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Songs that trigger specific memories


edhunter
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I had an interesting flashback today as my radio scan landed on the oldies station. It was Leo Sayer's When I Need You, and instantly I was 8 years old playing Little League ball again. It made me think of some other songs that trigger very specific memories, like

 

Force 10- the beginning of my freshman year at UCONN. I still remember sitting in the dorm with a new friend I'd made and the look of surprise at the beginning of Second Nature.

 

Dreams (Fleetwood Mac) riding in the car on the way to the house my uncle was building. Opening a triple pack of Topps baseball cards and getting Ed Figueroa of the Yankees.

 

The Weapon-riding on the bus to a marching band competition in '85 on my Walkman

 

Haircut 100- Boy Meets Girl. Driving to Norfolk VA. to drop my brother off at his aircraft carrier in '82.

 

The Monkees Mr Webster- building a Monogram model Corvette around '81.

 

Journey Still They Ride- building a B24 Liberator that I got at Woolworths right around the same time.

 

Elton John Honky Cat- watching my brother play with his Tyco slot cars around '75 or '76.

 

 

Any folks have anything to share of their own?

Edited by edhunter
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Jeez, how much time do you have? The list is endless. The only thing that might be more memory invoking is scents. Every once in a while I'll catch the scent of a perfume my girlfriend in high school wore and it's a time machine. It's actually a little scary.
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I purchased a copy of Ocean Machine: Biomech by Devin Townsend while in Vancouver (the city he recorded/wrote it) and drove around listening to it then. Whenever I play it now, it brings back memories of driving in the direction of large mountain ranges before a gorgeous sunset.

 

Alice in Chains and MTV Unplugged by Alice in Chains and Rock the House Live! by Heart also evoke this emotion. I guess there's something about the atmosphere and mood of pacific northwest that's captured by these local bands

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Great topic

 

Rock And Roll All Night - Kiss .. 1975, riding in the Vista Cruiser wagon with my 2 sisters, Mom and Dad .. Rock And Roll All Night comes on the radio and immediately, I love it ... I was 8 .. I say WHAT BAND IS THIS, and my sis - who was 13 at the time - says "You know, that band that wears the makeup"

 

I had no idea

 

We get to a store that day, and I see the cover of Alive! and my life changes forever

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Lover by Les Paul

 

My Dad played Les Paul records all the time .. He'd lay on the floor with headphones on and soak it up for hours .. Lover was his favorite, and I can remember being about 10 or 11 years old, with my younger sis who is 4 years younger ...

 

As my Dad is laying there in a zone listening, my sis goes "Let's throw couch pillows at him"

 

Immediately, I felt it was a great idea

 

But as we approached, I just couldn't do it - I said "No, he's enjoying it too much"

 

 

 

.

 

 

.

Edited by Lucas
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Old TV theme songs really get me. But as far as rock songs...

 

Frampton's "Do You Feel" takes me back to a grade 6 kissing stamina contest.

 

Ringo Starr's No No Song takes me right back to the summer of grade 2 and a named Sally.

 

Anything off of Diver Down transports me to hanging with my high school buddies senior year.

 

And The Pass just flat out rips my heart out.

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Songs might remind me of how I felt when I heard them years ago but they don't remind me of specific things. Edited by EagleMoon
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The songs Nemo by Nightwish, Funeral Of Hearts by HIM and Angel's Punishment by Lacuna Coil remind me of being 15 and discovering music could mean more to me than anything else.

 

I discovered all three bands, plus Within Temptation, the very same day.

 

Blew my mind then. And all these bands still do now.

 

Pray Nightfall by Paradise Lost reminds me of my darkest moments, the terror of abuse, and the silent tears I shed to try and recover every morning as I await fears of the next night.

 

Hella Good by No Doubt reminds me vividly of being 11 years old and getting into scrapes on my bike, falling out of trees, and laughing with friends.

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"Righteous" by Eric Johnson

 

I was 24 years old, a year out of uni, nearly broke with no job lined up but I was driving/moving from Florida to Portland, OR.

This song really hit at the perfect spot: southeast Utah in the Moab/Arches National Park area. No vocals to this tune but I was screaming my head off. The scenery + the whole "scene" probably makes this the happiest musical experience in my life.

Nothing mattered. Absolute joy.

 

If there ever was going to be a movie about my life, this scene would have to be in there. Thank you Eric Johnson. :hail:

 

I'm listening to it now because of this thread. :yes:

Thanks edhunter for making me think and remember. :cheers:

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"Another One Bites the Dust"

 

The song was new and my older bro and I were little boys playing football with the other neighborhood brats. Between quarters one kid starts singing "Another fights the doctor, another one fights the doc...and another one gone..." :LOL:

 

That poor bastard kid was teased for that lyric mishearing for years! :LOL:

 

Whenever Queen even remotely comes up, that bro and I STILL laugh about it to this day! :LOL:

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Some songs trigger scenes in my mind that don't really exist. The words and music of the song create a particular place that is only a fabrication of my mind.

 

One group whose music does this for me quite a lot is REM. Especially their first 2 albums. And the scenes are usually in a hot summertime setting...small town...sort of empty...a lazy day of not much happening.

 

"Available Light" brings back the memory of walking through the cemetery near my house and listening to it. The cemetery is set up on a hill with a great view of the river and surrounding towns. I used to love walking up there on sunny days listening to this song.

 

"Dreams" by Mac and "Things we do for Love" by 10CC take me back to the local swimming pool, circa 1977, where it was packed all summer long with the loudspeaker blasting out music all day. For some reason these 2 songs are the ones that I remember.

Edited by Mithrandir
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Some songs trigger scenes in my mind that don't really exist. The words and music of the song create a particular place that is only a fabrication of my mind.

 

One group whose music does this for me quite a lot is REM. Especially their first 2 albums. And the scenes are usually in a hot summertime setting...small town...sort of empty...a lazy day of not much happening.

 

That's me and Jimmy Eat World!

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Green and Grey by New Model Army...released in 1989, it co-incided perfectly with me moving 150 mles from home to start a new career. i was 23 at the time.

The song itself is about those that leave an area and the ones left behind, and every time I hear it, I remember the bus journey up to Aberdeen all these years ago, wondering what the future would bring.....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or6KGFuA7Zs

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Between The Wheels reminds me of arriving in Binghamton, NY on a rainy night in autumn of 2007 in my new (used) Nissan Sentra, feeling happy because I'd just fallen in love with Rush the previous summer, and I was going to visit the friend of mine who was at least partly responsible for that development after twelve years of patient effort to get me to take them seriously :D
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Fleetwood Mac's Sara and also The Cars' Since I Held You, remind me of the same girl in Jr. High that I loved like only an 8th grader can love ;) (to be clear, pretty superficially).

 

E. John's Rocket Man (and most of Greatest hits really) remind me of playing "sock hockey" -- played with 12" rulers and a sock rolled in a ball and wrapped with duct tape -- on the living room floor of my childhood home

 

TSRTS's No Quarter reminds me of summer vacation, Jr. High. Eating Doritos and staring at the LP book photos from the movie.

 

I could go on and on I suppose.

Edited by Rutlefan
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"Brown-Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison will always and forever remind me of The Fairbanks Inn, known as the F.B.I., in Winter Park, FL. I used to go there a lot in 1983 to see a band called the U.S. Males play, and that was a song they played a lot. I was a broke-ass 18 year old, but I could go there because there was no cover charge and they never carded me despite the fact that the drinking age had recently gone up to 19. The first time they ever carded me, coincidentally, was the the first time I went there after my 19th birthday!

 

Not that it really mattered. I wasn't a drinker, and I went there strictly to see the band. I used to sit at the bar and work on my novel between their sets. One night between sets, their vaguely Stewart Copelandesque drummer Johnny asked me about my sitting at the bar and writing, and I told him that I was working on a novel about a rock band. Since I didn't know anything about drums except that they were in all my favourite music, I asked him to tell me what the names of each of the drums were. He borrowed my notebook to draw me a sketch with the drums labelled. I had a bit of a crush on him after that :yes: :LOL: :blush:

 

I seem to recall that they played originals as well as covers, and they had some songs I really liked, but the only thing I remember clearly is "Brown-Eyed Girl" because Johnny sang it and he was just so adorable I couldn't stand it :D

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Shortly after Devin Townsend's Casualties of Cool album came out I went vacationing in Lake George and whenever I listen to "Flight" I have the image of the lake with bodies of mountains leering in the background. There's something about Devin Townsend's music in general that has me remembering times where I've been in similar surroundings like upstate NJ where I've seen of mountain peaks and etc.

 

Mithrandir said that some music creates an image that's a fabrication of the mind, and I'm like that as well...there's certain songs that'll have a vibe and in my head envision imagery that fits the vibe I get from a particular song.

 

Yes - Fragile - South Side Of The Sky

 

The song that was playing the first time I smoked pot.

 

This will probably reveal a bit too much about my past, but I remember most of the songs and (in rare cases) albums that I played after partaking in the green stuff. The first time I done it, I played "Working Man" and I think I played just for the sake of playing a :rush: song. The worst music choice during these occasions was between either or all of the following: Enemy Of The Sun (Neurosis), Octavarium (Dream Theater) and Lateralus (Tool). I still don't know what I was thinking when choosing what music I was listening to during the moment. These days though, I'm happy to say the only vice I have is drinking.

Edited by PolarizeMe
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Whenever I hear this, no matter where in the world I have been, or whatever I am doing, I am instantly transported back to where my heart will always be, the magical mountains and glens of the Cairngorms in Scotland, my favourite place in the whole world.

 

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Places more than specific scenes. Yes and Jethro Tull, living in Chapel Hill NC in the early 80's, Satisfaction by the Stones, high school n NY, Rush (Closer to the heart, Fly by Night) in the late 70's in Ohio. Def Leppard Photograph in Ohio. Most of these in my living room since the only ones I saw live were the Stones (1964 and the Sticky Fingers tour in Charlotte NC) and Tull (Chapel Hill). Here Powderfinger and Cold Chisel in the car. And introducing my husband to Clapton.
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The entire Presto album does a really good job of reminding me of fun times I had in Gearhart, OR on the coast. Presto was the album that I would have playing through my walkman every day while bombing hills on my longboard. My favorites are Chain Lightning, Available Light, and The Pass. The amount of emotion played through these songs can really hit you and I love it. Also, Superconductor was the first song I taught myself on guitar off that album. Edited by chain__lightning
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Green and Grey by New Model Army...released in 1989, it co-incided perfectly with me moving 150 mles from home to start a new career. i was 23 at the time.

The song itself is about those that leave an area and the ones left behind, and every time I hear it, I remember the bus journey up to Aberdeen all these years ago, wondering what the future would bring.....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or6KGFuA7Zs

 

You and me brother!

 

This is one of those songs, that reminds me of a time with a girl, living in an area of the u.k., thats....... green and grey.

 

There are quite a few by N.M.A., one other being drummy b, moving away from mates you won't see again, in the same way.

 

Baggy trousers by Madness, firstly watching the vid with the saxamaphone player, floating around really amazed me as a 9 yr old, and

at a birthday party dancing around like I had....Baggy trousers!

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