My dumb memory. What is is that we access when we remember things?

If I concentrate I can remember all of the lyrics to certain songs. That particular choral piece is always easy to retrieve. I haven't heard that in years.

What is it that we access when we remember things? Is memory some electro-chemical store that we search by some query?

Seems too robust. A store could be replicated, could be kept intact perfectly. Doesn't seem to work that way for anyone. Instead, perhaps memory is a fragmented buffer that we keep filling? Perhaps when we forget something all that's occurring is a buffer overflow that discards fragments of memory, (i.e. the color of a glove, the lyric to a song, the name of a teacher.)

I don't like it. Shouldn't evolution reward those who have a more completely recalled body of mistakes from which to learn?

My dumb memory. It seems too important to be this fragile.