[boardsurfer]

like, really takes you back?
I was on hold with some business this morning and they had a radio station playing. On comes Fleetwood Mac and instantly I am a 7 year old playing baseball in the front yard with my Dad. I was so deep in thought that when they picked up the line, I almost didnt know what to say. I hate Fleetwood Mac. But, for some reason, the music brings the memories.

So, what music takes you back, and do you still like said music?

[brapper]

"you can call me al" and "graceland" and "diamonds on the soles of her shoes" by paul simon
also, "stg. peppers" by the beatles.
i remember those songs vividly from my childhood as the music my dad would play when i was home from school.

[sanity assassin]

Probably The Jam, The Specials, lots of Mod music does that to me. Also punk, and indie music from the early 80's onwards.

[starman]

Simon and Garfunkel
Fleetwood Mac
The Beatles

And pretty much anything that was on the radio back then (late 60's/early 70's).

Mike

[daimoni]

.

[daimoni]

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[dencamp]

I just Heard Husker Du's "Books about UFOs" and I could remember being 15 and it being late summer right before I had to go back to school.

Other stuff

Minor Threat (darn, I was an angry young lad)
Black Flag
The smiths
Ultra Vivid Scene (Heard it in a record store recently and I could remember specific conversatiosns I was having when I was listening to the album 15 years ago)
Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Roger Miller (Childhood family favorites)

[DesignerTerp]

For some reason The Police's "Every Breath You Take" takes me back to sitting in the back seat of the station wagon, at the grocery store on a bright, sunny Saturday afternoon.

I was listening to some Motown songs earlier, that I had asked my Dad to burn for me, and that reminds me of my parents and Saturday afternoons when my mom would work at Woodies.

Any Smiths, Depeche Mode, Erasure, New Order, all remind me of high school.

[Algernnon]

My mother cursed me by playing John Denver and Willie Nelson on long road trips when we were kids. Now, I can't help but reminisce whenever I hear that stuff - which, believe me, isn't often.

[boardsurfer]

Originally posted by Algernnon:
Now, I can't help but reminisce whenever I hear that stuff - which, believe me, isn't often.

I think that is why the memories remain attached to certain music - because you dont hear it often. No way in heck would I ever listen to Fleetwood Mac intentionally, so it remains in the back of the mind in a time frame where other things took place rather than having a place in the present.

Willie Nelson was a huge favorite of the fam when I was young.

[OwlBoy]

Genesis.

-Owl

[SamuraiDL]

G-Love and special sauce!!!

[malvolio]

Any song from Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band will trigger a very specific memory for me.
Back in high school, my girlfriend was a major Beatles fan. She bought that album on the day it came out. As luck would have it, her parents were away that same day. So we spent hours playing the album and shagging like minks.

[voyageur]

The Beatles' first big USA hit, "She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" takes me all the way back to first grade. I can still see the little boys in the classroom jumping around singing with their air guitars, and the little girls mock-swooning.

The Who's "Baba O'Riley" takes me back to high school cafeteria, where we'd hear "don't cry, it's only teenage wasteland" blaring through the school loudspeakers at lunchtime. Yep, there we were, the wasteland itself.

[SamuraiDL]

nice lol

[Gankdawg]

Ratt, Bobby Brown, Billy Idol, pretty much anything 80s.

[Timo]

So I'm thinking, ELO, of course...

Originally posted by daimoni:
Yesterday I was at a cafe and they were playing old ELO songs.

Instantly I was transported back to 4th grade when I had my first portable transistor radio.

Thankfully, there was free wireless at the cafe... so I ordered a best of ELO CD, "Strange Music" (oh, and philzilla's forthcoming book) on Amazon.com

It was either the music which triggered the buying experience, or the madeline I had with my coffee.

It was the sweet melodies of Jeff Lynne, I think. Heh, no kidding ELO definitely takes me back tripping as well. Got ahold of "Strange Music" a couple of years ago (OK eight years ago) and for a time I was the coolest kid in the architecture studio!

[hippy doppelg�nger]

[zigzag]

I have a lot of distinct memories from way way back. The first was of riding in the back of the family wagon on a warm summer evening in 1963 and hearing Skeeter Davis' "End of the World." It was, and still is, sublime. The next was not long after - sitting at the kitchen table on a winter night and hearing "She Loves You" over the radio. Thrilling. We watched them on Ed Sullivan a few months later while my old man complained. Then in the summer of 1965 I was playing Monopoly on the floor of a friend's house when his sister played a new 45, "Satisfaction." I was only 9 and didn't understand the words, but it was the most intense, mysterious thing I had ever heard, a quasi-sexual experience, which is pretty much the only kind of sexual experience a 9 year old can have. Naturally, I made her play it over and over.

This stuff might sound quaint now, but believe me, when it was new, it was sensational.

[Shaddim]

I always get a big grin when I hear "Buttermilk Biscuits" and "Posse's on Broadway". Those were some good times.

[nredman]

Def Leppard, The Spin Doctors, Bread, The Doors, CCR, Outkast (Early Albums), Wu- Tang Clan (first album) . probably alot more would "take me back" but those are some.

[Zimphire]

Zepplin, Jane's Addiction, Guns N Roses, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Bad Brains.. I am sure there is more.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by MacNStein:
I always get a big grin when I hear "Buttermilk Biscuits" and "Posse's on Broadway". Those were some good times.

I remember that. My brother had all those records.

[daimoni]

.

[wolfen]

The most powerful music for me is TV themes...Cheers, Hill Street Blues, Welcome Back Kotter, Taxi giving me that "OMG I'M STUCK IN MY CHILDHOOD" feeling.

Any american hippie/anti war music from '65-'73.

80's freakazoids like:

Joe Jackson: Steppin' Out
Peter Schilling: Major Tom
Planet P: Why Me?
EBN-OZN: AEIOU and Sometimes Y
Yellow: I love you
Psychedelic Furs: Love my way
Berlin: The Metro
Buggles: Video Killed the Radio Star
Prince: anything from the 80's
Missing Persons: Words
Saga: On the Loose

[angaq0k]

Yesterday, from the Beatles.
Solsburry Hill, from Peter Gabriel.
Edith Piaf.
Jacques Brel.

Les Eaux de Mars, (Agua de Mar�o)... Still looking for the CD of the French version...

[angaq0k]

Originally posted by zigzag:
I have a lot of distinct memories from way way back. The first was of riding in the back of the family wagon on a warm summer evening and hearing Skeeter Davis' "End of the World." It was, and still is, sublime. The next was not long after - sitting at the kitchen table on a winter night and hearing "She Loves You" over the radio. The very sound of it was joyous. We watched them on Ed Sullivan a few months later while my old man complained. Then in the summer of 1965 I was playing Monopoly on the floor of a friend's house when his sister played a new 45, "Satisfaction." I was only 9 and didn't understand the words, but it was the most intense, mysterious thing I had ever heard, a quasi-sexual experience. Naturally, I made her play it over and over.

This stuff might sound quaint now, but believe me, when it was new, it was sensational.

yep... same here.. only 10 years later...

[Jansar]

"So Far Away" and "Money For Nothing" from the Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms CD gives me memories of my father driving me to preschool when I was a kid, since he always played the tapes in his car (this was in the '80s).

Also, "Today" from the Smashing Pumpkins reminds me of when I was ten (in 1993, when the CD came out) and I was outside of my house on my bike listening to an ice cream truck (it makes more sense if you've ever seen the music video).

[busket68]

][\][ ][ ][/][

Ahhhh... angst.

- Ca$h

[vmpaul]

Originally posted by zigzag:
I was only 9 and didn't understand the words, but it was the most intense, mysterious thing I had ever heard, a quasi-sexual experience. Naturally, I made her play it over and over.

This stuff might sound quaint now, but believe me, when it was new, it was sensational.

Definitely rings true.

Is it that the music isn't as memorable now, or as original, or is it that it doesn't affect us as much because we get older? I'm not sure which it is.

[thePurpleGiant]

The "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" theme song. Man that takes me back...how sweet it is to be a kid

[zigzag]

Originally posted by vmpaul:
Definitely rings true.

Is it that the music isn't as memorable now, or as original, or is it that it doesn't affect us as much because we get older? I'm not sure which it is.

I think it's mostly a function of age and hormones. Every generation responds most intensely to the music of its youth. It's even been demonstrated in studies.

[IceEnclosure]

few more votes for the smiths, minor threat (damnit.. minor threat!!)

buttermilk biscuits.. ****in' a, man...


hmm... people under the stairs.. although it's current music, it makes me think of ~back in tha day~

also lots of golden oldies.. my mom n' dad's tunes.. makes me think of bein' in the back of the car.. goin' somewhere.

'83 style (I'da been 6 yrs at the time..)

[chalk_outline]

Any Tom Waits, that **** defined my ****ed up child beating youth. Don't ask.

Shower Days by NoFx. Saw them on wednesday. Still rockin for old ass geezers..

[daimoni]

.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by wolfen:
Peter Schilling: Major Tom

Teehee.

I love that song.

And oddly, I'm in a band with the drummer who played on that song. (playing six degrees of Kevin Bacon here)

Odd timing for this thread. I just went through my late father's record and cassette collection this weekend (he died six months ago). I'd already pulled some stuff out in the past years before his death, but now I had the chance to gather the albums that he'd wanted to keep around...

There's a brilliant double-album compilation of Spaghetti Western themes that has to have been around and played since the early 70s, before I was born.

Mancini's Peter Gunn.

A bunch of children's records - Tom Sawyer, Kalle Blomquist, Ali Baba, Reineke Fuchs, etc., etc.

One of my favorite albums of all time: Sesame Street Fever. I got it for Christmas in 1979, when I was six. Still love it to death. And my parents were thankfully convinced that vinyl wasn't for kids, so they gave me the album, put it in their rack and had me listen to a cassette copy for years.

Eagles' Hotel California - puts me right back in my dad's car, in 78 or 79. Same with a bunch of other pop hits from that time.

ABBA's Money,Money,Money puts me in the back of a station wagon with a couple of friends in Hong Kong.

My Sharona - standing on my desk with a Teppichklopfer ("carpet beater"? - what's it called in English?*) with a couple of strings tied to it, rockin'.

A couple of those old tapes are now on rotation in the car. Great and sad at the same time.

The worst: Donny & Marie Osmond - "Make the World Go Away". God, what rubbish.

-s*

*) Ob reference: Teppichklopfer

[voyageur]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
One of my favorite albums of all time: Sesame Street Fever. I got it for Christmas in 1979, when I was six. Still love it to death. And my parents were thankfully convinced that vinyl wasn't for kids, so they gave me the album, put it in their rack and had me listen to a cassette copy for years.

Sesame Street Fever! Grover in his white Travolta suit on the cover, and the lyrics to Rubber Ducky (disco style):
Every day when I make my way to the tubby,
I find a little fella who's [something], and yellow and chubby.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by voyageur:
Sesame Street Fever! Grover in his white Travolta suit on the cover, and the lyrics to Rubber Ducky (disco style):
Every day when I make my way to the tubby,
I find a little fella who's [something], and yellow and chubby.

"cute & yeller and chuub-beeee"
[the girls:]"Rubba dubba duckie, rubba dubba duckie!"

The album squarely beats the pants off 95% of the disco crap available at the time in terms of production quality, arrangement, and composition. Top session musicians, top studio quality, and even a song with Robin Gibb ("Trash"). Surpassed only by the Bee Gees and ABBA, IMO.



-s*

[paully dub]

That's soo weird because I remember that album, the cover with Grover and but I also had the Sesame Street Disco album with among other gems, a disco version of Bein' Green.

I hope the parental units still have those....

[SimeyTheLimey]

A couple of songs trigger very strong memories of when I was first in the Army -- which is a fairly memorable event in itself. As I recall it, Roy Orbison died right about the time I arrived at the reception station. For those first few days, basically the only music I heard was that Travelling Willburys song he recorded just before he died. Every time I hear it, there I am again, sitting in that messhall with my bald head trying not to attract the attention of a drill sergeant.

I guess REM came out with Green at about the same time. So that one also sends me back to the same time. But for some reason Orbison does it. Probably because I didn't like the song that much.

Another one that I do like and that takes me back is Walking on the Moon by the Police. It wasn't a new song then, but I got a copy of the tape which I was listening to the weeks in the field when we were training to be deployed to the first Gulf War. The deployment got cancelled, but I didn't know that at the time, so it was a fairly intense period for me and being able to listen to a walkman at night in my sleeping bag under the hooch was very nice, except that batteries were hard to get. So it was "walking on the mooowoowwnonnnnnn... (silence).

There are others, of course, but those are the most intense.

[dreilly1]

Originally posted by Zimphire:
Zepplin, Jane's Addiction, Guns N Roses, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Bad Brains.. I am sure there is more.

Wow, that's almost the same list I was going to post.

I've noticed that there's two types of music that triggers memories for me. There's the list of albums that I used to listen to back then, and I still do occasionally today, like Pink Floyd, Rush, Zepplin, and REM. And, in fact, I'm listening to Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms at work right now. While I can relate those albums to specific periods of my life, the memories are not very vivid because I've kept listening to them all these years. Perhaps I do that because many of these albums were older by the time I noticed them anyway, and could stand the test of time better.

Then there's the stuff that I don't listen to anymore. As we get older, I guess tastes change. Like Jane's Addiction, Guns N Roses, Nirvana, the first Pearl Jam album, and perhaps my most guilty pleasure, Tesla. When I hear that stuff come on the radio, It's like I'm instantly transported on to the J train, riding the subway to high school again. Some of it's good, and some of it's not so good, but it all takes me back rather vividly, since I can still attach it to one specific time of my life. Although it may explain why I have long hair.

Oh, and I was in a band in high school where the lead singer and guitarist were perhaps the only two Midnight Oil fans in existence at the time. I still can't listen to that music without thinking about how badly we butchered those bad songs!

[sketch]

There are lots of songs which take me back but the most curious is any heavy metal song from the 80s. I was never into heavy metal and never liked it but hearing it brings me back to grade 5 at school because EVERYONE loved it at my school.

Back then I'd gag when I hear it but now it's more of a little trip down memory lane.

[dcmacdaddy]

Any early Rush (Fly By Night or Permanent Waves) takes me back to when I was 7 or 8--I was born in 1970--and getting my first transistor radio as a hand-me-down from my older sister (who turned me on to Rush, and "classic rock" in the first place).

I can still hear the original MTV "theme" music (shown on the hour with the crude video of the rocket launch/planting-flag-on-the-moon sequence) whenever I think of the early 80s.

OMD (Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark) takes me back to 9/10 grade and a hellishly awkward two years living with my Dad after my parent's divorce.

I lost my virginity while listening to Peter Gabriel's SO album. That's a fond musical memory.

[DesignerTerp]

Originally posted by SamuraiDL:
G-Love and special sauce!!!

Summer before senior year, my two best friends and I were down at the beach visiting an older brother who was living there for the summer. G.Love, Cypress Hill's Black Sunday and James' Laid album were the soundtrack for that summer. Good, good memories.

[basscat]

Head East = Roadtrip!

ELP, "Lucky Man".... God, the Marshalls were stacked clear to the sky..........

(God, I'm old..... )