chiharu was playing the music.
The Yellowcard music video:
Image from Girl Got Game
A Beautiful Mind - A Kaleidoscope of Mathematics
The Beautiful Mind soundtrack was probably one of my first favorite movie soundtracks (after Star Wars). I would listen to this soundtrack a lot when my dad would take me on the drive to Borders Book Store to play chess with his friends. I did a lot of thinking and imagining to these songs.
Visual: Ben, in the back of a Volvo station wagon. Staring out the window on a night drive, thinking about what he was going to do with his life, wondering what it all means. Or maybe imagining images to compliment the music he is listening to. Or just daydreaming about anything at all.
HIM - Vampire Heart
Next to that Borders was a Tower Records (back when both of those existed!) They used to have this setup where you could scan a CD and listen to some of the songs off of it. I remember being intrigued by the band HIM so I scanned their CD "Dark Light". Hearing that keyboard line kicking in with the guitars and I just went "ooooOOOoohhh" - instantly in love.
Visual: Ben, probably dressed in Old Navy shirts and baggy jeans or cargo shorts - not at all the image to go with the soon to be purchaser of a goth metal band’s CD - obsessively listening to "Vampire Heart" and "Wings of a Butterfly" over and over. Trying to decide if he wanted to throw down the $15 to buy the album (spoilers: I did).
Fall Out Boy - Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year
One of my favorite Fall Out Boy songs in high school. I had heard the singles from this album “Dance Dance”, “Sugar We’re Going Down” and finally, on a trip to New York City, decided to buy the album. I eagerly unpackaged the album on the train ride back and fell in love with the whole album on the ride back.
Visual: Ben, facing backwards, sitting on the faux plastic leather seats of the Metro North trains. I have the lyric booklet out in front of me as I pore over every lyric on the album. I occasionally stare out the window of the train, reflecting on the New England night sky and thinking “Wow, this band gets me.”
Nine Inch Nails - The Wretched (Live: And All That Could Have Been)
We’re entering college now! This one is a negative emotional touchpoint. This song just absolutely encapsulated the angst and rage of the time. The extra intensity in Trent’s voice in this live version just compliments it even more.
Visual: Prom night 2007. I was actually a freshman in college, but some of my close friends were still seniors in high school so they invited me along. There was a web of relationships that were hurt that night. We all retired to Kendra’s place afterward - although a couple people broke off and did their own thing too due to the drama. I went for a walk at some point in the AM with Kendra (my ex) and we vented our frustrations and hurt from the evening. Unspoken, I still had unresolved feelings for them (we’d broken up earlier that year), and while I enjoyed the openness of the venting session together, I was also still upset at the new distance between us and everything else in that friend circle that felt like it was falling apart.
Relient K - The Best Thing
This and Relient K's other gushy love song "Must Have Done Something Right" were me and Izze's songs when we dated summer of 2007.
Visual: Me and Izze along with some of our other friends driving around in Evan's car over summer vacation. We could squeeze 7 people into that tiny 4 seater. Izze and I knew all the words to this song and ‘adorably’ (probably not so much to everyone else lol) sang it at one another with the windows down zipping around in a bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle though Connecticut suburbs.
Angels & Airwaves - Love Like Rockets
This song brings me back to a magical night I spent with my friend Emma. I got into AVA in sophomore year of college when I impromptu purchased one of their CDs at an airport in the Philippines over Thanksgiving. This song hit home one fateful winter day...
Visual: It was a January night in Connecticut in which Emma and I impromptu spent an hour attempting to sled down a hill by the train tracks. It’s highly unlikely we used something meant to be a sled. The snow was perfect for sledding and having snow ball fights in and I just recall the experience being blissful. I listened to this song on the walk back from that as the snow started to fall around me and I reflected on the evening.
Jimmy Eat World - 23
Another angsty teenage song that I thought perfectly captured how I felt at the crux between high school and college.
Visual: This one I distinctly remember showing to Evan as we sat in their car late one summer evening. We parked in front of my house and played it over their car speakers - sitting and taking it in. We thought about the friends we were scared to lose as we all started to grow older (now all in college) and grow apart (from our hometown friend circle).
Apocalyptica - Nothing Else Matters
Junior year of college was a rough one for me, but this was undoubtedly one of the highlights. I was the lighting board operator for a production of “Icarus” and this song (a cover of the Metallica song) was used incredibly at the death scene of Icarus when his wings burn off and he plummets to earth. The timestamp for the fall in the song starts around 3:15.
Visual: Icarus is flying above the waves. The waves are blue cloth held across the stage waving up and down. The actor is held up by actors with giant wings attached to his arms. He pushes himself higher and higher, reaching for the sun. Suddenly the scene shifts from the perspective of the audience. We now see from a perspective above Icarus. The waves are now at the back of the stage forming a blue wall. The music swells. The actor for Icarus is standing up and we watch, knowing the inevitable, as his wings break off and he plummets (falls away from the audience to the back of the stage) into the waves.
What the idea behind the scene looked like:
All Time Low - Weightless
In between Junior and Senior year of college, I interned with MTV as a Production Assistant. The branch of the company I was on was called “MTVU” - I think the U either stood for University or Underground. As it was, they really pushed the late 00s emo rock and Weightless was blowing up at the time.
Visual: Monday through Friday in the heart of New York City. Sitting at a regular old desk at a corporate office (yup MTV was fairly boring). On the TVs placed all around the work areas and break areas playing All Time Low, Hey Monday, and the rest of that kind of music ad nauseam all day every day for the summer. To be honest, it was pretty torturous.
Green Day - When It’s Time
Green Day premiered this song at a concert when I saw them in New York City in 2009. Turns out, this was a song that had never been recorded and never been played since 1992 if it was ever played at all.
Visual: At one of my top concerts of all time. The vibe was amazing, Green Day was performing at the top of their game. The audience was loving it. Billie Joe comes out with a solo acoustic guitar for the encore. They play one of my other favorite Green Day songs: Macy’s Day Parade. Then he launches into this song. My mind is blown. I know every Green Day - what is happening? I love the song though. I write down what lyrics I can so I can Google it later. “Tell me when it’s time to say I love you”. A basic search yields no results. The Green Day message boards, though, are alight with the realization that this song had never been played before.
Here is a video of the performance from that night:
Jimmy Eat World - Big Casino
This song I associate with a vacation I spent in Hawaii during college (mostly sure it was senior year, but I could be wrong). I remember the joy of being able to listen to this upbeat music in the "middle of winter". This was also the moment that I realized I had seasonal depression and that getting a bit more sun really did help my mood quite a bit! :D
Visual: Watching music videos in my uncle’s apartment late at night (Hawaii time) in Waikiki. Chatting on AIM with my buddy Zuba as he stressed about the end of college and what we all were going to do next after graduation.
Hair - The Flesh Failures
Another theater highlight for me. We did a production of ‘Hair’ and the ending song always got me. I am certain I cried every night.
Visual: The ending scene of Hair shows one of the main characters as an older man visiting a Vietnam War memorial site. He finds the name of his best friend who had been recruited during the war and who he had never seen again after he was drafted. The choir sings “Let the sun shine in” and the scene fades to black.
Kishi Bashi - Q&A
This was me and Lillian’s first dance song at our wedding.
Visual: We were lucky to have my friends Joe and Ted play the song on guitar and ukulele for the moment. Honestly, they probably butchered the song quite a bit lol, but it was a beautiful moment to be dancing with Lillian as my wife for the first time and to have our loved ones around us.
TOOL - Fear Inoculum
I played this album a LOT while Lil was pregnant with Casey. So when we headed back from the hospital, I figured that Casey would be sort of familiar with the song due to hearing it in the womb.
Visual: New parents, Ben and Lillian, nervously buckle their daughter into a carseat that looks far too big for her small frame. Ben takes the driver’s seat, Lil is in the back with Casey to reassure her in this sea of new experiences. I wanted to play something that she might be familiar with that was chill enough to not be alarming. So that’s why I picked this song and album to play for her on the drive back. I also would listen to this album a lot while staying up late at night making sure she was sleeping well.