What songs/albums transport you back in time?

and of course

I could easily add 100 more.

I can't remember what I did five minutes ago most of the time, but I often remember the first time I heard a song that stuck with me. 'Dancing in the Dark' -- in the dorm at Michigan State on a sweltering summer afternoon in June of 1994, sitting there without air conditioning listening to the radio and trying to stay cool. The album 'Always Got Tonight' by Chris Isaak, driving down a muddy, rutted rural Michigan road in the spring of 2002 on Good Friday morning, listening to it on the way to work, I had just bought the album.

Still takes me back to '64. My record player looked something like this:

Dave Barry once did a hysterical column on this subject...

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again, oh no!


On Edit: Link to Dave Barry: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~gasarch/HUMOR/worstsongs.html

It's one of those "You had to be there to fully appreciate it" kinds of songs, like "American Pie" and "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy". I especially love the instrumental part toward the end, because it just seems to sum up the '60s for me.

I went to high school at Savannah High in Savannah, Georgia. There were at least a dozen rock bands at the school including the one I was in. Some of my friends like the Mach V and The Rogues cut records that became regional hits in the south. The music was simple but okay I guess for sixteen year olds.

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James Rody of the Rogues taught me to play guitar and was a pretty good fellow. I was saddened to learn that his brother who played keyboard in the group died not too long ago.

Number one where I lived during the night of my first senior prom. May 1973, one of the most complicated times in my life.



No way Lou Reed gets away with that song today.

-- Mal

I'd have to say this one...

Back to 9th grade.

Kingston Trio. I can still sing along to this one, even sober.

The Chambers Brothers-Time has come today. Takes me back to Vietnam.


My less that sober days


And of course, REO Speedwagon in the 80's

I tend not to think of them as "back in time" until one of my students gives me that blank look: "Who???"

I've lived 5 decades and moved all over, so I tend to associate music with places that I lived at the time. Here are a few that are set in place:

"Dang Me" (Roger Miller) & "The Birds & The Bees" (not sure) Atlanta '65ish

"Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain" (Willie) 1975 at LAX

Anything by George Jones...the house I lived in from '82-'85, accompanied by the strong urge to throttle my then husband. '80s, Palmdale

Cream, CSNY, Joan Baez: Sherman Oaks, late 60s, early 70s

Led Zeppelin: woodland hills, A's house, early 70s

The soundtrack from "Paint Your Wagon;" Big Bear, early 70s

Cheech & Chong: (not music, but still...) one of the sheds on the ranch we used to hang in hot summer afternoons; woodland hills

Yesterday (Beatles) See You in September (??) 1966 Kansas City

Light My Fire (Doors) & The Beat Goes On (Sonny & Cher) Colorado, '67ish

Dire Straits 80s Northridge

And probably a few thousand more.

Whenever I hear this song (my choice for the greatest single rock song ever), I'm back in summer 1966, waxing a surfboard, cruising Sunset Strip, without a care in the world...

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