Songs that make you think of certain places

[hbelkins]

A spinoff of the "driving songs" thread...

Are there certain songs that remind you of certain places because of where you heard them?

Three for me.

The first time I ever heard Loverboy's "Turn Me Loose" was when I was on my way home from college, about a mile or so from home. I associate that song with that section of roadway.

For the first three years of my college experience, during spring break I'd take one day to either go to Lexington or to visit friends at Eastern Kentucky University (they typically were on spring break a week later than Morehead), or both. (I always came home for spring break and never went to any exotic destinations, except one year that I had to work in Morehead that week). On my way back home at least two years, if not all three, Journey's "Who's Crying Now" came on the radio when I was on KY 52 in Madison County, outside Richmond. I'll forever link that song with that stretch or road.

On my way to one of the Nashville road meets, I was driving on I-40 westbound between Cookeville and Lebanon and was listening to XM satellite radio. I'd never cared for Grand Funk's "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home" but a live version of that song that I'd never heard came on. I'm not sure what album it came from, but I know it's not off their Caught in the Act live album. I really liked that version, and I associate that song with that portion of I-40 (near the rest area that serves both directions of travel).

[roadman65]

Phil Collins Do You Remember reminds me of Key West as that song played on the radio just as I crossed the Stock Island Bridge into Key West and of course if you have been to Florida in the Summer, you are aware of the bright hazy sun and how it makes everything appear like not many other places other than maybe the Texas Gulf Coast or possibly San Diego.

Allman Brothers Brothers of the Road reminds me of US 220 (now Bud Schusters I-99) heading home from Altoona, PA.

Mealoaf's Bat Out of Hell reminds me of US 54/ 400 in Wichita, KS as I bought my CD at Best Buy on West Kellog near the Airport as I had no CDs to pop in the rental car's CD Player.  I played it while driving US 54 & 400 through Wichita, so I think of my Kansas road trip in 00 when I hear it.

Moody Blues Talking Out of Turn from Long Distance Voyager reminds me of US 1 in St. Augustine, FL as I was playing that song while driving there on the way home to NJ while clinching US 1 from Titusville to the GWB in Fort Lee.  It was when one of the first time playing it when I crossed the San Sebastian River going NB on US 1 and the intro to the song is neat so the two go hand in hand.

[Takumi]

Simple Minds' "Alive And Kicking" reminds me of downtown Baltimore, because it was playing on the Camden Yards radio at a particular moment during my last trip there, when we went up onto the balcony and looked out at the city.

[1995hoo]

While I had heard the song dozens of times prior to this, "All I Need Is a Miracle" by Mike and the Mechanics makes me think of Charlottesville, and in particular the old configuration of US-29 past the post office and Seminole Square before said road was widened and re-graded in the mid-1990s, because I was headed back to school one time and that song came on right as I was coming down that stretch of road. I was already in a good mood and for some reason the song's upbeat music (even if the lyrics aren't necessarily quite so upbeat) just put me in an even better mood.

"Crazy Train" is the "third down song" to me because the PA man at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville usually plays the beginning part (the "Alllllllllllll abooooooooooooarrrrrd" and the laugh up to the guitar solo) when it's third down and Virginia is on defense. It's almost like a Pavlovian reflex when I hear that music now.

While I try never to listen to the song, if I hear "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba (sp?) it takes me back to Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke. Most of the women's basketball team lived in the same building I did my third year there and since I therefore knew most of them, I went to a fair number of their games. The PA played that song fairly often and the players liked it, so much so that when we were out celebrating one of their birthdays at a local bar and that song played, they all started singing along.

Anything by Bob Marley makes me think of Mezcalito's, a small bar on the east side of Cozumel. The bar is basically a beachfront bar for gringos, but it's a great mellow place to spend some time. The fact that the guys who run the place play a lot of Marley and Jimmy Buffett further cements it as a gringo place, but who cares? They're playing to their clientele.

[kendancy66]

Dire Straits "Down to the Waterline" and Police "Roxanne" remind me when a friend and I stayed in Seabrook TX in summer 1978

[jakeroot]

Anytime I hear the Thompson Twins (though more easily when I hear "Lay Your Hands on Me") I think of my driving trip through the UK last year.

Prince's "Raspberry Beret" makes me think of unfinished freeways for some reason.