I heard an old KISS song on the radio yesterday and it got me thinking about how songs from the past can bring back old memories. Like the strong, take-your-breath-away, oh-my-God-that-feels-like-just-yesterday memories. Funny how it all comes rushing back: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Just thought I'd share with you...
“Baby, Baby, Don’t Get Hooked On Me” by Mac Davis. This could probably go into my Earliest Memories file, as we were still living in our old house, meaning I must have been about 4 years old. My mom and dad had just returned from a shopping trip to Aberdeen (about 75 miles away, but the closest town with any resemblance of shopping). They unloaded all their purchases, and one in particular caught my eye. It was a record album of Mac Davis. It was all white with just the outline of his face and features on the back cover. And it was just screaming to be colored in. I clearly remembering taking the album and a blue pen and stealthily heading for the dining room. To be precise, I was actually heading under the table in the dining room. Let’s just say that Mac Davis was my parent’s absolute favorite. And they were not happy.
Anything by ACDC reminds me of 1987, bitterly cold Saturday nights in January, and peach schnapps.
Phil Collins “Sussudio” reminds me of my first car: a bright orange 4-speed Dodge Omni with a cool spoiler of the back and white vinyl interior. This was the first cassette tape I played in that car. The second one I played was a copy of the“Eliminator” album by ZZ-Top with the song “Sharp Dressed Man". Can you believe they let you get a license at age 14 in South Dakota?
“Melt With You” by Modern English – My family had just got satellite TV back in 1984 and I stayed up late one night watching a show called “Valley Girl”. Anyone remember that? To this day, I remember this song being in it, but don’t remember anything about the plot of the movie. But I do know, however, that I probably wasn’t supposed to be watching it. (Totally unrelated to the movie, but if I had to name my favorite song of all time - this would be it.)
UB40 – “Red, Red Wine”. My first night at college, in August of 1988. There were about 5 other kids from my hometown that went to SDSU. As freshmen, we moved in 1 day earlier than the rest of the dorm residents. Since we were all new, we had no idea of where we should go, what we should do, we didn’t know anyone else, and hadn’t quite figured out the “college thing” yet – we all just sat in one of our dorm rooms and listened to this CD. What a pathetic bunch of losers.
James Taylor, Cat Stevens, and The Doobie Brothers all remind me of the summer I met Bill back in 1991. Hence, the Birkenstocks…
J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” and Prince’s “Party Like it’s 1999” reminds me of my parents’ Couples Card Club. The other kids and I were probably in 5th or 6th grade, and getting to that stage in life where we were much too old to “play” as we had done monthly during the past 8 years of our lives. So instead, we would just listen to music and try to memorize the words so we could show off our knowledge in school the following Monday.
Randy Travis – “Forever and Ever, Amen”. All I can say about this is: Old college boyfriend. Thank God it didn’t last forever and ever. Amen. And, hallelujah.
Any that you’d like to share?
4 comments:
I still remember that Mac Davis album all colored in with pen... I think in fact you colored out his eyes too...right?
"Welcome to the Jungle" Guns and Roses - Sophomore year HS - Tate Fischer and the Eureka-Bowdle Patriot Football team
"Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield - making a dance routine with sisters and cousins at Grandma Hulda's house. We worked on it all summer long.
"Good Riddance (Time of your Life)" by Green Day - getting ready for my graduation speech at the school where I taught
"The River" by REM - my Leif
I can't believe I remember the words to all of these songs! I think one thing I like about reading your blog is that you take me on a trip down memory lane often. I had to email my sister to link to Centerfold...memories man. And what was it with peach schnapps in the 80's? Was it new or just new to all of us? Ahh, and Jill hit it on the head with Jessie's Girl!
Red, Red Wine does very much take me back to the summer of 1988--the summer after I graduated from high school, and one of the best summers of my life :)
Too Funny!
"Thriller" by Michael Jackson. At my sister's house watching the video on MTV being absolutely terrified at the end when he turned all freaky looking. Trying to imitate his groovy dance moves.
"The Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston. I don't have much of a singing voice, but for a full year when I was maybe 8 I went around belting that out at the top of my lungs, much to the dismay of my family.
"TNT" by AC/DC - the summer between my junior and senior year of high school my best friend and co-captain and I had ginormous crushes on 2 other guys on the swim team, Tyson and Tyler... get it, T 'n T? That was our song that summer.
Anything by the Scorpions - reminds me of that guy I had a crush on... an embarrassingly long crush that still makes me feel dumb. It was his favorite band, so of course it was my favorite band too. It actually really still is one of my favorite bands.
"Angels Among Us" by Alabama reminds me of my mom.
"Daddy's Hands" by Holly Dunn reminds me of my dad.
"Angel" by Jimi Hendrix reminds me of my ex (William's dad). So does "Somebody" by Depeche Mode. For that matter, so does "(I hate) Everything About You" - Ugly Kid Joe version.
"Arms Wide Open" by Creed - remind me of getting unexpectedly pregnant with Madison, that was the song that Brent associated with during that time. (We'd only been dating a few months, yikes I'm glad THAT one turned out well!)..
This is kind of fun, I'm sure I can think of some more... I may end up stealing this idea from you for my own blog :).
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