Music That Sends You Back to a Specific Moment

Is there any music that vividly reminds you of one specific moment in time?

I remember watching MTV right before leaving to walk to school on first day of high school. The music video below was the last one I saw before I walked out the door.


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In high school at a school dance, this song came on a group of us had a head-banging contest to it. I strained all the muscles in my neck badly enough that I was in serious pain and could not move head or hold it horizontal the next day. And yes, they were strained muscles, not a pinched nerve (I deal with that often enough now to know the difference).



Once again high school, my high school ex had this song come on right when we spotted some poor guy on a little moped. He turned it way up, we rolled down the windows and started chasing the poor guy all over until the song ended.



The summer after my husband I first met, I went home to stay with folks. I went to visit him most weekends though. This was the sing that characterized that long drive back to meet my folks again on Sunday afternoons.

Sailing, by Christopher cross.

our parent's took us on our first camping trip that summer. we went to Unicoi state park in Georgia. I was just on kid on the cusp of becoming a young adult, not a care in the world. my sister's and I had a crush on the life guard... life was good that summer. I always feel nostalgic when I hear it!

I missed one.



It was my my sophomore or junior year that we went undefeated in track and field through regionals, and we only won our regional meet by a couple points and only because the 4X400 I anchored pulled ahead on the last turn. When we got back on the bus, one of our throwers had her boombox stereo with her and played this on top volume because we'd felt we'd earned it. Our bus driver turned around and chewed us out for it complaining that we were all going to go deaf doing that!

Thus ended our victory celebration.

My own personal ballad I guess (thus the handle)... I had the album for just few months, was still learning the tracks, I'd listened to them all before but never really heard em, you know? Then I had bunch of sh!t hit the fan in my personal life, lost the girl, lost the job... all for doing the right thing. Lowest lows, that's when I actually 'heard' this song for the first time.



And the long drive to the coast to drown it all away...

a reply to: Profusion

Let me paint a picture for you: It's a clear night; the stars dazzle you with their brilliance. You've just come from a dance, maybe it's Homecoming, maybe it's Prom, maybe it's some silly night out with a best friend. You've witnessed that girl, the one in the green dress, the one with flaming red hair that you've always wished you had the chance to tell her you've had a crush on, get "dumped" by your best friend.

You wanted to make things better, so you tried to help her out, ignoring others that might have been a better fit. You end up riding between your best friend and her on the way home, your best friend asleep.

On the ride, you remember that it's a full moon outside; you and her take in the scenery, and this very song, her favorite comes on the radio. You both look awkward at each other, contemplating. A moment later, the kiss is both of yours.



This song is both pleasure and pain: I found out years later she only kissed me because she thought my best friend was awake (Joke was on her, as he never had a crush on her, and saw her as only a friend). Seeing as she was my first kiss, and this song was playing...well, it's hard to forget the first. I love the song, but can't seem to overwrite the memories tied to it.

-fossilera

I was listening to this Kansas album in my room when two detectives came knocking on our door to announce the death of my brother. He was only 19 years old.

This particular song brings me back to that very vivid Sunday afternoon... hearing my mom screaming downstairs, me running down the stairs to see what was wrong, the sullen look on the detectives' faces, feeling my knees buckle out from under me...




Carry on big bro, carry on.

a reply to: rexsblues
Townes is wonderful. So many of his songs hit home.

I liked A.A. Bondy too, I want to hear more.


Lou Reed's Berlin was the first time I realized that a song could break me down into tears.

This one in particular.

Love the thread.

For me The Rolling Stones Tattoo You album brings me back to 1980 (or so) with my boombox, skateboard and button covered Levi jacket.

The first time my wife and I made love, this played:

It became "our song".

Marvin Gaye's "I Want You". Reminds me of a woman I was infatuated with but couldn't get.
System of a Down's "Chop Suey". I was listening to it on 9/11 & I still think of it when I hear the song.

Sade's "By Your Side". Reminds me of the first woman who melted my heart, taught me how to be a man, and loved me despite my flaws. So of course, I screwed it up because I was an idiot who didn't understand what true love meant.
Last one. Alice in Chain's "Would". This memory isn't deep btw. I was listening to this song while reading the "Naruto" chapter that introduces "Madara Uchiha" lol. Another character, Jiraiya, is told that Madara is still alive (he should've died like a century earlier) and they had a good drawing of Madara. The song reminds me of that chapter because Madara was described like a possible mastermind behind the scenes, and it changed my interpretation of the song's lyrics.

as a tweener I liked to lie in bed wi radio on. Those times come back with songs like 'Can't Find the Time to Tell You' (Orpheus) or Gordon Lightfoot's 'If You Could Read My Mind', both beautiful works.
my college days will forever be linked to Led Zep's 'All My Love' and Supertramp's 'Long Way Home'.
Enya will always remind me of a very special young lady, especially 'Evening Falls' and 'Orinoco Flow'. Aaaahh...

a reply to: enlightenedservant

Last one. Alice in Chain's "Would". This memory isn't deep btw. I was listening to this song while reading the "Naruto" chapter that introduces "Madara Uchiha" lol. Another character, Jiraiya, is told that Madara is still alive (he should've died like a century earlier) and they had a good drawing of Madara. The song reminds me of that chapter because Madara was described like a possible mastermind behind the scenes, and it changed my interpretation of the song's lyrics.

In other words, it became a bit of a sound track in a sense?

I have one of those moments.



I was on a bus trip in college and listening to this soundtrack. This track came on at the exact moment when I was reading a free climbing scene. Thing was the protagonist was having to free climb a sheer climb in a near hurricane because their boat had run into the rocks blow and was sinking. Someone had to go up first to take up lines for the rest to go up, or they were all going to die.

It was the perfect sound track. It was like the track was made for that moment in the book. I think my knuckles were white when I got done reading the scene, one I had read several times before, it being an old book of mine.

a reply to: ElGoobero

Heh, my college years are "Hotel California" by the Eagles, "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blu Oyster Cult, and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meatloaf.

a reply to: ketsuko

Yeah, I have a few "soundtracks" like that. One weird example is from the Nas & Damian Marley album "Distant Relatives". When I lived in a different city, I'd go walking everyday at a local park. I'd walk anywhere from half a mile to 1.5 miles in one direction and then turn around and run back the same distance to my car. (Since I did it everyday, the distance fluctuated based on weather, my health, etc.)

Well, I'd set my mp3 player to only play 5 or 6 specific songs from that album. And eventually, I got to the point where I'd zone out while walking and simply judge my distance based on the songs. So when a specific song came on, I knew it was time to turn around. And I had to get to the car before I reached the last song.

I still think of that park when I hear that album now because it was such a peaceful place & it represented a peaceful time in my life.

a reply to: Profusion

Jean Michel Jarre's Destination Docklands, my first chance to see him Live .

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The Spin Doctors Two Princes for no other reason than it was on the Radio when I left University .

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a reply to: ugmold

damn, hadn't ever heard that one... I've got a bunch of velvet underground stuff, but haven't listened to much of his albums outside of them. Anything Lou does just sounds right.

a reply to: Profusion

May 1967.

On a beautiful warm and sunny Friday evening i was walking to the Youth Club which i attended every week.

As i walked along the streets i passed one house whose bedroom windows where wide open as the evening was so warm
Coming from that bedroom window i heard this song being played ( probably from a young persons Dansette Record Player )
As i walked by and listened i felt at complete ease with the world. A feeling that i can still remember to this day.
Wonderful times to be a teenager.

I was driving south on the highway. The weather went from a mild drizzle to a torrential downpour. Raining cats & dogs.
The local FM deejay must've thought this song would fit the mood:

A Sunday afternoon while at boot camp, Ft. McClellan, Alabama. I was polishing my boots.