What song(s) that you hear and immediately are flooded with memories or feelings…

I felt like it was written for me



I was living in England - my dad, a Master Sergeant in the Air Force, had a breakdown and was taken away (he would be gone a year). My mum fell apart (an only child from a poor family, she had never driven a car or written a check, and now would be taking five kids back to who knows where in America). I remember telling a Major who came over that he would have to deal with "us". "Who?" he asked, confused. I said, me and my brother Glenn. We were 14 and 15 years old. Dad committed suicide in 1985 and Glenn died of alcoholism eight years ago.

Whenever I hear that song I remember it so vividly.

Anything by Manowar especially off the Kings of Metal album. Heart of Steel, Kingdom Come, Hail and Kill.

and on through to Ring them bells. They kept me sane.

Which song exactly depends on my mood, but none of those songs have lost their meaning. They are part of the reason I named my son Dylan, after both Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas.

BOB DYLAN - POSITIVELY 4TH STREET

You got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend
When I was down, you just stood there grinning
You got a lotta nerve to say you gotta helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that's winning

You say I let you down, you know it's not like that
If you're so hurt why then don't you show it?
You say you lost your faith but that's not where it's at
You have no faith to lose and you know it

I know the reason that you talk behind my back
I used to be among the crowd you're in with
Do you take me for such a fool to think I'd make contact
With the one who tries to hide what he don't know to begin with?

You see me on the street, you always act surprised
You say, "How are you? Good luck," but you don't mean it
When you know as well as me you'd rather see me paralyzed
Why don't you just come out once and scream it?

No, I do not feel that good when I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief perhaps I'd rob them
And now I know you're dissatisfied with your position and your place
Don't you understand, it's not my problem

I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment, I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time, you could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is to see you

like a rolling stone still does it too... both dylan and one of those bands from the 60's rotary connection did a great instrumental rolling stone..

when I was a young kid, but the one that popped into my head is Harry Nielsen's song from Midnight Cowboy. I'm not sure of the name . . . 'Everybody's talkin' at me . . . '

To me, it was all about going somewhere different.

I didn't see the movie until the 90's because I think it was one of the first big studio movies that earned an X rating.

We had just moved to NJ from upstate NY and it was such a culture shock, massive rock of my world. I was very young, but the cheap little clock radio was my comfy blanket. Music from that time period is special.

I didn't see the movie till I was much older, like a few years ago, LOL. Depressing, but a lot of movies from that time period, I find, are depressing. Good acting in Midnight Cowboy, though, I'd watch Dustin Hoffman and John Voight in almost anything. Runaway Train is one of my favs . . . just wish he wasn't a bat-crap crazy wingnut.

Just this morning there was a tune in my head but I couldn't pinpoint it. I knew it was by the Beach Boys and I recalled the year that was a part of the title...1957.
So I started doing some research. It turns out to be an obscure song called "Disney Girls (1957)". I don't know why, but once I finished watching it on YouTube, I quietly shed a tear.


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One of my favorite albums/recordings of all time is "Holland" by the Beach Boys.

...see Disney Girls at a wedding. I was never a huge fan of the BB until long after their popularity had passed. It was then I realized the impact of their work. I know that Paul McCartney thought Brian Wilson was a musical genius. Hard to argue with that.

Paige

in California" always gets me, b/c I came out here to be a musician and it's raining cats and dogs right now

ALBERT HAMMOND
"It Never Rains In Southern California"

Got on board a westbound 747
Didn't think before deciding what to do
Ooh, that talk of opportunities
TV breaks and movies
Rang true
Sure rang true

Seems it never rains in southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before
It never rains in California
But girl don't they warn ya
It pours, man it pours

Out of work, I'm out of my head
Out of self respect, I'm out of bread
I'm underloved, I'm underfed, I wanna go home
It never rains in California
But girl don't they warn ya
It pours, man it pours

[Instrumental Interlude]

Will you tell the folks back home I nearly made it
Had offers but didn't know which one to take
Please don't tell 'em how you found me
Don't tell 'em how you found me
Gimme a break, give me a break

Seems it never rains in southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before
It never rains in California
But girl don't they warn ya
It pours, man it pours

I was driving to the grocery store one night, it was raining, and this came on. I sat there in the rainy dark and cried my eyes out. Took me YEARS to find the name of the artist, the name of the song, and the CD.

No, it's not my story -- but yes, there's someone I regret so much...

Music is primal, all right. It's funny how memories and emotions are triggered by our senses: smell is powerful, and music seems to be stored in a special place all its own. Music is a big part of my life.

Thanks for the story about you and your Mom. She must have left this earth so happy and content having seen you doing well at last.

Hekate

Indeed.

There are others for me. It seems different relationships through the years just seemed to have music attached to them, such as Color My World and The Very Thought of You for examples.

takes me back to the family cross-country road trip we took when I was very young.

There are others, like George Harrison's "Blow Away" that I connect with a vacation in L.A. I took with a friend a few years back. It was playing in a restaurant and stuck with me the rest of the trip. Now whenever I hear it, I flash back to our drive through the Hollywood Hills.

Another one: "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" (R.E.M.) takes me back to a visit with my sister's family on Long Island - with a quick visit with a long-ago ex-BF in NYC while I was there. Memories!

School was cancelled for several days because of the snow. We were tuned to the cable weather channel (which basically showed weather gauges with background music provided by a local FM station, which often played Sweet Caroline) for weather updates. Anyway, during that time, I went with my mother on foot to a grocery store about a mile from my house. On our way back, as we struggled to carry the groceries (which were in paper sacks), an elderly lady saw us and offered to lend us her cart to carry the groceries back to our house. We gladly accepted her offer. Later, when I took the cart back to the lady, we chatted for a long time about this and that. I think she was happy to talk to someone, as she lived alone. It wasn't too long after that that I saw her name in the Obituaries section of the local newspaper.

"Vincent" was one of the songs on the same album.

Follow You, Follow Me by Genesis reminds me of a Love that I mistakenly thought was over. Big, big mistake. Biggest of my life, probably.

And Pat Metheny Group's San Lorenzo takes me back to a car ride to the valley in deep south Texas when I first heard it.

Threw a dart at a map and ended up driving to Calgary, Canada on a spur of the moment vacation. Wanted to take my brand new T-Top Camaro on a "breaking in" road trip.

Listened to this album most of the way and this was my favorite song on it. The more you listen to it, the more you like it.

Preacher man, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!

Most people think,
Great god will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!

We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty god is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights!

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!

And she'd be proud of you.

For me, '60s and early '70s Classic Rock are evocative of "my" era generally, but some naturally have specific associations. 'Gloria' by Them and Wilson Pickett's 'In the Midnight Hour' bring back carefree high school times driving aound the San Fernando Valley and cruising Van Nuys Blvd. with my best friend, Jerry.






'Sugar Shack' by Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs brings back every JHS and HS dance I ever went to, because it was always played at LEAST two or three times.




'Sugar Shack' also evokes memories of heading to Hollywood and hanging out at the 'counterculture' coffeehouses there. I had to laugh at this observation about Hollywood's coffeehouses by an anthropology professor:



The Fifth Estate was probably the most well-known coffeehouse, but a less well-known favorite of mine was a place across the street from Hollywood HS called The Epicurean. It was the ground floor of a converted 2-story house, and the top floor was a piano teacher's studio.

The Epicurean was run by Smitty, an African American former IRS agent who said he got tired of working for the Man, chasing people down over tax bills. One of the hangout's main attractions was Leah, who served the coffees and cappuccinos and probably was aware that all of us were in love with her. When I think of 'Sugar Shack,' I sill think of Leah...

My list of songs evoking the Vietnam War is way too long to post, but a top favorite when I was in-country was 'We Gotta Get Out Of This Place' by Eric Burdon and the Animals.



I ended up back in an Army hospital in San Francisco, and a bunch of us patients went to see a new movie, M*A*S*H, when it came out. Its most memorable song was 'Suicide is Painless,' written by Johnny Mandel with lyrics by Mike Altman, the director's 14-year-old son. We came out of the movie totally jazzed and loving the irreverence of the gang at the 4077th.



During all my time in VN and in the hospital, most of my pay accumulated in a Soldiers Deposit account. I'd nearly died and I didn't expect to live a long time after that, so I bought a new car--a 1970 Jaguar E-Type roadster, red with a black leather convertible top--for $6,100 cash. And, as I tooled around in the Jag, the song that always seemed to be playing on the radio was CCR's 'Up Around the Bend.' I loved it!




When I put a Quad 8-Track player in the Jag, one song I loved playing was Quincy Jones' 'Soul Saga (Song of the Buffalo Soldier'), both because it seemed perfectly engineered for Quad, with the sound traveling around the 4 speakers, and because it reminded me of the modern day "Buffalo Soldiers" who served with me in Vietnam.



After all these years, I'm surprised that I'm still here. But instead of ending with something like 'Still Crazy After all These Years,' I'll go with the song that I had them play in the church at the end of my wedding...'Joy to the World' by three Dog Night...

(And it's always a pleasure to "bump into" you here. LL. I still remember when we first "met" on that thread... The rest of this post is the kind of stuff that I think you are intimately familiar with. )

All kinds of things can trigger our memories and emotions--even, as the OP notes, things that may have been psychologically suppressed for a long time.

Without being consciously aware of what I was doing, after I lost my Mom I began making peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches again--even cutting them just the way Mom did when I was a little boy and she was making my bag lunches for school. (Subsequently re-creating Mom's recipe for Hamburger Soup was more of a conscious effort, both as a comfort to me and a remembrance of, and tribute to, her.)

I lost my Dad way back in HS, but it was only many years later, when I caught a whiff of some stranger's Old Spice Aftershave, that I suddenly experienced flashbacks of my Dad. He was an Old Spice guy.

But the most profound experience of this kind that I had came some years after Vietnam. (I know you've heard this before, but I'll re-tell it here.)

When my wife was a nurse at UCLA hospital, we went to a Saturday afternoon party for medical staff at somebody's place in Westwood. I was sitting on the couch when suddenly, from behind me, I heard the sound of a Laugh Box. Tears started pouring down my face, which scared the hell out of me because I had no idea why that was happening.

It was only when I slipped into the bathroom to wash my face that it started coming back to me. Joe Rufty and the fucking Laugh Box.

The day Joe Rufty got hit by machine gun fire and was down with a sucking chest wound nearby, and ground fire was too intense for the Medevac chopper to get in.

I had 36 men in my Infantry platoon, and they volunteered--unanimously--to rappel into the firefight in what certainly would have been a suicidal attempt to take the pressure off so Joe could be extracted. HQ turned us down, and we couldn't have saved Joe anyway.

About a month earlier I'd spent Christmas Day, 1969, on a hilltop out in the jungle with Joe and his platoon. When a chopper delivered supplies and mail, Joe got a package from home with a bottle of whiskey, home-made chocolate chip cookies---and a Laugh Box.

Joe shared the cookies, and the whiskey--making sure everybody got a taste, but only a taste--in case we got some action. As we played cards in a poncho hooch out in the jungle on what Joe's men would come to remember as 'Christmas Hill', every so often someone would hit the button on the laugh box, and we'd all crack up.

Christmas was otherwise uneventful, though we had numerous engagements in the following weeks. During that time, Joe and I had to coordinate by radio, and he would often activate the laugh box over the radio, giving all of us a laugh and a brief respite from the war.

The laugh box, the selflessness of those good, good men I was privileged to serve with, and being so close by yet unable to help Joe (when I knew he would have been there for me if I was down), combined to make Joe's loss more impactful for me than the day I was wounded nine days after Joe died.

It only added to that impact when I found Joe's family 20 years later--and learned he'd been named after an uncle who was KIA at Anzio in WWII.

R.I.P. Mom and Dad, and Joe Hearne Rufty, Panel 14W, line 80.

Joe was just one guy. Special to me, but just one guy. Among more than 58,000 killed just on our side, and countless more killed on theirs. And all the civilians caught in the middle.

My personal loss--the more than 60 guys I knew who didn't make it back--is just a drop in the bucket. One "enemy" Vietnamese veteran may have put it best when he wrote about the "screaming jungle" in describing his search for the remains of lost comrades...

And just about everything else JA did.

OMG, I hadn't heard that in years. Thanks for adding to the list.

When I hear 'Maggie May', I am back in my dorm room during my freshman year. The same with any songs from Carole King's 'Tapestry' album.

Beach music and I'm down at the beach in my high school years. Beach music in SC would be songs by The Drifters, The Georgia Prophets, Jerry Butler, Ben E. King, And many more. You can dance The Shag to them.

Cinnamon Girl

Was keeping company with a dark petite girl with great tan lines when the song came out….always brings back great memories for me.

Hello It's Me

Different girl which I still think of when ever I hear any Todd Rundgren...she was almost the Mrs....sigh

Saw it a couple nights ago and it was great. And he does do Cinnamon Girl.

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Always reminds me of my wife.

And I found out a long time ago
What a woman can do to your soul
Aw but she can't take you any way
You don't already know how to go

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today - Ya

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on
What's going on

by Led Zeppelin -- for reasons that if I elaborated would get me kicked off this board. Robin Trower's entire "Bridge of Sighs" album for the same reason except, it's longer. Every time I hear either one of them I think, "Oh yeah . . . "

The Lemon Song is one of my favs.

The lyrics aren't wholesome, but the music is awesome and therefore uplifting.

She had no idea. I was glad the adults didn't listen too close. Not proper Lutheran Christmas music you know.

Many a beer consumed to that tune during my college days at U.T./Austin, with people who are still close friends.

my Dad had been transferred there for his job in'67. There was a song called Summer Rain by Johnny Rivers that was very popular there and played on the radio constantly and I loved it. I'm driving in my car back in Detroit and I hear that song on the radio for the first time in 30 years and literally could "smell" Maui for a few seconds, the memory was so strong.That was the first and last time I "smelled" a memory.

My sister used to listen to him more than I did but I remember him well enough. He had some really great songs. Another one is Poor Side of Town... think that's what it's called. Very sweet voice that guy had.

underrated.I think he's still kicking around out there.

Saw him in concert a few years back.

When I lived in the D.c. area in the '80s, Reagan's Interior Secretary canceled the annual Fourth of July performance of the Beach Boys on the National Mall. Instead, there would be a variety of performances scattered throughout the area. One of those was The Mamas and the Papas performing at RFK stadium.

The performance was in the parking lot, with few people there--but I was one of them. Cass was gone and Michele was estranged, so their parts were handled, respectively, by Spanky (of Spanky and Our Gang) and by MacKenzie Phillips, daughter of John and Michelle.

What a great concert! Spanky and MacKenzie did fine, and I stayed for the second performance. I think I still have some old, non-digital photos somewhere.

The Mamas and the Papas definitely are part of the songtrack of my life...Monday, Monday...

And I was very saddened to hear of Denny's loss. What a beautiful, sweet voice he had.

My song is Daniel by Elton John because one of our close friends, Daniel, died in a motor cycle crash and his death and funeral was the saddest thing ever for all of us teenagers. He died the same year this song was released and even now every time I hear the song I think of him. His sister, another close friend and I got together for lunch earlier this year and we all still link this song with a critical part of our lives.

Not sure who added the video -- or what it has to do with the song -- but this one always did it for me.






Also, Woody Guthrie's line has proven true: "Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen."

Love so many of his solo pieces.

But "Set You Free This Time" is one that will do me in every time.

By the Little River Band.

I don't know why but this song always moves me.

"Rock and Roll" was the devil's own dirty work, according to my puritan-minded mother. I could be punished just for listening to it on the radio, let alone playing it!



ETA: Then I discovered the Everly Brothers--especially "Dream, Dream, Dream". Was forbidden to buy or listen to them, but used to sneak across the street to listen to my neighbor's record collection.

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ETA: Forgot that the great Buddy Holly came second in my affections, just before the Everlys:

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When I hear this song I'm transported back in time 37 years, lying around on a dorm room bed with my boyfriend of freshman/soph years of college. He transferred to another school halfway through sophomore year, and broke up with me shortly after that. Such fond memories of the times we had. This song often brings tears to my eyes.
Aww, to be 19 years old again...

We spent a lot of time listening to Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits, Cat Stevens's Teaser & The Firecat and Tea for the Tillerman, Beatles' Revolver (and other Beatles, of course), CSN, some others.

An old girlfriend introduced me to this song. I thought I was up on S&G, but somehow I'd missed this gem. The relationship is long gone, but the song remains one of my favorites!

My husband and I heard this song on our first big trip away together, when were were engaged. Good times, good times.

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went off to work, I didn't want him to leave... So, he said it was my song... When I hear it now, it just brings back floods of childhood memories and good times with the family.

My old friend and I use to ride to work together. He passed away from cancer but we loved to sing this song when we were leaving work. We were both in the USAF at the time and everytime I hear this song I think of J.R.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MlUzWXbJ4rw

...all I can say is, it takes me back to a time when the world seemed like a place that had no end of beautiful mystery and everybody out there was someone new to meet and share things with....

...and music, man, it was just getting better and better...who knew how wonderous and inspiring and intoxicating it could make life seem!...

...sorry, gotta go listen and cry, now.

The saxophone riff reminds me of cruising Mulholland Drive at night in the 70's.

You can't bullshit a Valley Boy.

It was a magic, mysterious night, the mystery night of the newly found exhilaration of freedom that is only felt by teenagers, and a bunch of us were hanging out at a small storage building that had been converted for (usually illegal) adventures common in 1967.

I was laying outside the building, in the grass, staring up at the moon and stars, and then heard Grace Slick "When the truth is found, to be lies" exploding out of the open front door of the building. That was the moment I knew for sure what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and then immediately set about doing it.

Roger McGuinn's jangly guitar and Gene Clark's handsome, tragic self. Sigh.

See Mcguinn whenever I can. Saw Hillman a year or so ago - loved the music, but his Republican politics surprised me.

But, Gene Clark's music stops me in my tracks.

Crosby, Stills and Nash: Southern Cross. The lyrics, the rhythm, all of it speaks to me...

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Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge over Troubled Water. This song held me up when I was troubled over anything...

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Yours is a great story, Chris. I know without question how proud your mom would be of you now...

That was my late partner and I's song. Can't listen to it now without getting all emotional and weepy. Beautiful song by Vince Gill.

Now, with my current partner, it's If I Were You by Colin Raye.

Love this song.
I remember when I first listened to Bob Dylan......he was like no one else..
He is still my favorite artist to this day.
One of these days I am going to one of his concerts!

No I don't want to talk about it

My dear sweet husband has always made me feel super special
by randomly surprising me with nights out to concerts, clubs and
plays all throughout our 45 years of marriage.

This touches me deeply and this song says it all. I tear~up every time I hear it.


Tikki

and "Daybreak' by him...

"So let it shine, shine, shine..all around the world!"

The early stuff is the soundtrack of my youth and his new album is very intense and brings tears.
I'm not a fan of religious imagery, but I find it forgivable here. Especially in the context of the rest of the album.

This one can bring me to tears...

"This train, hear the steel wheels singing
This train, Bells of freedom RINGING"

I've always questioned patriotism, but this is a kind I can relate to.

Every time I hear this song, I think of my beloved husband. Gone 6 years now....

I never really understood religion
Except it seems a good excuse to kill
I never really could make a decision
I don't suppose I ever really will

I can't relate to any power structure
Where ego is the driving energy
I let mine go long, long time ago, now
When I decided that I would be free

Only thing I understand is living
The biggest sacrifice to make is death
Once you're dead, there's noting left for giving
The life means fighting for your every breath

I also like the older Johnny Cash tunes, Marty Robbins etc. Lots of country classics just take me back. There is something haunting about them.

Johnny Cash: Ghost Riders in the Sky
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A prime example of masterful storytelling, told in a great voice.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Paso_(song)

You'll never walk alone - Liverpool Football Club KOP (UK)
I can never get through this song without tears flowing




and the original version by Gerry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8smO4VS9134

I saw them right before they got really big.

This song used to play on the jukebox in the pub I used to hang out in with my friends, back in Germany. I saw the guy who would become my husband there for the first time and decided he was the one. It took me a while to convince him, but 28 years later he's still the one

Cheers!

it was my and my husband's song when we dated in college.

The Star Wars theme: favorite movies. I clearly remember going to the movies on New Year's Eve (a popular tradition in Italy) as a kid and watch The Empire Strikes Back.

The Indiana Jones theme: same as above. And it is also a sweet reminder of my husband. He wanted to be an archaeologist and his last name is Jones.

La Boheme: my favorite opera. In particular "Che Gelida Manina" and "O Soave Fanciulla" which to me are pure poetry, not just musically but poetically. It helps that I can understand the language. I have the Mirella Freni/Luciano Pavarotti recording of it, with Von Karajan conducting. That music is very powerful for me.

Lots of Mozart's works are also powerful to me - His symphonies numbers 40 and 25 in particular.

Sorry it dealt with your Mother's death, but thanks for sharing.

Nights in White Satin - Moody Blues

Ohio - CSN&Y

REM - Orange Crush

n/t

chest and saying "I can hear your heart beating", he died suddenly and unexpectantly two years ago this October. Everytime I hear that song it takes me back.

heard it first on wlac nashville tennessee driving in my car with my high school sweetheart.

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Blew me away the first time I heard it. Still does.

So sad that most of us didn't know it existed until years after Eva Cassidy's death. Beautiful voice. Beautiful rendition. I bet Sting is proud.

Just listening to it.
Someone could write a song about a song.
I get tears...
Thinking of the years.

And Mom and Dad.
And my Brother Orville.
I know that my time is not long.

Thanks Chris.

I too have very deep remembrances of that piece. Although for much different reasons.

I've always been a fan of Pat Metheney. And this particular piece (and the whole album) got me though some hard times.

Funny how the first few notes just sort of bring it all back. It is a lovely track.

But this one takes me back to one particular moment...I can feel it, smell it, remember exactly how I felt at the time. Cheezy song...but happy memories.

I don't think of it as cheesy at all. It aims straight for the heart and captures a poignant emotion that so many of us hace experienced, brought on by some tiny association to some thing or place that just brings everythng flooding back.

Eve of Destruction

California Dreamin

My cousin gave me an old turntable and a bunch of random records and this was the only one I liked. It takes me back to being 12-14. My family lived just across from the Pacific Coast Highway from the beach. I loved the school I went to, I had discovered girls and begun meeting people who have become life-long friends. High school was less fun, we moved back inland and my parents started (needlessly) kicking my ass through school. My high school was a wasteland of low-ambition racist white trash bullies and naive hippie administrators who went about tackling the problem in the least effective ways imaginable.

But, the Beastie Boys changed my life. Bodhisattva Vow, thanks Adam, I still miss you.

Tony Bennett or some others.
or
"My Buddy"

I'd just graduated from high school and was scared to death of dying in Vietnam. I was full of energy, had a girl friend who I loved very much, my own car, good job, was ready to start my journey in life but this thing called the War in Vietnam loomed large in my thoughts. Still to today when I hear that song it takes me back to that spot where I was when I heard it for the first time, on my way to see my girl friend.
A whiter shade of pale by Procol Harum is another of those songs that sticks with me. Again I had just graduated from high school and that song played all summer on the radio and when I hear it today it takes me back to that time where I had very few worries except for the War.

It has deep personal meaning for me. There are a number of powerful songs that mark my life, and many more great ones, but for immediate emotional impact on me it will always be Nights in White Satin - first and lasting love.

I really don't want to get into why except it makes me miss a departed friend. A dear, dear... tasty, departed friend.

TlalocW

Southern Cross is way up there, but Low Spark of High Heeled Boys takes me to a time away from time, not all good, but still clear in a very strange way.

Also the Stones' Angie. Personal stuff from college.

Music exposes our souls. Or allows us to expose them ourselves.

I listen to stuff that that mirrors my mood, all kinds of stuff.

"Goodbye Girl" is one from my childhood that I recently re-discovered that makes me have a good cry.

It was one of my all time favs, practically my theme song back a few years. A great one to play on a road trip or sipping some single malt.

Summer '68 -- strange days, the heady 60s were shifting into something more unbalanced... had been fooling around with various substances, in vain, to block out numerous weird and outrageous events, personal and beyond: my parents had separated; Vietnam was in full swing and leaking corrosively into everyday life; "peace and love" was giving way to "by any means necessary"; had just broken up with my first serious girlfriend; and the profound shock of MLK's and RFK's murders had carved a dark neural pathway that couldn't be shaken off.

Retreated to my grandmother's place in Palm Springs to just drift (literally, in the pool), to heal up, to let the mountains and sky and warm breezes flush out the struggling spirit.

Some routine errands had to be run, fired up my well-used '65 Lincoln, turned onto the fresh blacktop of Highway 111, the hot air currents shimmering over the open road ahead. Snapped on the radio; as if on cue, Mason William's "Classical Gas" opened with those first few delicate acoustic guitar notes. On the downbeat, the car was humming on the black asphalt ribbon, the humbling panorama of Mt. San Jacinto filling the windshield. In those moments, the sideways world was abruptly placed upright -- the light, the sky, the music -- all converged into something higher, something harmonic, something unbounded by time and space.

For a very short, sweet time, I was free, and it was perfect.