Comments on: Hearing Voices

By: oregonwriter

oregonwriter — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 07:08:37 +0000

The smell of freshly mowed grass usually gets me for childhood memories. Also chlorine and sunscreen. As for Dylan, he certainly doesn’t have a melodious voice, but I would definitely call it distinctive and easily recognizable. I would guess his major rise to fame, at least initially, came from his master songwriting as opposed to his voice.

By: peaceelrring

peaceelrring — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:08:11 +0000

Thanks a lot! Of course Darth Vader! I should have thought about it! About Dylan I still have some issues though. I cannot appreciate his voice…
I definitely agree with you about smell being considered the “sense of memory”. There is a very famous part in Proust’s “à la recherche du temps perdu” when he describes how much striking it is to be drowned back into his memories just by smelling a recognizable scent. What usually works for everyone is the smell of UHU stick or old-fashioned glue, it sends one straightly back in the first row of their primary school class.

By: oregonwriter

oregonwriter — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:18:32 +0000

You write a very compelling post. One of the most easily recognizable voices I can think of in history is James Earl Jones doing Darth Vader in Star Wars. Who can forget “Luke…I am your father”? As for singers, there are so many, but some very distinctive voices I can think of are Leonard Cohen, both from the 70’s and his drastic voice change to rasp by the 90’s. Also Bob Dylan, same change as Cohen, and Tom Waits. What do you think of smell being considered “the sense of memory”?