Last week’s Inverse Pitching newsletter offered up this query: songs you can no longer listen to without activating that wounded part of your past life as an addict. Luckily, four readers who also happen to be writers gave us some of their haunted tunes. If you’d like to sign up for Inverse Pitching, please do so here!
Coked up, Fabulous and Terrified Forever
Before I got sober a million years ago, I had this 1968 Buick Skylark convertible named “Monty” after Montgomery Clift. I installed a cassette player, which was fantastic. What wasn’t fantastic was a cassette got stuck in it for… I don’t know… a year? The cassette tape was of “Punch The Clock” by Elvis Costello. I can’t hear the opening of that album without feeling a combination of coked up, fabulous and terrified. – Claudia L.
Today’s Not the Greatest
“Hummer” by Smashing Pumpkins. An all time favorite that I now avoid like fingernails on a chalkboard – because of the happy, carefree memories of drunken, drug-fueled college days. Hearing it creates a longing in my soul for experiences that are no longer a available to me. Life’s a bummer… when you’re a Hummer. — Cornell P.
When I’m Straight
I used to live in what was basically a hovel in Montreal with three guys, and after we’d stayed up until seven or eight ingesting substances, someone would put the “Some Velvet Morning” video on to help us come down. It was totally dread-inducing, even then: Nancy Sinatra all in white, with those gloves, like a sinister angel. The overlapping vocals make you feel a little insane. It still makes me shiver. — Diana K.
So Pretty Yet So Dark
For a couple months back in 2015 I played “Candles in the Rain” by Melanie close to ten times per day. The chorus promises uplift, but this juncture of my life was so bleak. I was so delusional I had thought this song snapped me out of whatever I needed to snap out of every single day. Nope. It’s repetition was a cruel reminder that I was trapped in a tomorrow loop. — Albert D.
