Music and Memory

I've been thinking about music a lot lately.  Of course, I think about music all the time.  I sing.  The Rutter Requiem and the Faure Requiem are currently taking up a lot of space in my brain. I don't have any real memories associated them yet.  I have heard quite a few older songs lately that have brought back other places and times.
For instance, just today I heard Elton John's I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues.  That took me straight back to the days just before my husband and I were married.  It became something of a theme song for us because he was in the Air Force, and was often away.  Time on my hands always weighed heavily because I could have been with him if he was home.  This was true of the first several years of our marriage.
Some songs remind me of fictional characters.  I don't know why, but Billy Joel songs remind me of the Joe Maxwell character from the TV series Beauty and the Beast.  (Of course, Bach and Grieg remind me of Vincent and Catherine, but that's to be expected, if you know anything about the series.)
The Four Tops can bring back my early childhood better than nursery rhyme songs can.  I listened to the radio every night before I fell asleep, and my sister always put the radio on KHJ, and they played lots of Motown.  Sugar Pie, Honeybunch was a favorite.  Older Beatles songs bring the same sort of memories.
Don McLean takes me back to my early teens, and my introspective days.  (Vincent, Everybody Loves Me, And I Love You So...)  High School is brought back by Elton John's Caribou album, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, and Rock of the Westies.  Also the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, and other Disco hits.  (Hey, I graduated in '78.  There wasn't a lot else on the radio, and no Pandora in those days.)
The Moody Blues reminds me of my first boyfriend.  He was a big fan.  He was a nice boy.  We were SO young!
Queen's We Will Rock You reminds me of football games my senior year in high school.  We Are The Champions does, too.
99 Luftballoons  reminds me of dates with Matt.  It always seemed to be on the jukeboxes or radios in whatever shop or little cafe we ended up in.  Abba always reminds me of Matt.  He listened to it constantly when we were dating.  Only Fernando reminds me of something else.  Driver's Ed.  Fernando always seemed to be on the radio when we were out for driving practice with the psychotic driving instructor. 
Abba's Arrival was played as the processional for our wedding  "I've Been Waiting For You" was a song Matt dedicated to me, and "our" song was "The Way Old Friends Do." 
The hymn Lift High The Cross reminds me of the time during the rebuilding of our cathedral after the Murrah bombing.  We sang that at the dedication of the cross sent to replace our broken Celtic cross on the facade of the cathedral. 
 Scents are supposed to bring back the most vivid memories, but I know that certain songs can really take me back to another place and time pretty quickly.  The fact that so many of us love our "oldies" is testimony to that effect, I think.  Songs that remind you of good times are the ones you want to listen to when you need energy, and when you already have the blues, well, nothing works as well as the sad songs to help you get it out of your system. 
I think I'll just sit here and listen to my Pandora shuffle for a while and see where it takes me...