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What's a song that is tied to a specific memory of your life, and what is that memory?
One of mine is the song Existentialism On Prom Night, by Straylight Run.
It reminds me of a time probably about 10 years ago now, late one night, hanging out with one of my friends. We didn't really have anywhere to go, so we just drove around the back roads north of our town, talking and listening to music. We both really liked this song and I remember us singing it in car. Singing it loud, you know?
We've lost touch since then, we don't talk anymore, but anytime I hear that song, or anything by the band, I think about her and us driving around.
Float On by Modest Mouse will always be my favorite song because of the memory that is tied to it. After my dad went to jail we had to sell our house and move to somewhere more affordable for my mom. It was a hard time in a lot of our lives. Since I was born, we lived in a large house in a small city in Orange County NY and then moved to a small house on just about an acre of land in a more rural area towards the edge of the county. I postponed going off to college to be around for my mom and make sure my younger brother had a male role model around. A few days after moving into the new place we were in my older sisters car moving some small things left behind at the old house. When we were driving back to the new house it was late afternoon and my sister put on Modest Mouse's newest album at the time. I can't describe how cathartic and communal that feeling was. The warm sun was setting at our backs as we drove down this big hill on a major state road that leveled off in a field below. We had cow pastures on our right and the wetlands at the bank of the Wallkill river on our left with the cool summer air flowing through the windows of the car, as we were belting out the famous refrain with tears in the corners of our eyes: "We all float on okay"
Basically any Breaking Benjamin song. It reminds me of the times I would go to my cousins house, we would always play Breading Benjamin while playing some good ol' halo.
The Real Slim Shady tied to playing Star Wars Episode 1 Racer, both on repeat for hours.
See You Again was my friend's favorite song in high school. They played it at his funeral when he died. He also died in a car accident so it's kind of uh.... really hard to listen to now.
Hope you are doing well now. It is always tough to go through stuff like this. I remember when my friend died due to a heart condition when I was 15. Even though we weren't as close, his memories are always with me.
So right after I finished my undergraduate degree, a friend and I packed up a truck and spent ~ a week driving from NY to CA, stopping at a bunch of national parks (Arches, Yosemite, Bryce, etc.) and generally checking out new places.
On our return journey we headed up North and went to Yellowstone, where we spent a day and a half visiting the park and hiking. That afternoon we got a severe weather alert on our phone, there was going to be a couple feet of snow in Yellowstone that night. Not wanting to deal with digging ourselves out / camping in that mess, we packed up our truck and left the park ~ 5pm and started driving east with the eventual goal of getting to Mt. Rushmore (skip it, seriously) and the Badlands.
We drove for a few hours, stopped and ate and then continued on our way, driving through the night (there reaaaally isn't much in the way of civilizations / motels on said route). Somewhere in there we got a few hours of sleep, but come 5-6 am, I'm driving through Wyoming when the sun starts coming up... purple. Everything around me looked like this picture, nothing but hills and grass bathed in purple light as far as I could see.
And then, in some miracle of serendipity this song came on -- the serendipitous part being that it's about an hour into a three hour show I had put on while driving.
I've got some world of Warcraft memories deeply ingrained in my head, which always pop up, when I hear "Monsta" from Culcha Candela. Funny, as it's always taking me back to darkshore. :)
I use the strategy of picking an album to represent each road trip I go on. Whenever I hear a song from that album, it makes me think of that vacation.