#2 Fleetwood Mac "Landslide"
A little levity:
A song so good, Kathleen Madigan would go see Stevie perform it
even if she were being accused of eating a baby.
Back to personal stuff:
My mother listened to Fleetwood Mac (self-titled and
Rumours) when I was growing up. I assume that's how I got into them originally. They're both still two of my favorite albums of all ever (with
Tango In The Night being another classic).
When I was young, my mother used to bring me downhill skiing all the time. I did it well, no poles, zooming down the mountain. She had a lot of fun, and pride, in our time together on the slopes. Then one day (like when I realized my father didn't really want to see me, so I told my mother to stop calling him) it hit me that I didn't actually enjoy skiing. I was always freezing. It was exhausting (I was a little weakling). I didn't particularly like doing it. So around age 11 or 12, I abruptly told my mother I don't want to ski anymore. It probably broke her heart (though that wasn't my intention). No more snow-covered hills together. So while this song isn't about skiing, or mothers, since my teens it reminds me of her.
I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills
'Til the landslide brought me down
This is me telling her I didn't want to ski anymore. She saw us in the snow-covered hills, until the day I dropped the news.
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
This is all of the changes that happened in her (and our) life when I was a kid. Divorce, remarry, move, move again. Plus me going from child, to teen, to moving out.
I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder, even children get older
And I'm getting older too
At times, I was all she had. We both got older, and then I moved out.
If you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Well, the landslide will bring you down
In my early 20s, she and my step-father moved to California (see "So Far Away" at #7). She was no longer just a quick drive away. Over the next eight years, we saw each other three times. And during that time, sometimes I'd see snow-covered hills here in NH and be reminded of her and how far away she was. And that would bring me down.