Just got home from seeing Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory [link to preview]--a documentary about a man who works to get iPods to people with memory loss.Each iPod carries a playlist of songs from the person's life. (If the person can't choose the songs, their families help).
I loved this movie--I've experienced the truth of how music runs deeper than other memories:
I've written before about singing "Daisy, Daisy" at a dinner table of three women otherwise barely able to communicate.
Afterward I got talking to Laura about what songs we would want on our personal iPods, if we end up with Alzheimers or something.
Laura right away named Shenandoah, which I said I didn't know. When I looked it up, of course I did---it's also known as "Across the Wide Missouri." (Links to Arlo Guthrie's version.)
Here are 10 off the top of my head... not necessarily my favorite songs, but songs I bet I could mumble along with, even if/when I ever forget my name:
"Thunder Road", Bruce Springsteen
"I Want to Hold Your Hand", Beatles
"Oklahoma", Rodgers and Hammerstein
"Shall We Dance", from the King and I
"Look for the Silver Lining"
"Jackson," Johnny Cash
"Edelweiss", from Sound of Music
"Sweet and Low" (Wind of the Western Sea)
(You Make Me Feel Like) "A Natural Woman," by Carole King
"Be My Baby", The Ronettes
Mz chooses "Bye Bye Bye" by 'N Sync
What song(s) would you choose?
