Milk and Cookies
with Linda and Kristen
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Favorite music memories
Categories: Entertainment, Managing stress, Toothsome products (for grownups)
I’ve been listening to my iPod on shuffle recently and it’s been unexpectedly enjoyable — I keep hearing music I haven’t played in years, and as I drive to and from work I drift in and out of these nostalgic fugues. Music can make you remember a certain moment or time period in such a visceral way, don’t you think? Like how a certain smell will bring you back to a specific moment more intensely that your memory alone ever could.
Here are some albums that are both meaningful to me and awesome, in case you’re looking for new (well, old, but you know) tunes. I’m hoping you’ll tell me your memory-triggering albums/songs, too.
They Might Be Giants, Apollo 18
I was 21 or 22 years old, working the swing shift at Kinko’s and living in a mold-smelling basement apartment in Corvallis, Oregon. It was a warm summer night and the streets were empty and dark. I was walking past the library with a boy I was crushing on at the time and we were talking about nothing much when a guy pedaled by us on his bicycle, singing at the top of his lungs: “Turn around, turn around, there’s a human head on the ground . . .” Later, when I heard the They Might Be Giants song “Turn Around” for the first time, I would remember that odd moment and the entire night would come back in a pleasant rush: the summer-smelling cool air, the quiet sleeping town, the moment when I kissed my boycrush while we sat in a park gazebo.
Sheryl Crow, The Globe Sessions.
“All my powers of expression
And thoughts so sublime
Could never do you justice
Reason or rhyme
There’s only one thing that I did wrong
I stayed in Mississippi a day too long”
Man, I used to love that song. I loved this whole album, and listened to it over and over and over again while driving from my highrise apartment in downtown Portland to my first real job — a crappy marketing position at a boring insurance company, but still, I had a desk, I didn’t have to answer phones or greet visitors, I could go out to lunch without punching a timecard. I had recently moved from Corvallis and felt nearly drunk with independence. I loved the city, I loved my tiny home with its sparkling view, I loved going out to bars with my friends, I loved that I was in the midst of an email flirtation with a previous coworker that was rapidly growing into something more.
I was living in Las Vegas, of all places, with my email-flirtation-then-real-life boyfriend, who had dropped to one knee on New Year’s Eve and presented me with a diamond ring so gorgeous I still stare wondrously at it today, eight years later. We played this album and sang along with “Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing” while driving from our rental house in the suburbs to the Strip, where we’d park at Mandalay Bay and spend the night people-watching and sucking back overpriced cocktails. During the weekends, we’d hike the dusty nearby hills and drive long loops around the city, marveling at the sea of neon and hardly believing we were really there.
Andrew Bird, The Mysterious Production of Eggs
I was heavily pregnant with my first baby and riding the bus to and from work and listening to this album every day on my iPod. I would sit with one hand on my belly, convinced my boy could hear the dramatic opening moments of Fake Palindromes – a song that never fails to send goosebumps down my spine with its beauty — because he would flip and turn in me like a playful dolphin. Everything in my life was about to change. I felt it, like I was standing on a cliff overlooking some glorious barely-seen landscape, and I was holding out my arms, ready to jump.
What music brings you back to a specific period in your life?
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Tragically Hip’s album Fully Completely is so totally completely high school parties. Especially that one in grade 12 when I was dating that cutie patootie.
Victoria | November 14th, 2008 at 3:44 am
So much music brings me back, but one album sticking out in my head more than any other is The Cure’s “Bloodflowers”. Pete and I were newly enchanted with one another and decided to take a road trip from Flagstaff to southern California to see his buddy, walk the Promenade, and anything else we saw fit. We played that album over and over again on that particular trip, it’s lengthy ethereal songs so fitting for driving through the vast desert between Arizona and California. The windows were down, filling the car with the smells of warmth and desert, while we filled the car with conversation of a budding relationship. Bliss.
Ashley | November 14th, 2008 at 4:01 am
Sublime’s Sublime. College. Demanding to hear the entire album at every party we got wasted at. Dancing and singing as if we knew a damn thing about the meaning of the words. (We didn’t.) So fun.
Maria | November 14th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Love this post!
One of mine is the soundtrack from the movie “The Doors”. I was at UofO in Eugene and took a road trip with my girlfriends down to SF to get the “full experience” (wink wink nudge nudge) on Haight Street while singing “She Lives on Love Street” at the top of our lungs in the park. Then we saw the premiere in downtown SF. That entire trip was surreal and I felt like I was in my own movie.
Kristi | November 14th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Yay! Lists! Suggestions! I have lots of music memories! EXCLAMATION POINT!
“Come On, Come On” - Mary Chapin Carpenter. I could listen to this on a loop for the rest of my life. Reminds me of driving back and forth to Mississippi to see my grandmother.
“Musicforthemorningafter” - Pete Yorn. Reminds me of when I first started dating my husband and how excited I was that I got to see him. WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE DAYS?
“Core” - Stone Temple Pilots. Hoo, boy. I thought I was a Bad. Ass. cranking this up in my dorm room right after I dropped my parents off at the airport freshman year. I’m willing to bet everyone hated me, especially Religious Girl down the hall.
“Let Them Eat Pussy” - Nashville Pussy. I KNOW, I’m sorry. That’s really foul. Hardcore Hillbilly Rock. Reminds me of a face full of metal and bar fights. Ah, the good old days when being carried out of a bar was cool.
Early George Strait. I’m driving back and forth to college and am somewhere in Texas. There are so many beautiful parts of my home state. The Texas Hill Country is magic. Bluebonnets, Indian Paint Brushes, Black Eyed Susans…magic.
“Greatest Hits 1974 - 1978″ - Steve Miller Band. I’ve lied to my parents about where I’m going for Spring Break and I’m somewhere in Arizona with a pilot I’m dating. HOT. We’re zipping around in a sportscar and the sun is setting. The air smells like jasmine.
Jennifer | November 14th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Wow, there are so many albums that I’m sure I could list, but only 2 jump right out to the forefront of my memory. The 1st is “Kick” by INXS. I was on Spring Break my sophomore year of college at Crested Butte, CO. I had the casette in my Walkman (yes, I KNOW that dates me horribly) and played it over & over again as I schussed down the slopes. Well, as close as I ever come to schussing anyway. I’m a terrible skier, but I do so enjoy it. I am a real snow & cold weather person.
The 2nd album would have to be Sheryl Crow’s “Tuesday Night Music Club.” Once again Spring Break, guess that’s my favorite time. I was out of college but still lived in the same college town where my little sister was still attending (KU…ROCK CHALK!!). So we drove from the KC area to LaCrosse, WI. We listened to this album repeatedly on both the drive up and back. Brings back memories of some of the last times my sister and I both had the luxury of time and close proximity to be able to hang out together like that. Puts a smile on my face.
mnerva | November 14th, 2008 at 4:51 am
did you know that sheryl crow song is written by bob dylan and super rocking on his love and theft album? just sayin’.
i have so many memories tied to songs…i’m such a music geek….
Be My Boy–Handsome Boy modeling School, reminds me of hot hot summer days when I first starting dating my now-husband.
You Got It–Roy Orbison–Twirling around with my husband for our first dance.
It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)–seeing Michael Stipe’s eyeliner running down his face, pressed up against the stage, and it just thunderstorming to beat the fucking band–it did feel like the end of the world, and I felt totally fine about it.
Everlong–Foo Fighters–reminds me of my first crush…that feeling you can never recapture…except when you hear the song.
Beck-Where It’s At–reminds me of a dead-end summer job I had in high school.
Weezer–the entire blue album.
Traveling Wilburys, Vol I will always remind me of summers with my family at our cabin.
Great post! I’m totally stealing this idea, but I’ll credit you. I have so many other ones to write about.
willikat | November 14th, 2008 at 5:03 am
oh wow there are so many! a CD that got me thru a rocky romance was nelly furtado, whoa nelly and one that got me thru my first heart break was pieces of you by jewel.
but one of my fave cd’s that i can always go back to is al greene’s greatest hits. it’s sexy, saucy and reminds me of slow dancing with my boyfriend (now my husband) while cooking dinner in our old apartment. good times!
we always go back to sumblime 40 oz to freedom when rocking out here.
ohhhh and amy winehouse. i know she’s a trainwreck, but he music is awesome.
crissy mathers | November 14th, 2008 at 5:08 am
OMG!!! i can’t believe i almost forgot the Big Chill Soundtrack!!! i love it!
crissy mathers | November 14th, 2008 at 5:11 am
“Bed’s Too Big” by the Police brings me straight back to a mid-college summer when one of those relationships that never quite happened heat up to a simmer. I still have the mix tape that features this song.
“Violent Femmes” by Violent Femmes pinpoints the moment when I realized there was music beyond Top 40 and MTV.
Blythe | November 14th, 2008 at 5:48 am
First one to come to mind is August and Everything After by Counting Crows. 1993-ish, freshman year of high school. The highs and the horrors.
Second is Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt. I hear that and I am transported back to sunbathing and boywatching on the patio of our rental condo on Mission Beach, now a high school graduate and feeling terribly mature.
Then there’s is Sublime and Candlebox, both of which bring me back to working my first real, non-teenagery job and going to EMT school, sitting in the parking lot with Charlie, my co-worker crush, smoking and listening to CDs on lunch breaks.
Yourself or Someone Like You by Matchbox 20 takes me to my first job as an EMT, making great and not-so-great work friends, and meeting my husband.
Isn’t music great?
Brenna | November 14th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Love, love, love Apollo 18.
I have so many songs that bring me back. I am a huge Tori Amos fan, so pretty much all of her songs from certain albums bring me back to different times in my life.
The one album for me that brings back weird memories is Blind Melon “Soup” I was just graduating from High School and that whole summer I listened to it over and over again. My boyfriend at the time actually hated the album. Every time I listen to it, it brings me back to that summer, the friends I had, the things I was doing. The weird thing is, I only listen to that album in the summertime.
Another song that give me goosebumps is John Denver “Looking for Space” I remember when I found out I was pregnant with my son listening to that song on my way to work and just thinking how my life was going to change.
Eric's Mommy | November 14th, 2008 at 11:55 am
love. this.
alanis morissette - you oughta know album. family trip from kc to colorado when i was 19 and my brother was 14. we laid in the back of our family ford aerostar minivan and listened to this on shared headphones the whole way. (just realizing a regret - i should have danced with him to something from this at my wedding. it would have been awesome.)
james taylor - copperline. my dad’s side of the family are huge fans and this reminds me of lazy summer evenings at my aunt and uncle’s cabin at the lake of the ozarks.
sade - by your side. dancing with my husband at our wedding.
harry connick jr - star turtle album. after loving his big band stuff for years, i bought this when it first came out (i think i was in high school) and my brother and i listened to it at the lake one weekend. verdict - complete shit. now? my # 1 album ever.
dmb - when the world ends. riding home from a date with a guy i shouldn’t have been seeing. but that song, and he, were intoxicating that night.
the urge - too much stereo album. driving to an ampitheater show in the summer with my brother and his friend. they introduced me to this album and it is one of the few that i love from the first track to the last.
thanks for this linda. i loved it.
taerna | November 14th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Lots of music brings back memories, but as far as ripping me out of my suburban kitchen and dropping me back into Doc Martins and black tights, giggling nervously standing in front of Dave Kendall at the Ritz in NY, definitely Echo and the Bunnymen “Killing Moon” and I am beyond, BEYOND bummed that I missed their recent reunion shows.
A Totally Different Brenna | November 14th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Depeche Mode will always have a place in my heart — starting in my late teens when I discovered them, to their concert in Chicago a couple of years ago which I attended with my then-16 year old son. My kid!! How weird is that.
On top of that, I completely lost my hearing in April. I had surgery in July and got cochlear implants, little miracles that allow me to hear again. When I was finally ready to try to listen to music again, the first song I listened to was Policy of Truth by DM. I heard nuances of that song I never knew were there before — it literally made me cry, to hear music again.
Wendi | November 14th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
for me, there are 2 biggies that still stand the test of time:
new order and yaz. i love listening to the albums now while i’m driving and singing every single word. i definitely feel like i’m back in high school, so “misunderstood” and “different” and proud of it
H | November 14th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
There are a few “bad” songs that remind me of specifically good times. One would be Ricky Martin’s La Vida Loca, because I was living with 3 girls I knew in college and they loved to blast this on Friday nights and dance on the coffee table. Those were good times.
The album “Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…” by the Ataris will forever remind me of the year 2001 when my now husband and I were first getting together and we listened to this this punk/emo music over and over. It signified all the stuff we were going through.
Claire | November 14th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Counting Crows, August and Everything After. It got me out of a bad relationship and through the most awesome (and wasted) year of my life. I remember exactly how many repeats of the disk it took to get me from college to home.
Jen | November 14th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
The first pulsing, swoony, opening chords of My Bloody Valentine’s “Loveless” will forever throw me right back to the ratty couch surrounded by empty beer bottles in a rental house in Magnolia (uh, in Seattle), where I spent most of time hanging out with my boyfriend at the time and his two roommates, circa 1992. I’d never heard any music like it and fell deep in love with the shoegazer scene then and there!
The Fall’s “Hex Enduction Hour” finds me laying on my mattress in the sweltering Cincinnati, Ohio, summer heat, 1989, in a shithole apartment I shared with two girlfriends. Jobless, drunk much of the time, reading Margaret Atwood, stealing kisses in an alley with a punk rock boy with green hair.
Oh, man, do I feel old right now . . .
Shannon | November 14th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
The first Fugazi album and then being able to see them live in concert that same year were incredible for me. That time transports me back to my senior year of highschool and my punk rock boyfriend that my parents hated so much. Good times! I wish I could go back to those times when hanging out with friends and going to shows were the only things in life that mattered. Calgo Take me away.
Cami | November 14th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I listened to Starship (was the album called “Knee Deep in the Hoopla”?) so many times, I….well, I don’t know. And Air Supply’s Greatest Hits (SHUT. UP.). And an R.E.M. album my boyfriend had.
swistle | November 14th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
It’s so amazing how one song (or album) can take you back in time!
Sheryl Crow’s “Tuesday Night Music Club” and I’m back in highschool with my best girlfriends driving around on a Saturday night looking for a place to happen.
REM’s “Everybody Hurts” and I’m mourning my dad.
ACDC’s “Thunderstruck” and I’ve had way too much to drink. We used to have bush parties - nothing says fun like standing amongst trees in the middle of the night in total darkness. Good times.
Bush “Glycerine” one line in particular “I needed you more and wanted us less” totally sums up the relationship I was in at the time.
The Scorpions “Wind of Change” and I am in the new-love stage with my highschool sweetie.
Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds “Live at Luther College”, Blind Melon, Counting Crows “August and Everything After” - I know all the words to every song on these albums. Too many memories to mention but they transport me back in time.
Jan | November 15th, 2008 at 2:15 am
They Might Be Giants - Flood - My best friend since first grade moved actross the country at the end of our 8th grade year. Every year after that until we went to college, we alternated visiting each other. She always had such great taste in music and has exposed me to pretty much every one of my all-time favorite bands, including TMBG. We made a ridiculous music video to one of the songs on Flood that involved an ancient black & white video camera set up in my bedroom window filming us in the front yard running around banging on pots we had hanging from the trees outside. Man, we were strange.
Trashcan Sinatras - Cake - Began listening to this my sophmore year in high school after that same friend introduced me to them. It’s a pretty mellow CD (ok, well, cassette tape), and it always reminds me of cold, wet days.
Counting Crows - August and Everything After: Reminds me of an art class I took my junior in college. It was a 3 hour per day course and I would listen to this CD over and over on my Discman. Also, I remember it raining a lot that semester, so I heavily associate this CD with rain, too.
DMB - Under the Table and Dreaming - I listened to this CD pretty much constantly in the 3 month span of time between leaving my ex and meeting my now-husband. “Lover, Lay Down” is one of my favorites.
Better Than Ezra - Closer - The title track makes me cry almost every time I hear it. I was listening to this a lot right around the time my son was born and it’s all about the lead singer’s infant son. I used it as the music for a little montage video I did of Payton’s birth and first few weeks and I still can’t watch that video without sobbing like a total baby.
Wow…I could go on forever with these. Great post!
Cara | November 17th, 2008 at 4:28 am
Oh man, I totally had that experience with my ipod this weekend too! I recently reconnected with my first real boyfriend on Facebook (freshman year, NC State, cashed in my v-card) I’m now very happily married, and so is he, so we caught up… he was shocked to find out that I still like the Grateful Dead (although hadn’t listened to them in forever, so that inspired me to dial it up.) I put on American Beauty Saturday… now my four-year-old son likes Truckin’ and Sugar Magnolia.
jenn | November 17th, 2008 at 3:29 pm