I generally have an uncannily good memory when it comes to music. I can remember when I bought an album, when I first listened to it, when I first played it for somebody else. I remember throwaway comments my wife or kids or other family members make about specific songs and artists.
Yes, I generally have a very good memory when it comes to music. But sometimes I find myself at a complete loss. I have a dozen or so artists in my CD collection who may well have found their way there via magical elves as far as I’m concerned, so little recollection do I have of their origin.
Heather Nova is one such artist. The Canadian-Bermudian singer-songwriter has released seven albums and I own two of them. My introduction to her was through 1998’s Siren, a fine album, but I have absolutely no idea how I came to own it.
I’m not the sort to buy an unheard album based on a whim. It wasn’t a gift or a Columbia Music House selection. Perhaps I read a glowing review and the name stuck in the back of my head? I think I’d remember that.
At any rate, I do remember listening to this album quite a bit back in 1998, but not much since then. Nova went on to have a rather prolific, if quiet, career and is apparently “very big in Germany.”
All the poppies gonna push up through
And I can see the ground below
The places that I know, disappearing
And I can see the winter fade
I don’t feel so afraid it’s clearing
Oh, what a feeling
Oh, what a feeling
Oh, what a feeling
Life is only half way in our hands
Years have passed while I was making plans
And I could never find the words
I always felt absurd, and always outside
But now I know I shouldn’t care
There’s a song already there
Waiting inside
Oh, what a feeling
Oh, what a feeling
Oh, what a feeling
And I can feel the crock unwind
The parts of me I tied are running
And all the birds are in my head
The laughter that was dead is coming
Oh, what a feeling
Oh, what a feeling
Oh, what a feeling
The laughter that was dead is coming
Oh, what a feeling
The laughter that was dead is coming
Meet Me In Montauk 
That’s a strange feeling, not remembering how or why you came to own a particular item. Especially something like a movie, book or album, which indicates a preference for the artist in question.
I was hoping to say I got this for you as a gift, but that’s just not the case. I find this sort of eerie, Kate Bushesque singing to be something I can stand very little of. I’m barely getting through the song; can’t imagine listening to a whole album of this sort of stuff. Those Germans are some odd people.
How did you get German from Canadian-Bermudan? 🙂
I am crushed that you don’t recall me introducing you to Nova. Perhaps you have blocked it out?
I discovered Nova while on a business trip to Germany in 1999. She was bigger than the Beatles over there. I returned from the trip and insisted that you listen to her music. You were resistant, saying how you had no interest in new music and that you only had room in your CD collection for Jackson Browne and Joe Jackson. That’s when I had to become aggressive. I chained you to a chair, literally, put a gag in your mouth, and played Nova at high volume for two straight hours. It would have gone on longer, but Amy returned home and insisted I had gone too far. I later discretely planted two Nova CDs in your collection in the hopes that, one day, you would find them and appreciate her fine artistry.
Apparently, nearly a decade later, my plan worked:)
Clever, Dana. I’ll have to try that with Rihanna… look out!
Amy, I just now got your German reference (I should read my own posts a little more carefully).