Cindy’s post the other day about inspiration (or rather my response to her post) got me thinking about all hard working musician types whose work inspires me. I’ve always admired song writers and musicians, probably because it’s a talent that’s creative, like writing, but completely different that anything I can do. I mean, I can barely carry a tune. Singing a song would be beyond me, forget writing one. 

But here’s the thing, there are people who do that for a living. Like, every work day of their lives. They get up in the morning, go to their office or studio or wherever and make music. Can you imagine what that must be like? 

I only caught a snipit of the Oscars on Sunday, but the bit I did catch was the best original score. Danny Elfman was up for an Oscar, ’cause he basically has done work on … well, just about everything it seems. My husband asked, “Hey, didn’t he used to be in a band or something?”

Suddenly I remembered that yes, he was the lead singer in Oingo Boingo and had a solo album that I loved obsessively as a teenager. Funny how I’d forgotten about it for nearly two decades and then–bam–I was hit with urge to run off to my childhood bedroom, put the So-Lo LP on the turn table and just veg out to Sucker for a Mystery. 

The mind is curious thing. All day today I’ve reminiscing about music I loved as a teenager. I had weird taste in music. I like some Synthpop, like Yaz and Erasure (the same guy was in both bands, thank you Wikipedia. Who knew?) and a lot of British New Wave stuff, like Oingo Boingo, Joe Jackson, and The Cure. Of course, I was a teenager at the time, and a geeky one at that. I didn’t know terms like Synthpop and New Wave. Again, thank you Wikipedia. 

The internet, like the mind, is a curious thing. It allowed me to take this weird trip down memory lane without having to dig through a bunch of dusty old LP’s in hopes that maybe I hadn’t thrown away “the one that had that oddly bouncy song with grim lyrics that was something about a Mystery.” Instead I just googled Danny Elfman and ten minutes later I was listening to the song on iTunes, tapping my foot, vegging out Sucker for Mystery.

So what music from your teenage years do you sometimes long for?