One of the earliest memories I've had of music was lazy-ing into the seat of an old Superman bus, as it grinds down the road home after the morning session was over. Bus is nearly empty and I'm leaning back on my bag and I look backwards out the window as trees zoom past.
The song on the radio at that time was "Love is all around" sung by Wet Wet Wet...
That was back in 1994. I was 9 and mid-way through Primary 3...
EXTRACT 2:
A few years later, I remember looking out the window as the car speeds down the North South highway, on the way back from a long holiday. School is opening SOON. And not the same school that I was going to for the last 6 years.
Soon, I'd be stepping into St Joseph's Institution. And while there were familiar faces, the rest would be brand new. And that was scary.
In fact the whole year had been scary. It'd been the year of the bloody spice girls and their extremely creepy "2 become 1" video... UGH...
Anyway, I remember looking out the window, totally quiet on the outside, but I was SCARED SHITLESS on the inside by the future and the prospect that lay before me.
The song on the radio seemed to answer for me. It was Semi-charmed Life by 3rd Eye Blind...
And that was 1997. Primary 6 and moving to Sec 1 next year... I was 12.
EXTRACT 3:
I remember the principal saying that we were "pioneers" or something along that line. Thinking back, speeches like that seemed to paint us as some kind of super soldier army that was about to be unleashed onto society.
And considering SJI at that time - it certainly felt like it. Yeap, we were the invincible bunch.
Beating the hell outta each other and having so much fun that we'd all collapse into our seats as the bus took the longest time to get home...
Music had been particularly... stimulating that year... I seem to remember a certain Faith Hill video that triggered certain hormonal reactions... heh... It pretty much established the favorites in my album - Matchbox 20's "Bent", BSB's "Shape of my Heart", and a few others...
But if there was a song that pretty much summed it up. It'd be the one song that all the SJI boys would be whispering to themselves as we lay slumped in our seats, pretending that we werent singing along...
Jon Bon Jovi. The message? Simple. It's my life.
It was the year 2000. Sec 3 and we were at the invincible 15 years old.
EXTRACT 4:
Not too long after that, it was a total 360. From being invincible to being incompetent. Probably the transition from an all-boys school to a WTF GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS school was too much to handle. Lol... Or maybe it was because 2000 rolled along and the world was still around. And that was such a bummer... September 11was still fresh one year on, and had a way of smothering us with protection, and the world seemed SO much bigger, and we were constantly being ignored, for favor of the greater good, national security and wat not...
Being the home tutorial counsellor DIDN'T help. Responsibility really grounds you, makes you realize the vulnerability of the world. Not to mention the late days studying and the long LONG bus ride from CJC to Eunos...
It was the year of Eminem, some stupid girl who kept singing about boys (Avril Lavigne), and not to forget Enrrrrrrrrrrrrrrique's "Hero" - the dream soundtrack of every guy's death at that time... A few standouts were "All you Wanted" and "Goodbye to You" by Michelle Branch, and Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles". I always had a hard time telling them apart. LoL...
And while taking the long ride home, I distinctly remembering nodding off on more than one occasion to "Here I Am", sung by the ever intriguing Bryan Adams.
And there I was - year 2002, at the jaded age of 17.
EXTRACT 5:
The uni years were kinder. Loads of responsibility still, but at least, this time you could CHOOSE how you wanted to screw things up.
And at the same time, the stuffy lecture theatres had a way of developing the rebel in me. Many many many times i wanted to scream like a mad creature.
It was the year of R&B... that STUPID "My Humps" song is still one of my all time HATED songs. It was also the year i went ALTERNATIVE... lots of songs-that-you-never-heard-before-and-if-you-didn't-then-that-means-it's-a-good-song.
Bands like Stars and their "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" and "Calendar Girl", Default with their "The Memory will Never Die", and Saliva with their "Always".
Notice a self-destructive pattern in the above examples?? Damn i just noticed it myself...
But the song that I remember from that year was a song that exemplified the wanting to scream, to break out, away, and just do whatever I wanted. "Best of You" by the Foo Fighters.
That was the best of 2005. I had just turned 20.
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