Life Strikes a Chord

Do you ever associate a song with a place or a specific set of memories? I know I'm not the only one. You download new music, listen to it constantly for a few days or a week, and then forevermore when you hear that song, you will most likely think of the places you listened to it most or how you were feeling at the time. I went through several sets of songs like this during my time in London. Not as many as you would think, actually, but there are quite a few I could name off the top of my head. It really started to happen when I began to listen to my iPod on the bus to school. For the first few months I didn't take my headphones out and about because frankly, I'm a space case, and I was worried that I would be zoned out with music and get hit by a bus. As it turns out, that almost happened several times anyway.
Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" was my jam of choice during January. I was feeling pretty confident at the time, and the weather was disgusting, so strutting around with Sexy Back as my personal soundtrack made the gray a little more bearable. Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" fit that purpose as well.
Then came the era of "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men. I had had the song for a while but for some reason I listened to it almost constantly for a while in March. I was a little down at the time and there was something about it that made me feel, all at once, that it was alright to be sad, and that I wouldn't be for long. The song was right; I wasn't sad for long.
And how could I forget, the night I had Barber's Adagio for Strings on a loop and had a good sob (that my next door neighbor overheard) for no reason. I genuinely did not have a reason to sob. But it felt freeing I suppose. And now, I will forever associate that piece of music with that night.
The Lumineers' "Stubborn Love" was my museum perusing song of choice. In April and May, when I did the majority of my museum-going, that was always on my list. So now when I hear that song, I see Gauguin's floral paintings in my mind's eye.
The list could go on forever; Kesha in Hyde Park, Barbara Streisand in Kensington Gardens, Led Zepplin on the 84 bus........