Remember compact disc box sets? They cost and outrageous amount of money (at the time) and were elaborately packaged with super glossy thick booklets that you didn't dare open too much for fear of breaking the binding. Most box sets contained four CDs but others contained three and some even included six!
In the collection was Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series Vol 1-3 which was released in March of 1991. That was 27 years ago! But I bought that box set virtually the day it came out because I am a huge Bob Dylan fan. This particular set had 58 unreleased songs - mostly outtakes from his studio albums.
However, I only played those CDs maybe 3 or 4 times before the box set ended up getting put in a closet alone with box sets by ELO, BeeGees, Aerosmith, Led Zepplin, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Johnny Cash, etc. I was a big box set buyer.
So I'm thinking maybe April 1991 was the last time I listened to any of these rare Bob Dylan songs. Yet when I listened to them tonight (I streamed them off Apple Music because I was too lazy to hook up my long retired CD player), it seemed like it was just yesterday that I listened to these songs and not nearly three decades.
Songs like "Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues", "Hard Times In New York Town" and "Suze (The Cough Song)" were instantly recognizable to me despite only having heard them several times during a 4-6 week stretch in 1991. I remember exactly how my den was setup at the time and how my dog would lie at my feet with the wood burning stove going and a glass of red wine at hand. Listening to those songs, I was brought back to those halycon and innocent days and it was like the intervening 27 years never happened at all.
Does anybody remember that “Skyrockets in Flight” song?
Great. An earworm.
Well, I guess it could have been worse....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjqeNoi6EmM
Worked afternoon radio in the mid to late 70’s.
Used the “Sky Rockets In Flight, Afternoon Delight” clip to make show promos.
Memories...
I have worked in radio for over 35 years, but listening to an early Beatles song from the mid-sixties brings back incredible memories, more so than the millions of records I have played on the radio since the 1980s.
I've found that all my music memories seem to be organized according to the seasons of the year.
And so I'll play CDs or have playlists composed of songs from early spring, or late spring or the other seasons spanning from around 1964 through the 90s. Every month I have something I really want to hear. But I'll play it only during that time of year. It sure keeps the old favorites fresh for me.
"Wallflower" - Doug Sahm & Friends (including Bob Dylan)
Here's another interesting version of that song:
"Wallflower" - Diana Krall
The Cars “Let’s Go” and The Pretenders “Brass in Pocket” remind me of a summer construction job, driving the company truck around Kokomo all afternoon. If those songs weren’t playing on the radio it was because I was listening to Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau broadcasting Cub games on WGN.
I'm not really sure how it goes
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes.
Old days
Good times I remember
Fun days
Filled with ship of pleasure
Drive-in movies
Comic books and blue jeans
Howdy Doody
Baseball cards and birthdays
Take me back
To the world gone away
Memories
Seem like yesterday
Oh, old days
Good times I remember
Gold days
Days I’ll always treasure
Eagles Best of My Love....1976, what could have been....
Too numerous to mention. But, there are so many songs that paint a picture of a special time/ place in my life. Some of them hurt, some make me smile. I’ll take them all.
"Please Mr Please (Don't Play E-17)" - Olivia Newton John
Youre moving? I thought you loved your place. Hope its for a great reason.
I agree. Certain songs connect so perfectly to memories. You can almost see, smell, feel that previous setting. There are a lot of songs that do that for me.
“I think theres no doubt that music is a great emotional companion, and when you introduce words into a persons psyche with all the emotion that music can bring, youre affecting the human condition.” (Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary, speaking of the power of music in reference to the musical preferences of the Columbine killers)
I had noticed by 1971 that the left were using music in their propaganda efforts. It’s not just TV and the news media that brought us to this pass; your—and my—favorite rockers are also to blame.
If I have observed one thing in the decades since my peep hole opened, it’s this: whenever anybody says “It’s just a (book)(movie)(song)(whatever),” it most definitely is not *just* a (book)(movie)(song)(whatever).
Here’s a thread I have missed, if there has been one: What song do you hate above all others? What song do you loathe with the fire of a thousand suns? Which little guitar and voice ditty would you gnaw your ears off rather than listen to again?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLm3HMG8IhM
“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by The Beach Boys.
I remember hearing that from from-lawn transistor radios as I walked the tree-lined avenues of old Palo Alto in the summer of 1966. I did not know who it was then.
I had little interest in music as a math-nerd/sci-fi/g.i.joe boy, but something about that caught my ear.
A decade later I bought Pet Sounds, and it gradually became my favorite album ever.
It eventually became one of my inspirations to study and sing choral repertoire, and to compose choral compositions.
I do now own the Pet Sounds Boxed Set.
“Crimson and Clover” My first slow dance with a girl. Ahhhhh.
Yup, memories, in the corner of my mind ..