You hear a certain song and IMMEDIATELY your mind takes you back to where you were and who you were with when you a) heard that song for the first time or b) heard it so often in that place or with those people that you have an indelible connection to it.
That’s the way it is with me. Today figures to have plenty of nostalgia in for me (check www.facebook.com/talbotdavis later to see why), so here are my top five songs that take me back:
5. The Moody Blues, Ride My See Saw. It’s actually a pretty ridiculous song (what’s the deal with the poem at the beginning?), but whenever I hear it, I’m six years old again, lying on the bed in the downstairs guest bedroom in our house on Rosedale Ave. in Dallas, surrounded by brothers and sisters who actually bought the record album for us to listen to.
4. Paul Simon, Kodachrome. I’m 11, it’s the summer of 1973, the Senator Sam Ervin is presiding at the Watergate hearings, and I’m in the car with my dad driving from Dallas to Knoxville, Tennessee for the National Boys’ 12-and-under tennis tournament. (Please don’t ask how I did.) I loved everything about this song — especially that it said “crap” on the radio. My dad noted my enthusiasm and a few months later bought me the record album for my birthday.
3. Led Zeppelin, Whole Lotta Love. I’m 15, playing a tennis tournament in St. Louis (you can ask me how I did in that one — made it to the finals before losing to eventual Top 30 pro Ramesh Krishnan), staying with a friend in a hotel near the courts, and listening to this tape on a new cassette player my mom had bought me for good luck before the tournament. It worked.
2. Don Henley, The Boys Of Summer. I’m 22, driving on I-95 just outside of Trenton, New Jersey, commuting to my first job out of college, and I hear this song for the first time on WYSP FM. The radio reception wasn’t great, but I instantly knew the song was. And is.
1. The Bravery, Believe. It’s 2007 so I am 46 and attending the Innovate Conference at Granger Church, having my mind blown at what is actually possible in church life and worship. My crush on Granger has subsided some these days, but like the Bravery there really is something to believe.