Songs with a time/place

There are certain songs that will always have a time and place for me. Not all of them are necessarily good, but hearing them instantly takes me back to that time and place. My memory was never that good and I'm apt to forget the name of someone I just met, but a song can put me right back to where I was right down to the last detail.

Some examples:

Phil Collins "In The Air Tonight" - sitting in my high school parking lot with my Dad as he handed me the keys to my Camaro.

Eric Clapton "Wonderful Tonight" - slow dancing with my wife at a dive bar in Helen, Georgia. We'd been dating only two weeks. I sang the song to her as we danced (I had already decided to marry her).

Madonna "Secret" - waiting in line outside "Silo X" haunted house with my friends and my first high school girlfriend.

Garbage "Heaven Is Wide" - playing the first Gran Turismo endlessly trying for top speed records.

Rob Zombie "Demon Speeding" - working in a dark room compositing film at graphic shop, coffee in one hand, razor blade in my teeth, stooped over stacks film on a light table with a huge printing press thumping away on the other side of the wall.

Wagner "Flight of the Valkyries" - running that huge thumping sheetfed printing press one year later at a whopping 13k sheets per hour (W.F.O.) with a cigar clinched in my teeth while being congratulated by my Gunny Sgt. Marine boss (which is saying a lot considering I had a pony tail back then).

Pantera "Walk" - working out at the gym on the chest press machine. Good for grunting out the last few pushes.

So, anyone got their own songs/times/places?

I have lots of them, only I can't recall them. I hear and song will come on and take me right back.

Paradise, by John Prine. Even though I've been to the area of the country that its talking about, it takes me to my dads Mercedes 300E, sitting in the driveway, about 8 years old. First time I heard it.

Thats all that comes to mind right now, but I have about 20 of them.

Rammstein- Du Hast. Had the song blasting when I did a poor impersonation of Colin McCrae in my Corolla, and dumped it in a ravine. What makes it REALLY wierd is the tow truck guy pulls up, gives me a big WTF did you do look, and then I realize, that song is on his truck stereo.

The cardigans- : "My favorite game" will forever be the best racing game intro ever....

It takes me right back to bouncing off the guard rails in Grand Turismo 2

Beck - 2 turntables and a microphone - jamming when my buddy got his first wheels and we all got our freedom

Blink 182 - damnit - jamming in the background when I broke my femur riding BMX

Canned heat - on the road again - playing on the radio the first time I drank beer with friends that we stole from our parents fridges

Billy Joel - Piano man - On repeat in the CD player camping the first night of the first camping trip I ever took without my folks

Metallica - One - playing in the stereo on my first solo drive in my moms minivan

Cake - Take It All Away

Working hard @ my current job after the relationship with my ex ended. "Take your economy car and your suitcase. Take your psycho little dog. Take it all away." It was berkeleying perfect for that situation.

Peter, Bjorn & John - Objects of My Affection

Cruising rural backroads in my 1990 Saab 900 Turbo Cabriolet with a (gorgeous) friend of mine, just talking and enjoying the scenery. We were both single and needed the time with someone. It was wonderful, even though we never progressed beyond being friends (we're up to 11 years now), and that's okay. This entire PB&J album stayed in the CD player in that car for a couple of months after this day.

Gang of Four - Natural's Not In It

Riding around with my current girlfriend (of over a year) on our first date. We ended up driving aimlessly in my Miata with the top down on a 60 degree day. Talking, laughing, etc. I started playing this album and when she knew this song, I was very surprised. Very. It was wonderful.

Me & My - Dub I Dub (Club Mix)

Driving Deal's Gap for the first time. Yea... The song is cheesy as hell, but its fast-paced and was playing when we hit the fun bits of 129 for the first time.

Funny. Most of mine involve cars and women.

peter cliff many rivers to cross / this morning vid

Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien. It was so loud, I didn't hear the siren behind me, until I saw a second State Trooper busting out of a cloud of dust while making a U-turn in the median of Hwy 41, somewhere between Milwaukee and Fond du Lac. "Oh E36 M3..." They got me for doing 93 in a 55 zone.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Fall of 1968. At The Spectrum in Philly. With a girl who's name I cannot remember.

Good Times

"Welcome to the Jungle" --working third shift at Walmart. We made it our anthem.

Most songs that immediately come to mind have to do with girls from HS:

Asia- "Heat of the Moment"...nice,smart willing girl that I had an on again-off again thing.

Pat Benatar- "We Belong"...certified Wiccan High Priestess...sent this to me..told me that I ruined her life.

Yaz-"Only You"...free-spirited girl that shared a mutual crush....also part time friend of the chick above. I moved to Michigan my JR year of HS, and she sent this to me.Where was she when I lived in the same state?One that I truly regret not having tried.

The Cars- "Drive"...ah...beautiful girl who we could never get things right between us.Timing was way off. She ended up with one of my good friends for years.

The Beach Boys- "Don't Worry Baby"...moved back my Senior year of HS...gymnast...cute...I was an idiot...we crossed paths a couple of years later and had a thing for over a year.Married her best friend 11 years later.

The Beatles- "Yesterday"...sums up everything about every girl that I ever went out with.

The song from titanic- sitting on the school bus in 8th gradeas we go down and 3-point turn on a side road.

Kansas, Greatest Hits album - driving between home and SUNY Morrisville on NY Rt. 13 and 20. That cassette was always on in my '88 accord. Top speed runs(indicated 108) consisted of comming out of a wide sweeper, before a LONG empty stretch, redline in 3rd gear, then just let it do what it could. 80.85..90...95.......100..........105.................108...thats all those 99 ponies could do

Adan Sandler's "What the Hell Happened to Me" album- spring break '99 sitting in my sisters room playing Siphon Filter, Killing monks and shooting out Stained glass windows

MAGIC CARPET RIDE & BORN TO BE WILD Steppenwolf.... both land me on the streets outside the main gate at Great Lakes Naval Training Center.... not all that good of times.. but it did keep me out of the rice paddies

Crazy Rap, Afroman- Long rides in a school bus to and from soccer games.

Streetlight Manifesto - any of their songs. Takes me back to my first tour in Iraq. Sitting with my roommate, talking about life, love, the war, and anything else we could think of.

Early Eminem - sitting in my room playing Final Fantasy 8 (I think I was 14 at the time)

Anything by the Rolling Stones makes me think of my Mom.

There are so many more that just like Dr. Boost said, when I hear, I'm right back there.

Lynard Skynard: Playing follow the leader in 4WDs in High School (beer was involved) Molly Hatchet "Flirting with Disaster": playing double-up with the curve speed limit signs in my 1st gen RX-7. Electric Avenue:Dancing with my best friends Filipino girl friend in college. Journey: Street-racing during college on 39th St. in Bethany OK. AC-DC "Pour Some Sugar on Me" first dance with my Wife, the first night we met. etc. etc.

Heard it earlier this evening, and I kid you not, Spin Doctors - Little Miss Can't Be Wrong was playing while I was on the way to the court house for the finalization of my divorce, in '97.

4eyes wrote: Def Leppard "Pour Some Sugar on Me" first dance with my Wife, the first night we met. etc. etc.

Fixed that for you

thatsnowinnebago wrote:

4eyes wrote: Def Leppard "Pour Some Sugar on Me" first dance with my Wife, the first night we met. etc. etc.

Fixed that for you

Thanks

aeronca65t wrote: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Fall of 1968. At The Spectrum in Philly. With a girl who's name I cannot remember. Good Times

I got stuck at a party where that song was on repeat the whole night. The WHOLE night. I was sober. The guys on coke were not.

Joey

Smoke On the Water - DeepPurple
While watching the only Apollo/Saturn 5 launch ever done at night! The water that deluged the launch pad for cooling drained quickly into a huge culvert leading out to the river, and created a layer of fog in front of us while we could still see the Saturn burning, basically like watching the sun come out of the ground and go to the sky. An awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The AM station that all the cars on the levy had their cars tuned to was covering the countdown, and at 9 seconds (ignition).. they played that song.

Lots of folks just had to sit down and stare at the night sky. I was one of them.

anything from Led Zeppelin "In Through The Out Door" takes me back to the first time i got to second base, way back in eighth grade. woohoo!

wbjones wrote: MAGIC CARPET RIDE & BORN TO BE WILD Steppenwolf.... both land me on the streets outside the main gate at Great Lakes Naval Training Center.... not all that good of times.. but it did keep me out of the rice paddies

Ever make it to the Full Moon?

The Beatles, "I've Got a Feeling".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UzZDOBWGro

Playing in the background the first time my babysitter (I was 8yr old) took me with her to one of her friends' parties. And yes, I loved her just like the old stereotype about male children & teenage girls says men do..

Rush, "Freewill".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnxkfLe4G74

18yrs old, and panicked like a madman. Had been questioning my theistic childhood "programming" for about 3yrs, and finally decided that I just didn't believe that stuff anymore. No internet in 1980, scared to death that I was the only person on the face of the Earth that had figured out the con game. Still "Christian" enough that I thought I was going to "hell". This one came on the radio (those were the days, eh?) and hit me like a sledgehammer. Of course, back then I still had the ears to hear the lyrics the first time.

Elvis Costello, "The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab_IO-SlK5w

Heard it on WMYK, Elizabeth City NC, an "album oriented radio" format station in about 1977 or so. We (my fellow class-cutting miscreants & I) were sitting on the beach at Nags Head, and this little tune came on between WMYK's usual diet of Emerson Lake & Palmer/Yes/King Crimson and Aerosmith "album cuts". Half of the guys & girls said, "..what's that E36 M3?!?". The rest of us got the clue.

There's others, but I figure y'all are bored enough at the moment..