Isabelle's music meme

Isabelle tagged me to do a music meme which involves listing 5 pieces of music which mean something to me and explaining why. I doubt my list will be as classy as her one was, but here goes:

1. "Away" by The Bolshoi. That's the little known Eighties/Nineties indie band rather than the well-know Russian ballet company. (I don't think the ballet company ever released a single). I loved everything by The Bolshoi and was at a record fair with a male (platonic) friend at University (this would be about 1987-ish) and for some reason I decided to buy the single of this song for another male (platonic) friend of mine who was not with us. Don't know why, it was just an impulse because I loved the song and thought he would like it too. I happen to know that he still does and we now play it in the car for our children.

2. Hebrides Overture by Mendelssohn. This was my gloomy angsty turmoil-y music when I was a teenager. The nearest I got to being moody and hormonal - if I was having a less than great day, I would put this on and lie on my bed and think about how unfair life was. Still love it though.

3. "Promises" by.......well, my talented husband. Husband is a keen musician. This is a track from an album he did by himself in the late Eighties. It is actually the words of a poem written by our former flatmate and my bridesmaid which he set to music and sang. Husband's album was playing in the operating theatre on both occasions when our sons were born, and even though First Born was a planned and relatively relaxed c-section during the day and Second Born was a rushed and emergency section in the early hours of the morning, this song was the point on the album that we had reached as our sons were born. Both times.

4. Gorecki - Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Makes me cry. 'Nuff said.

5. The Model by Kraftwerk. Completely and utterly sums up the Eighties for me, the decade when I was a teenager and going out dancing to the Palais in Bathgate and all that. Pure aural nostalgia.

I could actually go on - once I started I kept coming up with other music that means something to me. The piece I walked up the aisle to, for example, and that my sister-in-law kindly dubbed onto the video of our wedding, but I walked up the aisle to just the first movement and she left the piece running on, and on the tape, by the time I arrive, the third movement is playing and it is all scary and sinister (DAH DA-DA , de de de de de de de) and you are expecting Dracula to climb out of that Daimler rather than me in a frock. I will however stop.

Now who can I tag? Hmmm. How about Lynsey and Heather for starters. Anyone else reading who wants to join in is welcome. Go to it!

PS I have added a new blog to my ever-lengthening list over there on the left. Cranky Epistles by Crankyprof - rude, testy, hilarious writing from a college teacher of English in the US. Check her out as long as you don't mind colourful language and threats of garotting students with their own intestines if they can't tell the difference between they're, their and there.