The other day I happened upon a stack of CD’s (remember those?) that I had compiled ten years ago of songs from our iTunes library. I had named them as “Deck Songs 2004 Volume One,” – eight volumes in total. As we sat outside, enjoying our first Friday night of the summer, my husband casually mentioned that the docking station we were listening to had a CD player…and it was on.

I grabbed those eight CD’s and didn’t look at the song titles. I wanted to be surprised by each one. I put in Volume One, and we were kicked off with Prince’s “1999.” Perfection!

I had infused such hits as Journey’s “Stone In Love” with ‘N Sync’s remake of “Just Got Paid” and Soundgarden’s “Pretty Noose” with Elvis Presley’s “Little Less Conversation,” which if you will remember, made a sort of comeback in the early 2000’s. The almost circus-like clatter of the very beginning Bruce Springsteen’s “Tunnel of Love” exited me into the smooth ride that is one of my favorite pop/rock songs. I jammed with a smile to my favorite remake ever – Soul Asylum’s version of “Sexual Healing” – and let Honeymoon Suite’s “Feel It Again” absorb into my skin like a drug.

The songs on these CD’s were both a representation of our musical tastes up until 2004 and a sign of the then current times. As Jet’s “Cold Hard Bitch” played we talked about the groups of the time that seemed to exit pop culture as soon as they came. When Maroon 5’s “Harder to Breathe” came on we discussed how we both expected the rest of their stuff to have the same grit, but how they turned out a little too pop for our taste. Funny how I had no problem head-bopping to Nick Lowe’s pop hit “Cruel to Be Kind.” 🙂

When The Outfield’s “Main Attraction” came on, I thought my husband was going to need a cigarette afterward, and he thought I’d need one after my favorite Def Leppard tune, “Photograph.” We talked about how jarring the intrusion of grunge was in the early nineties as it crushed eighties hair metal, and we debated who were the real innovators of the genre. He reminisced about the first time he saw the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and how he and his bandmates couldn’t figure out if they loved or hated it. And I recalled the moment in the summer of 1993, lying on a raft in the pool, when I heard the powerful, raw first line of “Dead and Bloated,” kicking off Stone Temple Pilot’s first album and just about knocking me off my float.

But the coolest part was enjoying these songs with the same guy I sat with ten years ago on our deck at our old house. I held the same black dog in my lap while the same brown dog sat across from me in her own chair just like she always did on that deck ten years ago. Except now we have a fifth Chambers family member who loves music just as much as his mom and dad does.

I can’t think of a better way to have kicked off the first official weekend of summer. 🙂

Happy Memorial Day weekend to you and yours!