Musical magic

It's a kind of magic

    Often as a child I would practice my magic, not the magician type- with a white rabbit being forced out of an unlikely large hat. Real magic, Sabrina the teenage witch and Harry Potter kind of stuff. I refused to believe that I was destined to live my life as an average girl, surely my destiny was to have magic in my fingertips. Sadly not, eventually I came to terms with the fact that I could not make things appear with the sweep of my finger, or the wrinkle of my nose. However magic still exists, everywhere magic is happening all over the world.
    One of the daily magical encounters that occur is time travel. I am immediately transported to a place and time in my past at any time of the day. The way that I achieve this is through music. Music has time travel abilities. For example when I hear the voice of the righteous brothers belting out "you've lost that loving feeling," I am transported back 17 years. The smell of cigarettes sticking to the fabric of the car, its a warm day we are sat in a traffic jam my mother is in the passenger seat in the front of the old beat up Mercedes. I am sat in the middle between my brothers, my dad is driving he turns the volume up full blast, his hips are thrusting from side to side as we sit amongst the traffic. He screams "BABY, BABY I BEG YOU PLEASE" he's banging on the steering wheel, he doesn't care who hears or sees, his head banging just about in time with the music. My brothers and I laugh and giggle in the back while my mother does the air guitar. Of course 'achy beaky heart' and 'yellow polka dot bikini' bring back other memorable moments, but sadly I won't embarrass my father by sharing them.
    Music can transport us anywhere, the musicians who create it are wizards using words and sounds to spin a spell, a spell which whenever we hear it again can move us in more ways than one. The magic music holds isn't purely time travel, it also has the ability to make us cry, laugh or even feel empowered. It's so powerful that the witches/ wizards can use their words or instruments to control our feelings. I can be sat in my car having had the worst day. My life feels its getting away from me, tears prick my eyes, I change the radio station. The music kicks in I hear the initial "oh," the drumming rhythm starts my hips moving EMF sing "your unbelievable" and I smile, that's it my mood has dissolved. I am tapping my fingers, nodding my head and singing at the top of my Voice. Who said you can't dance while sitting down- I am rocking this! The song continues and I am free from problems "the things you say.... your unbelievable," and the sound pauses cutting back in making my body buzz with excitement. I am happy!
   I have so many songs that hold so many memories and create different emotions. For example James Blunts carry you home- it gives me goosebumps all over my arms, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and it reduces me to child like sobs. The words 'as strong as you were, tender you go' get me every time. I am listening to it now as I write and my arms are pricking, my fingers tingling, shivers sweep up and down my spine and my eyes are filling... That's enough of that let me share an up beat musical memory- it was summer and we all had got a copy of Dirty Dancing soundtrack, we are up the field. I have brought my portable CD player and speakers, we put on 'hey baby' pretending to be on the notorious 'log'. We strut our stuff thinking we are the bees knees gyrating up and down shaking our booties, pretending not to notice the attention we were getting from the boys. Good times.
     The final musical memory i will share with you is a frustrating one. My husband and I got married four years ago, my husband had very little input into the wedding through his own choice. I asked him to pick 'our song', I was hoping he would pick one to make me swoon. Unfortunately he drew a blank claiming I was much better at that sort of thing. I chose Taylor Swift 'love story' as it is very similar to our own 'love story'. The wedding went well, two days later we sat in the car and my husband declared
"I liked the song you chose for us, but the one I would have picked is Goo Goo Dolls Iris it says everything I feel about you" I did swoon but two days late! Now however Iris to me is our song, every time I hear it the volume is turned up, the butterflies flutter and I gush at my husbands (all be it late) romantic gesture.