Musical Memories

“O, I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten…”
-“Dixie”

To say that the past is an important part of the South might be just a little bit of an understatement. Stephanie is writing a whole series of posts on the presence of history in Southern poetry on this blog. With that in mind, I’ll try to keep off of Stephanie’s toes, but I think it’s important to consider the role that music plays in remembering the past in Southern poetry.

JC Robertson, the editor of the Southern Literary Review, admits in a blog post entitled “What Makes Southern Lit Southern?” that Southern literature, and even the South in general, can have varying definitions. Robertson makes a point to mention, however, that, “History is held in high regard in the South.” While that observation may not be groundbreaking, it is important when considering the role that music plays in Southern poetry.


While music can be seen taking a role in the poetry of any region of the world, music is given added value by the South’s obsession with the past. A 2005 Kansas State study on memory cues states that,

…Even the mere mention of a song’s title or a glimpse
of the album cover can bring the recollections of a time
or place flooding back.

With science firmly backing the notion that music is largely a part of our memories, the role of music in Southern poetry begins to take shape.

The connection between music and memory is often as subtle as providing part of the setting to a recollection. In Wendell Berry’s “At a Country Funeral,” the author makes note of “the organ music,” which “has its source in the outcry of pain and hope in log churches...” Perhaps the author is just trying to play with the source of a common connotation of funerals, in the organ music. I think the shear amount of space devoted to the organ music, however, is a testament to its importance to the memory of this funeral.

Julie Kane’s “Mapleworld; or, Six Flags Over the Maple Leaf” offers another example of music creating the setting of a memory. In this poem, the author describes the severely commercialized and sanitized state of the Maple Leaf bar she had known and loved many years before it became a tourist attraction. There are tones of disappointment and disgust as she contrasts the sparkling new watered-down Maple Leaf with the grimy, “funky hovel” it had been in its glory days. While she begins her description of the old Maple Leaf with its filthy restrooms and overall lack of sanitation, the memory is far from complete without “Booker playing, [and] Maddox ‘just asleep.’” There is a sort of idea that if you missed the version of the Maple Leaf that included the sound of James Booker’s piano and the words of Everette Maddox, you can’t understand what the Maple Leaf is. Although a great deal of credit for that goes to the personalities, equal credit belongs to the music and sounds that elevated the bar to its current position.

Few poems embody the link between music and memory as well as “Transistor Radio” by Andrew Hudgins. What stands out in this poem is that the music is not only tied to a memory, the music is responsible for that memory. This account of listening to forbidden music under his sheets is a story of childhood rebellion that brings into focus the allure and influence of music to the young Hudgins. I suspect that the author feels a deep connection between those songs he heard in bed and the rush of childish disobedience.

The appearance of music in Southern poetry is hardly surprising, given the South’s fascination with the past. Perhaps the South as a whole is not unlike the Maple Leaf Bar, with its inhabitants longing for the good old days. While some might contend that those same good old days weren’t so great, Kane’s nostalgia for a filthy old bar reminds us that perfection is not requisite for good memories. Dixie is not and was never perfect, but decades of nostalgia have etched a longing for the Gone With the Wind fantasy into much of the South’s collective conscious. This longing for the past and the comforts of the Southland is paid tribute through and emotionally tied to the Southern music, from “Dixie” to “Sweet Home Alabama.” It is only logical that a poet seeking to create a memory or emotion for his or her own reader would use this same medium.