I Don't Know When, Confused About How As Well...

I know I've found a good song when I can remember where I was the first time I heard the song and can also remember (with little to no exaggeration) when and where I was when I heard it every time afterward. "Chasing Cars" happens to be one of those rare tracks.

The first time I heard this song it was on the radio in my friend Eric's car. I didn't recognize the song, and the lyrics had a sort of charming innocence about them. I went home and downloaded the song onto my computer. For the next several weeks it became a staple of every playlist I made for any purpose. It was a very simple song and at the time I didn't connect it to any one person, it was just a nice rock song.

That summer I went away to college and as I sat with some new friends, one of them, a girl named Gina that would eventually become my girlfriend, heard the song through my headphones and yelped "I love that song!", much in the same way I did (in my mind, anyway) every time the song came up through the grace of iTunes shuffle function. Many days later, as she and I lay in her room, not saying or doing anything, I turned to her and said "This is just like that song, 'Chasing Cars". She agreed, and for a time, it became "our song", complete with references in Livejournal entries, AIM profiles, and the like. Lest you think I'm doing this just to reminisce about a girl, I remind you this is about the music and the story doesn't end there.

A month or so later I was in a car with some classmates and guy named Pete I never got to know better, and this song came on. I expressed my desire, and Pete scoffed, commenting on the mind-numbing simplicity of its guitar line. Right as he was, I was appalled. I eventaully came to concede that its simplicity was just a part of its masterpiece, and that even Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" had its detractors. I thought nothing more of it till just now.

At the time of this writing I now own 4 different versions of this song, putting it in rare company. As much of an acoustic junkie that I am, the original studio version remains my favorite. It has the perfect blend of guitar, drums, and Gary Lightbody's half-mournful voice. Whether history remembers this song as a classic remains to be seen, but for one summer, it made its mark on me.