I was driving down the road listening to the radio when a song started playing. I knew what it was as soon as I heard the first four notes, and I was instantly transported. It was Seals and Croft’s “Summer Breeze”. Suddenly I was back in a noisy, dirty machine shop in Sharpsburg. I was working part time in the evenings of my junior year of High School.
The song reached #6 on the charts and it seemed as if it was being played every 15 or 20 minutes. Every time I hear it now, I can picture in my head the cars speeding past on Rt.28, all that could be seen through the high windows at the back end of the shop. As darkness fell, it was reduced to only the headlights and taillights. The radio was always on in the shop; it helped the time pass. During those early days of my machinist career, I looked out of the windows plenty of times, wishing I was out there, instead of inside a hot smoky machine shop.
There are plenty of songs like this that do the same thing, bring us to places in our past. Usually, they were heard during an important event or time in our lives. My own memory was caused by hearing this song, in the same place, over and over. This memory isn’t just aural; it’s also visual, I can picture the cars going by outside the windows. The memories; the song, the smells and the visuals all go hand in hand.
Another song that brings back memories to me, complete with visuals is the song “Radar Love”, by Golden Earring. The first notes will always take me back into the 70’s. It’s a love song about two people that have a special connection and how one of them is racing back to see the other. It involves driving in its lyrics and to me, that’s all it is. I hear the song and I imagine myself in the back seat of my friends Z-28. I am hanging onto the two bucket seats as we race down a steep, twisty road at well over twice the limit. The tires were squealing as we rounded the corners and the engine was roaring as he used it to speed up and slow down, shifting up and down through the gears. My life was in his hands! The higher powers were looking down on us that night, if someone had been coming up the road, I wouldn’t be here to tell about it! That song, playing loudly on the radio during that ride, takes me back every time I hear it!
Just about any song on the Pink Floyd album, “Dark Side of the Moon” will take me back to my house and bring back thoughts of my friends. It’s a record that I first heard in an English class in my junior year. I only wish I knew who it was that brought it into class to listen to, so I could thank her. I seriously don’t think I have ever listened to any album more than “Dark Side of the Moon”! The songs don’t remind me of any particular day or memory, they tend to put me into a state of mind, they soothe me, the songs bring back the unrushed, relaxed lives we lived in those days. The memories are all good!
Bread’s song, “Make it with You” will always take me back into my memory banks. So will The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin”, “Without You” by Harry Neilson or “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum. We all have an internal hits list, each song bringing back memories from our past. It’s next to impossible to pick a favorite.
Music has been with us from the beginning of our lives. Nursery songs, the Jack in the Box tune, The Wheels on the Bus and The Alphabet Song are just a couple. The list increased as we grew. The songs listed above are just a few of those from my late teens, they don’t include any of the songs stuck in my grey matter from my 20’s, 30’s and on. Where would we be without all these musical accompaniments to or lives?
Driving down the road, I find myself tapping my foot, my fingers keeping time with the song on the steering wheel, soon to be humming along with the song, if not singing out loud. My own playlist seems endless, some of them powerful enough to bring a tears to my eyes. Thank heaven for them; they put me in a good place. These songs are the soundtracks to our lives!
