Jeremymlad

Manu Chao - Bongo bong & Je ne t’aime plus

Another one that would be playing in the bar downstairs, as I recall. Another one that a boss was amazed that I knew, this time not because it was so new, but because it was so old - he thought it was obscure. No, not to me. It was a regular part of my life in summer of 2000.

Natalia Oreiro - Cambio Dolor

An important one to me, I heard this in a barber shop while waiting my turn. It was used as the opening for a telenovela called, in Slovene, Divji Angel, or Wild Angel. There was just so much LIFE in the music I couldn’t stand not knowing what it was, but it took me nearly 4 years after returning home to find out what it was really called.

Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You - Lyrics

And finally an oldie but a goodie, it’s familiarity being important to why I love it so.  In Maribor, where was a large intersection in the pedestrian area of the old city. One day the four of us, me and my companion Elder Ryan Pierce, as well as the two sisters, Sister Kristen Edwards and Sister Bethany Durham Scott, decided to advertise for English classes, and hand out fliers. We each took the head of one of the streets leading into the intersection, within eyesight of each other, missionary rules. 

I happened to be positioned near a gostilna, a restaurant that had outdoor seating, and so was playing their music on speakers that filled the area I was standing in. They were playing Whitney Houston’s version of I Will Always Love you at the moment, and it caught my ear as I stood there, because it was in English, which was a surprising rare occurance, and one that always arrested your attentions when it happened. 

I was trying to remeber to work and hand out fliers, too, but the music was too alluring. It was familiar, and as it built up to its familiar crescendo… Well, you know - it’s very hard to keep yourself from reacting to this song. The key changed and she but out with that, “And AAAAHHH-EEEEEYAAAAAIIIYY will always love yeeeeeew!” and I lip-synced along with her, flinging my arms outward, and spinning toward the center of the intersection. 

Where I was met by the sight of sisters Edwards and Durham and yes, even Elder Pierce, doing the exact same thing, at the heads of their respective streets. I recall busting up into laughter, and really feeling hilariously good, connected. That was a strong district, I felt, and it was good to know we were on the same page.

French Affair - My Heart Goes Boom

In Maribor, we lived in the most beautimous apartment, above a pizzeria, which itself was above a clothes shop and a bar. The bar would often be playing this song as we would come home for lunch. It’s a very lunchtime song, to me.

Eiffel 65 - Blue

I seem to recall hearing this one on buses mainly, its lyrics nearly incomprehensible. I remember putting a lot of effort into trying to convince Elder Roberts that it was a song about nuns, and how they were blue because they would never get married. He seemed to buy it. Or he was stringing me along…

I am blue ‘cause I’m a nun, and I’m a nun because I’m blue and I am blue because I know that I will never get married.
Beat Eddie Thompson, he was bad.
Then beat Susan Johnson till she’s sad.
Then beat all the children ‘cause I’m mad.
Repeat ad infinitum.

Kelis - Caught Out There

When I first heard this song, Elder Gebs and I were doing a bit of late-nite grocery shopping at the store under the big apartment complex called the Plava Laguna. It was nearly closing time, and we were in the breakfast cereal aisle with an old babica, and this song was hilariously playing, instead of elevator music. Now when I hear it, I think of cornflakes.

Robert Miles - One & One

I heard this one first in Celje, while getting ice cream with Elder Jensen. Something about it struck me, but it slipped my mind quick. Over a year later, while riding on a bus in Ljubljana it came on again. I remember it was one of the cloudy, rainy days in spring. I looked out the window and tried to memorize it. This was, perversely, the most difficult one to find when I returned home.

ATC - All Around The World (la la la la la la la la)

In Maribor, mojo mesto!, down the street from our apartment, a trendy clothing shop opened. They played the latest music very loudly, that was their thing. We’d hear it from in the house, or walking to or away from our house. This one got played a lot, and got to be an old friend.

Additionally, at my first job after coming home, one of the supervisors played the song, and when I said I had loved it for months and months, he got all mad because supposedly it had just came out. When I could sing it to him verbatim, he was astonished, and reveled himself to be America-centric, not comprehending that other places in the world could have had this song for quite some time.  It was really a funny argument.

I had somehow never heard this song before one evening on a bus out to Whereversville, so Elder Pierce initiated me as we walked through a giant building knocking on doors. It became a joke after that, as did many many things with us, every time we saw cleaning supplies to say “Čistila” after the manner of the B section of this song.