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On the Faults of Recorded Memories
Feb. 6th, 2005 11:25 amI just heard a song I hadn't heard in years. This was a song that had strong attachments for a particular period of my relationship with a previous lover.
The recording was of a lower fidelity than the version of the song in my memory. The singer's voice was higher pitched, the bridge's swell had no string section, and the percussion was much tighter. Of course, the recording was the same version as the one I originally heard and formed the memory with in the first place, but my memory has gone and improved the direction of the original.
Except that the recording got the words right on the third verse, where my memory doesn't. And then most of the rest of the memories came rushing back: the weekly gaps in our long-distance relationship, the Thanksgiving together with my parents in a house they no longer live in, the look in her eyes that eventually withered away.
By the end of the song, the fidelities had lined back up again.
The recording was of a lower fidelity than the version of the song in my memory. The singer's voice was higher pitched, the bridge's swell had no string section, and the percussion was much tighter. Of course, the recording was the same version as the one I originally heard and formed the memory with in the first place, but my memory has gone and improved the direction of the original.
Except that the recording got the words right on the third verse, where my memory doesn't. And then most of the rest of the memories came rushing back: the weekly gaps in our long-distance relationship, the Thanksgiving together with my parents in a house they no longer live in, the look in her eyes that eventually withered away.
By the end of the song, the fidelities had lined back up again.
