Songs about childhood, songs that long for the way things used to be, are staples of the modern music industry. A recently-published list of 21 nostalgia-themed songs includes at least four that have been featured here, so clearly, I’m as much of a sucker for the good old days as anyone else.
The lyrics in “I Remember” by Saint Saviour begin by following the well-worn path of the nostalgia songs we know and love: trinkets collected in childhood jackets, hollow trees used as hiding spots, teenage ambitions to leave home and take the world by storm. All good stuff, but nothing that countless other songwriters haven’t already told us.
It’s in the last few lines that Saint Saviour gives us something new and, to me at least, deeply fascinating:
Or maybe you climbed out after all?
I didn’t wait around to see you fall.
Saw you on Facebook soft and warm.
At first, the mention of Facebook turned me off. It felt like she was dating the song, breaking the romance of it somehow. But now, I kind of think that’s the point.
I think what she might be hinting at is that nostalgia is not as powerful as it used to be. And no, I’m not getting nostalgic about nostalgia itself; all I mean is that the nature of it has changed.
Things from our childhood, including people, used to evaporate, captured only in the occasional photo. We would piece together whatever our memories could recall, leave out the worst bits, and create an idealized version of the past that would lead us to the false conclusion that nothing today is as good as it used to be.
But today, it’s easy to re-watch the TV shows you used to love, and to realize that they’re no better (in fact often worse) than shows that are on today. Likewise, it’s rare for an old friend to be truly lost; you can see them on Facebook, hiking in the Alps, nuzzling their children, sharing their political opinions even though nobody asked.
But let’s get back to Saint Saviour’s lyric. The way I read it is that seeing a long-lost someone on social media doesn’t ruin the memory or break the spell of nostalgia. Instead, it brings the past back that much more vividly. And by secretly tracing a former friend’s life story while snooping on them online, we are subconsciously re-evaluating our own path.
Look at this person from my past. They look so happy. Am I happy enough? Have I lived up to the expectations of someone from my past who might be snooping on me?
The new nostalgia is not longing for the past, but for the ideal present.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. Her voice, which you may have heard from her days with Groove Armada, is the perfect type of delicate for the subject matter.
2. There’s a surprising and wonderful chord change at 2:30, just as the Facebook lyric approaches.
3. Right at the end, a male back-up vocal appears. I’d like to imagine this is her long-lost friend singing along.
Recommended listening activity:
Re-creating a photo from your past.