Questions '09: "...And The Songs That Saved Your Life..."
Mysterious new denizen of wooferWorld, greatscott09 would like the history mix:
We all have favourite songs, but some mean more because they have memories attached to them. Do you know what your favourite song is that also brings back a vivid memory for you, so vivid that it almost transports you back in time to where the memory came from? I'd love to know. If you have more than one, that's even better.
my entire life has been filled with music, though i have to admit that i'm listening to more "classic" music these days though that ranges from "classic rock" from the '60s and '70s to "classic alternative" from the '80s and '90s. The furthest back i can go is before i started school and my mom and i would listen to some of her old 45s and there was this one called "Champagne Wine" that had kind of a rumba beat. i can sing it to this day. It had a dark blue label. For Easter of 1963, i got my first record of my very own, the Beatles double-A-side, "i Wanna Hold Your Hand"/"i Saw Her Standing There". That, a basket of candy and a pink, sleepy bunny that made noise when you squeezed it.
i remember talking my grandmother into buying me "Dark Side of the Moon" when it first came out. That and a plastic toy car. LOL!!
i remember my first concert at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis in 1972. i was 12 and got to go with my sister, brother and their friends. There was a mix-up in tickets and we didn't have enough so we had to buy another one at the box office and i had to sit by myself. Blue Oyster Cult was opening for Wishbone Ash and when they all got together (including the drummer) to rock out a guitar break in "ME262" i was hooked. my sister was kinda worried about me, but i had a great time. Those were the days, eh?
February 1976, the Fox Theatre. my buddy Charlie had turned me onto Bruce Springsteen and we were sitting at the very front of the balcony. When he played "Born To Run" it was one of those "songs that saved your life" moments and it gave me the strength to keep moving on. i can't hear that opening run and not get shivers up and down my spine. Michael Stipe was at the same concert and was on the floor almost immediately below me (he pointed it out at their concert there a few years ago). It made him want to become a rock star too. i hear that worked out pretty good for him. i went the "practical" route instead. You can see how that's working out for me, too.
Fall of '79, basic training in the hills of northern Alabama. Neil Young's "Rust Never Sleeps" album, Pink Floyd's "The Wall" (not my favorite Floyd), Alan Parson's Project's "Eve" got me through it (on my new boombox i scored at the PX with my first Army paycheck) while Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" and "...hotel, motel, Holiday Inn..." competed for attention. Close quarters.
1983 and my buddy "Sunshine" and i were drinking late at the seedy Enlisted Club in Stuttgart, Germany, and he turned me onto that new group, REM, who's "So. Central Rain" was on the jukebox. When we got tired of that, we started spinning the flipside of the single, a boozy version of "King of the Road". my head hurt the next morning as i recall.
1987 and i was in the high desert near Death Valley in California. i had just discovered the Smiths. i remember MTV having a contest to create a video for Madonna's "True Blue" and the day they played every entry back to back was the day we were cleaning the barracks ("GI Party" in army-lingo). i HATE that song. The two songs that stick out in my head are Duran Duran's "Skin Trade" and the title track from Springsteen's "Tunnel of Love" album. i didn't kill myself that year. Instead, i was MP of the Year.
1994, Cologne, Germany. Marianne Rosenburg's "Er Gehoert Zu Mir" pumping out of the speakers above "Zipps" as i danced in the streets of my first Gay Pride (CSD) parade.
The winter of '96-'97 was long and cold and snowy and i spent it living in a barn in Bosnia with my team. The Oasis album "What's the Story, Morning Glory?" was with me and "Champagne Supernova" makes me cry to this day.
"But don’t forget the songs
That made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you’re older now
And you’re a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you..."
--Morrissey/Marr, "Rubber Ring"
You can ask your own question here through the end of the month.
You can see all of this month's questions and answers (so far) here as i add more.