22 songs about 11 women

...who will remain nameless, but one or two of you may recognize yourselves or someone you knew.

The girl I lost my virginity to I associate with of all things, "Yellow Submarine", but that's because it had just come out on video at the time and we watched it...after. Later I would come to associate OMD's "The New Stone Age" with her, for entirely less charming reasons.

Then there was a girl I once spent a memorable evening with whilst listening to Tangerine Dream's Underwater Sunlight album and the soundtrack to Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom. I feel sure that the latter inspired me to new heights.

Had a girlfriend for a while who was crazy about Prince. I think I "sealed the deal," so to speak, when she asked me what I thought of him the first night we met and I was able to say (honestly) that I thought he was a musical genius. Of course, she herself turned out to be a little...kind of...let's just say confused about her sexuality. At least when I knew her. For all I know she's fine now. I often think of her when listening to Duran's samplejam, "Burning The Ground."

Split Enz' "Message To My Girl" is what I always think of as "our song" for another girlfriend. I also remember waking up the morning after we'd broken up to be greeted with Yaz' "Only You" on the radio. Frankly, I can do without those kind of cheap coincidences in my life.

Knew a girl once who, looking back it seems strange to say we had little in common-she was an actress. At the time I think I was running from my artistic inclinations, thinking I might be able to lead a simple life. Anyway, we were pretty good at sex, and one night I noticed that while we'd been, shall we say, "sharing a moment" my Pet Shop Boys b-sides tape was playing songs called "We All Feel Better In The Dark" and "I Get Excited, You Get Excited Too."

Slept with a woman who was in the early stages of pregnancy with another man's child once. For reasons which would take too long to explain I associate her with a Naked Eyes song called "Fortune & Fame" and the theme to Spike Lee's film Mo Better Blues.

I was stalked once by a girl who, after seeing Heathers, told me she'd planned to offer me her virginity in a game of strip croquet. Being stalked is not as much fun as it sounds. But the girl in question ended up buying the Thompson Twins In The Name Of Love album just because I'd told her I like the title song. If she'd asked me, I could have told her the rest of the album sucked and what she really wanted was the Greatest Mixes collection...but she didn't ask me. That may have been why the situation didn't last long.

Another girl I think of with INXS' "I Burn For You" (the live version) and Frank Sinatra's "Sleep Warm."

There was a girl out here in Seattle for a while; our relationship was best described by a two-word phrase, the second word of which is "buddies." We're "just" friends now. I remember two specific things with her and music. One is when she used her job at a record store to get sixth-row tickets for us to Joe Jackson, my second favorite musical performer. I like to think I showed her my appreciation. Then there was the weekend she crashed here while working days at an annual music festival. I like something she told me she told a friend later, "It was basically a whole weekend of nothing but music and sex."

Then we come to a woman whose lesbianism I think I confirmed, but along the way we did spend a nice day or two listening to Elvis covers and watching a Daria video.

And to end this list, a kind of crazy woman (trust me), but who did at least provide a heavenly activity to listen to "I Wanna Be A Cowboy" or Noel Coward covers with.