I have a playlist called Tinker Toy; do you remember those?
You could build so much from the hub-and-spoke simplicity of the pieces. You had to be careful though because if you tried to build something too big without first establishing a strong base, your creation would crumple down on top of itself under its own weight.
I thought of the songs that would go on this playlist as the wooden hubs. These were the strongest parts of the structure and they would be represented by the songs I shared with various partners in various relationships over the years.
The spindly wooden pieces connecting the hubs would represent the passage of time and how some hubs were well supported because they had a lot of spindly bits underneath them and other hubs would be hanging way out there, sticking out from the main structure at odd angles, without the benefit that time and experience can give all relationships.
Maybe I put too much thought into a playlist title. Maybe this is all a stretch. But it means something to me and having just celebrated Valentine’s Day with my forever Valentine last night, I wanted to take a stroll down memory lane a bit and, if nothing else, these wooden sticks and wheels can provide the structure for this post. 🙂
Bif Naked – Lucky
I’ve written about this song before when we were doing the CanRock Advent calendar and it takes me back to my first date with a girl I dated for a short while in University.
Shooting pool, eating nachos, flirting hard and this song comes on and we both just kind of sit there and look at each other, knowing that the friendship we had been forming was taking a huge step that night.
We kissed before we got back to the car and this song would be played regularly throughout our relationship. It’s just sexy. And seeing Bif Naked at Call The Office in London perform it live just made it that much more special to us.
Even though we only dated for a few months, that relationship and this song are one of the base pieces of the whole tinker toy tower. I learned a lot from that relationship and as much as it hurt when it ended, it made me a better person for it.
Coldplay – The Scientist
Don’t worry, we aren’t getting melodramatic and emo about every song on this list. I’m also not going to detail every one of the 26 songs.
This one is simply fun because it came on one day and I proceeded to just keep living my life and move backwards during the entire song.
It’s become one of those running couple jokes with my Forever Valentine that only the people in the couple think is charming.
Death Cab For Cutie – I Will Follow You Into The Dark
This one holds a lot of sentimental value and was on a number of playlists and mix tapes shared by my first wife and I. Not only a very pretty song but we truly believed we’d be together until the very end.
We also traveled to both Bangkok and Calgary together, so that particular lyric was always one that made the song a little special for us.
Grandaddy – Jed’s Other Poem
Another early oughts soundtrack staple for me. The lyrics have nothing to do at all with any relationship and my significant other at the time didn’t even particularly like the song very much, but if you are looking for a song to be in your headphones as you walk around a neighbourhood contemplating love and life during trying times, man this is the song for you.
Killer video as well. Such a simple idea executed very well.
Billy Bragg – The Fourteenth Of February
The irony of this being our song, is that the song is about a man who wished he had something to help him remember the moment he met his lover while my first wife and I had an actual photograph from pretty close to the moment we met.
At a house party I met her and fell for her instantly. The problem was she was dating someone else at the time.
I drunkenly confessed to a friend how I felt and how I vowed to date her one day and she grabbed my camera and said we are getting a picture of tonight. There we are in the picture, together, on either side of the guy she was dating, roughly two hours after meeting each other for the first time.
It is bittersweet indeed to hear the song now, but life moves on and I am happier than I have ever been with my Forever Valentine.
Some chapters need to be written so that you can understand the characters better later on in the story.
It’s a beautiful song and I can speak from experience that it makes an amazing song choice for a first dance at a wedding. The lyrics and pace are perfect and chances are many of your guests will be hearing it for the first time and will be charmed by it.
Just don’t let the fact that the first marriage didn’t last spoil it for you. 🙂