This part covers our first two terms in Nigeria and the year of furlough in between them.
12. "We Will Rock You" by Queen - This song is at the end of the film Mighty Ducks, which was shown at a movie night at our school in Nigeria. I don't remember watching the film on the big screen, but I do remember this song and our response to it. I'd never heard of Queen (and didn't actually know this was sung by Queen until I was in my early 30s), but this song was so catchy. We loved stomping our feet and clapping but had no idea what any of the words were except "We will, we will rock you."
13. "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men - I don't honestly think I'd ever listened to this whole song before putting together this playlist. I'm not a fan at all. Not even a little. But the chorus of this song takes me back to the day my friend Ruth drove away for the last time. It was 1993, and she'd been my neighbor and one of my best friends for the two years we'd lived in Nigeria. Her family was moving to Ethiopia, so who knew when we'd see each other again, if ever. So as Ruth and her family drove out the compound gates of Niger Creek (to drive the five hours to the airport city), my friend Meaghan and I ran after the van, singing "We've come to the end of the road..." It felt like an ending. I had no way of knowing my family would stay in touch with Ruth's over the next few decades, and I'd even get to line dance at Ruth's wedding 11 years later.
14. "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin - This was the first non-Sunday-school song that I memorized from start to finish. It was one of the songs on a family mixtape of '70s music that we called "the pop tape." I'm not sure why I decided to memorize it, aside from its being mellow and mentioning cats. But we were on a family vacation at a river down south, and I used a portable tape recorder to play the song over and over again until I learned all the words. (The next song on the tape was "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver.)
15. "Hero" by Mariah Carey - We came back to the U.S. halfway through my sixth grade year due to a family medical emergency. I spent 1994 at a public middle school in L.A., and it was a pretty crummy year for the most part. But I got to be in Chorus as an elective, and this is one of the songs we sang. I'd never heard of Mariah Carey and didn't even know this was her song until years later, but I loved it right away.
16. "Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Title" by Jerry Goldsmith - During this year of furlough, we had cable TV for the first (and last) time ever. Before we moved to Nigeria, I'd been accustomed to PBS shows and cartoons. Now I could watch other things, like Get Smart on Nick at Nite. (Mom wouldn't let me watch Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie because they were about magic.) And I discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation and immediately fell in love with it. I have loved Star Trek ever since.
17. "I'll Be There" by The Escape Club - I heard this song sometime in seventh grade while I was in the U.S. I had exactly one true friend that year, Stephanie, and all the others were still in Nigeria. I missed them with every beat of my heart. I associate this song with being in Stephanie's house, so we must have listened to it on her radio, but the angst in the song made me incredibly homesick.
18. "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" by Bryan Adams - I fell in love with this song once I returned to Nigeria and was surrounded by my friends again (and had a crush on a cute guy). I didn't see the film associated with this song until I was in college, but the song was on the radio in Nigeria quite a lot.
19. "Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Collins - When I think of this song, I think of realizing my privilege for the first time. I was probably 12 or 13 when I started to understand how privileged I was. In the U.S., I always felt poor. Kids made fun of my second-hand clothes and stupid hair. But when we went back to Nigeria and I finally started looking outside of myself, I began to see my life in contrast to those around me. So this is my epiphany song.
20. "Main Title (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers)" by Adolph Deutsch - To be fair, I haven't seen this film since high school, and I have a feeling the sexism would make me crazy nowadays. But I included this song because when I was in eighth grade, I got to be in the orchestra when my school performed this musical, and my brother had the lead role of Adam. Even though I was only in middle school, I got to go to school in the evening for rehearsals with Jonathan, and I loved it. We had a wonderful time!
21. "Forgiving Eyes" by Michael Card - Can I just say that I love that Michael Card wrote a song from the perspective of the "adulterous" woman from John 8? I'd been listening to Michael Card's The Life for years by this point, but for whatever reason, this song struck me in a new way in about ninth grade. This song tells of a Jesus of compassion and empathy, who loves and forgives. It is the Jesus I want to love.
This takes us up through the end of ninth grade, when my brother graduated from high school and we left Nigeria to return to the U.S. for another year.
No comments:
Post a Comment