What song does it for you?
We all know some of our strongest memories are tied to music…
For example, when I hear Weezer’s Buddy Holly, I can still smell the fall air while I was sitting on the curb outside of my friend John’s house in 8th grade. I remember how I felt, what I wore, what was going on in my life, it literally transports me back to that place.
There’s tons of songs, for sure, that remind you of times in your lives, but only a handful that can really bring back a moment so vividly, that you feel like you’re there all over again.
I could use a little warm and fuzzy today, so tell me Scrabbleders, what songs transport you, and to where?
Comments
Rather than be vague, I’m going to pick a couple songs that have extremely specific memories attached to them.
Glycerine – Bush
It is the summer of 1996 and I’m driving my pick-up truck home from a nightclass at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon Art in north Jersey and thinking of stopping off at my friend’s Brian’s house because his mom is never home and we can sit around listening to records and smoking cigarettes until the middle of the night.
Kid A – Radiohead
It’s October 2000 and I’m sitting in the passenger seat of my boyfriend’s car in the parking lot outside of a Borders in Maryland. He just got out of work at the store, the new album came out that day, and we’re sitting there in the dark because we couldn’t wait to pop the album into the Discman and give it a listen. It’s a weird song and I’m not sure how I feel about it… I don’t think I like it very much on the first listen… but I opt to see what he thinks about it first and just agree with that because I really want him to like my opinion. I feel a flash of intense weirdness for caring so much about what another person thinks of me. I am mildly afraid.
Little Plastic Castle – Ani Difranco
I’m sitting on a toilet in a house full of hipster deadbeats in suburban Maryland in 1999, feeling like I’m going to be sick with diarrhea. I was there to work on a project for an art class and now I’m feeling horribly embarrassed and wondering if everybody in the house is wondering what I’m up to. I can hear this song blasting in a room upstairs and I’m staring at the dead cockroaches on the stained linoleum in the corner and thinking that goddamn it’s HOT in here. There’s no air circulation… muggy and hot and gross and I would give anything to magically teleport back to my apartment with James. Teleport with my pants up.
Any song from Third Eye Blind viscerally reminds me of when I was first dating my wife. I was driving back and forth from Northern NJ to Trenton and my car at the time didn’t have a tape deck or cd player so I listened to a lot of radio and that record was big at the time. So whatever quality of lack of quality in those songs, they definitely always transport me back to that time which has that memory of the intensity of the beginning of a relationship and all the attendant exciting aspects of being a 27 year old dating a 21 year old college student.
“This Year” by the Mountain Goats while at the time was a mantra song to get me through tough times, now that things are relatively o.k. hearing it always takes me back to the first 6 months after Dylan was born and trying to balance a full time job, a 7 year old daughter, a house, a marriage, and a newborn son in the hospital with untold medical issues that nobody could provide answers on. It immediately brings me back to that feeling of helplessness….of not being able to be there all the time and the rollercoaster ride of what would be happening when we weren’t there at the hospital, and what new bad news we would get whenever we would get back there to visit him, and arguing with doctors and just wanting to pull the covers over your head in the morning and hope that it all goes away.
There are others but these are the 2 that come to mind as prime examples of both a positive and a negative.
I think every song transports me to a certain extent. Isn’t that why music is so awesome?
But, I do have a couple that standout in particular:
Walking On Sunshine – Katrina and the Waves
I vividly remember being 4-5 years old and rocking out to this song with my mom as it blasted through the shitty speakers in her little blue Dodge Omni. I also vividly remember puking grape juice all over the floor of that same car, ruining it forever.
Middlename – MxPx
Definitely the best pop-punk band of that era, and extremely unfortunate that they didn’t see much of the success that subsequent bands that they paved the way for did. This song transports me to the Bordentown Firehouse – 1997. My friends talked to Mike Herrera before the show (I was completely unaware) and convinced him to let me play this song with them on stage. When it came up in the set, they stopped playing, called me by name (I was like, ummm, what…?), and dragged my ass on stage to play. 16 year old Jay was a pretty happy camper on that night. I’ll post a picture when I get home if you all want.
Jay said:I vividly remember being 4-5 years old and rocking out to this song with my mom as it blasted through the shitty speakers in her little blue Dodge Omni.
Uh buugh?!?! I haven’t seen an Omni on the road in years.
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite – R.E.M.
i could probably include their entire discography through Automatic for the People, as it’s pretty much the only thing i listened to from 1993-1995. Sidewinder was a wonderfully silly song that made me smile in a time that i was just a dick of a teenager. i absolutely loved the little laugh Michael Stipe does after the line “…or a reading from Dr. Seuss.” i had a mad fucking crush on that man and certainly could have done worse in terms of how it shaped and rounded my life. i still dance like him. i am one of the biggest Bill Berry-era R.E.M. fans you’ll ever meet.
Into My Arms – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
this song (and album, The Boatman’s Call) is what kevin used to woo me and it worked brilliantly. when i saw them perform it live, i cried. years later, we used it as our wedding song.
Down in the Tube Station – The Jam
the first song i learned with my band in Manchester. i had tons of fun with those guys and simultaneously accomplished my goal of playing drums in a Manc band. they’re doing really well now and i am completely envious and proud of them.
Memphis – Chuck Berry
the first song that made me realize some lyrics had stories behind them. my mom made me listen to it and the reveal floored me. i was probably 8 or 9 years old.
Thriller – Michael Jackson
though now verging on oversaturation, this was the first song i ever remember hearing. i used to play the record on my little record player in our basement in Atco (with an entire wall papered in a photo-realistic forest scene) and dance around until Vincent Price came on and made me hide behind the couch.
Meat Puppets – Backwater
This song takes me back to the best summer of my life, the one between 7th and 8th grade. In particular, a camping trip to a man-made lake in Virginia with Jeff McCoog, Dave Carp, Jeff’s father, his friend Ty (Tie, Thai, i dunno how the fuck to spell it) and Jeff’s sisters.
Dave used to joke that the lyrics to the song actually said “Backwater Slurpee” instead of “backwater swirling.” At age 14, this was quite humorous.
I don’t remember too many things about the trip, other than being downriver on a pontoon boat and having a lot trouble peeing off the edge of the boat. Shy bladders are funny for everybody but you.
Other highlights of the trip:
Jeff’s dad and Ty smoking pot out of a tinfoil pipe while we were out on the river/lake — Dave was naive and didn’t know what they were doing. They told him it was a special horn used to “call the fish.”
Dave being too fat to climb back on board after swimming, needing the rest of us to haul him back on deck, henceforth catching a “180lb Carp.”
Jeff and I trying to swim across to the other side of the lake (it was probably a mile across), getting too tired to continue and almost drowning on the way back to shore.
Dave eating all of our dinner one evening, because they handed him the food plate and he thought it was all for him.
On the drive home, I bought myself a 3-liter bottle of cola and referred to it as a “7-hour soda.” I thought it was a great idea until I drank about 1/3 of the bottle and had to use the bathroom. Jeff’s dad didn’t want to stop, so a great portion of the trip home was excruciating to the bladder.
Oh, backwater slurpee, so fondly remembered.