Young girl, get out of my mind, my love for you is way out of line

I heard once that scent is the sense that jogs your memory the quickest. When it comes to women, I think the quickest sense is hearing. Yes, scent is powerful with perfume. Every now and then I pick up a trace of whatever perfume my sophomore year high school girlfriend wore, and I instantly remember the time we made it out in my church parking lot. (Um, forget I mentioned that.)

Anyway, I find that hearing, or hearing a certain song specifically, is stronger than sense when it comes to remembering women. I realized this weekend that every girl I have ever dated, loved or been close has a song I associate with them in mind. And those songs compiled together make a really good mix tape.

Here are the songs:

1. Bob Dylan, "Shelter from the Storm" (Lori)
2. Tobin Sprout, "Moonflower Plastic (You're Here)" (Jess)
3. Everclear, "Electra Made Me Blind" (Andrea)
4. Al Green, "Let's Stay Together" (Laura)
5. Bryan Adams, Sting and Rod Stewart, "All for Love"(Geri)
6. A Tribe Called Quest, "Excursions" (Megan)
7. The Postal Service, "The Destrict Sleeps Alone Tonight" (Cait)
8. Indigo Girls, "Tangled Up in Blue" (Carrie)
9. Steely Dan, "Aja" (Amy)
10. Peter Cetera and Amy Grant, "The Next Time I Fall" (Rose)
11. Belle & Sebastian, "Stars of Track and Field" (Liv)

Actually, there are some terrible songs on here. And the disc is pretty short, which I guess reflects my low number of relationships (two of which lasted two plus years, just so you know I'm not totally pathetic. I'm a quality over quantity guy).

I didn't even date all these people. I just think of each person when I hear their corresponding song. This only works for girls. My mind doesn't associate men with songs for some reason. Maybe because there is no chance that we'll ever get so drunk that we will end up sleeping together. Or so I tell myself.

For me, the best love song on the list is "Shelter from the Storm." Love doesn't get more noble than when it saves your life from a one-eyed undertaker blowing a feudal horn, which I believe is a metaphor for not having a girlfriend for more than one year. If I could, I would let "Shelter from the Storm" be the theme song of every girl I ever was in love with. Being in love has made me feel saved, which seems like a dopey thing to say at the moment because I'm not in love. Bob Dylan clearly was in love when he wrote "Shelter from the Storm," though it is also clear that he wasn't loved back. The song has the same melancholy feel found on the rest of "Blood on the Tracks," but Dylan is closer to moving on than he is earlier on "Idiot Wind" and "Simple Twist of Fate," where he's angry and despondent and on the verge of throwing rocks through her bedroom window. On "Shelter from the Storm," he's almost at acceptance, and he starts to enjoy his memories again. What gets me is how grateful he sounds to once be in a position where he had so much to lose. As it is, "Shelter from the Storm" only makes me think of one girl, I guess because there are just so many songs.