On the other hand, if you grew up listening to records/cassettes/CDs, you know exactly what I’m talking about: when you listen to certain albums often enough, the end of one song conjures up the beginning of the next song in your mind’s ear.
(This works for your taste buds as well . . . for me, cottage cheese is always topped off with a Nutrageous. No one ever said I was normal).
Anyway, here are the five most prominent “consecutive” songs pairings for me. These pairs are so tightly connected in my mind’s ear that if I hear the first song on the radio and the second one doesn’t come up, I feel like the world is slightly off-center.
5. Led Zeppelin IV — “Black Dog” followed by “Rock & Roll. Few better ways to open an album than with this high octane pair. It’s as if they were written together.
4. Tom Petty “Into The Great Wide Open” — “Too Good To Be True” followed by “Out In The Cold.” This is for sure the most obscure pair on this list. Yet “Into The Great Wide Open” is a spectacular album, one that I listened to over and over and over in 1991. These two songs are overlooked but hypnotic. Trivia I love to repeat: Mike Campbell, whose scorching guitar work is the highlight of these tunes, composed the music for Don Henley’s The Boys Of Summer. So he’s my hero.
3. Eagles Greatest Hits — “Take It Easy” followed by “Witchy Woman.” The Eagles Greatest Hites (1971-1975) was my first album ever, so I listened to it almost without ceasing. These are the opening singles from that collection . . . both of which they played in Charlotte in their Nov. 15 concert.
2. Eagles Greatest Hits — “Tequila Sunrise” followed by “Take It To The Limit.” It’s my list, OK? See rationale above.
1. U2 “The Joshua Tree” — “Where The Streets Have No Name” followed by “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” followed by “With Or Without You.” How about a threepeat? For sure the best opening trio of any album ever.
So: what are some song pairings that are forever connected in your mind’s ear?