This morning “All Apologies” came on my Kanye West Pandora station. Yeah that’s right. My Kanye station is probably better than yours cause it has the right amount of Beck, Nirvana, Kanye, Outkast, and 2Pac. But I digress. “All Apologies” came on. And I sang along with Kurt Cobain and as I flew down the highway in my Mini I wasn’t 29 year old me headed to work. I was transported back to 6th grade. Me and my bff at the time would go to her house everyday after school and play Starfox or Mario Paint and listen to In Utero. For like that entire year. And then we weren’t so cool after Kurt committed suicide and she took it very hard and went gothic and I went more into the hip hop side and then we had nothing in common anymore (She’s fine now. I check in on her on Facebook from time to time.) But more importantly than the fact that I was singing to Nirvana at 745 in the a.m. was the fact that a simple song had the power to send me back to 1993.
The next song took me to a different place. 1998. Busta Rhymes “Dangerous”. Although I can’t tie a specific memory to that song, the fact that he says 1998 took me back to high school and the way those two songs were played within 6 minutes. or 5 years of my life. And then I thought how crazy it is that songs can do that to you. In a good way.
Or in a bad way. To this day I hate Boyz II Men’s, “On Bended Knee” cause I had a super crush on this dude in middle school and he was dancing with some girl on that song. It basically sucks and always will no matter what anyone has to say about it.
And it’s not just music. My sister swears I hate Bad Boys II (YES I HATE IT) because we saw it late one night and I had a bad headache and wasn’t in the mood to go to the movies. Maybe. Or maybe cause they didn’t really have to go to Cuba. Cuba? Really Jerry Bruckheimer? Enough stuff wasn’t already blown to smithereens? 2.5 hours?! Come on guy. That wasn’t the sequel that Bad Boys deserved. You betta than that yo!
Couples flock to the dance floor when they hear “their” song. Brides spend tons of time picking out what will be played during their first dance at the reception. Or even the father-daughter dance. Do you know how good a song has to be to be played at your wedding?!
In ’96 I would have told you the best band ever in life was Mint Condition. In 2008 I would have told you it was Spoon. BOTH answers are correct and I’ll air guitar to all of it to prove my point. And you’ll probably listen to the songs and be like “ok ‘Pretty Brown Eyes’ is good but ever Bre?”. But you weren’t there when me and my mom would beat the crap out of the dashboard of her Saab playing the drums to “Fidelity”. We knew exactly when to stop singing a song on side A cause our bootleg tape was about to stop, then flip over to side B. And you’ll be all “Spoon? I ain’t never even heard of Spoon.” And I’ll give you a side eye cause you shoulda heard of Spoon like I did when I shot up in my bed because they played this Jaguar commercial on Adult Swim at night with “I Turn My Camera On” and I had to know what song that was but it was 2004 and Shazam wasn’t a thing so I had to scour Internet message boards and then go to Best Buy and scour the racks for Gimmie Fiction. Two Best Buys later, I found it. And I put on my giant Sony headphones, because Beats by Dre wasn’t a thing (and I ain’t never buying $400 headphones), and it changed my life. And when my bff came over I sat her down and was like “you have to hear this” and put the headphones on her, and her life was changed as well.
And that’s just two songs. Do you know how many CDs these bands have?!
What songs take you to a certain place or time? What movies bring back good memories for you? Do you have a song that is “your” song? Does the opening baseline of a song make you close your eyes and go back? Tell me about it.
Why aren’t you downloading Gimmie Fiction or From the Mint Factory right now?!
All in all is all we are…
The Writerz Block 
Excellent blog! Smh @ you and Bad Boys II. Every song takes me to a place. Sometimes entire albums.
Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody?” Percussion Camp. I’d recorded it off the radio on 2 sides of my tape. (I hear rumor they don’t even make tapes anymore!)
Timbaland & Magoo’s Indecent Proposal – Senior Year, parking lot before and after school.
Thicke’s Beautiful World – My apartment in Austin.
Jiggalator, Slow Motion, What They Gon Do, Knuck if you Buck – Parties @ Spiros/randomness on 6th. Lol. You bedda den dat, yo!
Full disclosure:
Movie: “The Wizard of Oz”…every Thanksgiving when I was a kid, my dad, my sister and I would sit down and watch that, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and all of the other stuff on CBS except for Rudolph. I’m grown now and I still watch snippets of it for the nostalgia and when I have kids, I’ll watch it with them too.
When my wife and I got married, the song was “Adore” by prince. Now, that song doesn’t come on the radio that much, but when it does, I’ll let it play out of pure principle.
I grew up in Stafford, America so naturally my “song” is 2Pac’s “To Live & Die in LA”….I have no reason why.
B/c..when you say “To Live & Die…in Stafford, America” it doesn’t have the same effect, lol.
Nice blog.
Happy Holidays.
Oh, last one….”Summer Time” by Fresh Prince…self explanatory
The Black Album takes me back to my first semester of grad school, my first car (Honda Accord Coupe) that i paid for and paid insurance on and i jammed that CD and only that CD until College Dropout hit the scene…
Great blog. I love music so I have plenty memories associated with songs.
Like the “Been Around the World (remix)” Freestyle by the Screwed Up Click takes me back to the days when that song took up damn near the entire side of the Screw Tape so I’d roll up a blunt, roll up my windows and turn that shit up with my boy Dave ridin shotgun.
Then songs like “I’d Rather Be” by 2 Pac take me to high school when I tried to convince a bunch of East Texas white folks to make that song our class song…LMAO and they briefly considered it. We ended up with Boyz II Men “End of the Road” for the Class of 1999 so that song reminds me of graduation and almost not walking across the stage because I refused to shave.
Then when I got to college my freshman year, I’d sit around in my dorm room, in Jackson aka the Jack Ward and play Jay Z’s “Jigga My N**ga” instrumental and have freestyle sessions till it was time to go to class.
Then I hated E.1999 by Bone Thugs for reasons that only Mu Nu Fall 2000 would understand…and I loved me some Bone Thugs N Harmony. Then due to my affiliation, Pistol Grip Pump still can’t be played in my presence without at least some shoulder moving…and yes I still know where in the song the “clap, clap, clap” goes!
Then I remember I was playing Slim Thug’s “3 Kings” the day I got fired from Stewart Cadillac, then in my anger I turned my shits up and busted a subwoofer, then got home to find out my lights were off! Needless to say it was a POD D&B night
The actual list of songs that I associate with stuff is much longer, but I’mma leave yall with those for now
Great blog post! You are right there are so many songs and movies that will have me emotional.
Mary J Blige “My life” sends me back to 1994 and I can tell you exactly what I was doing when it came out. I have those same feelings when I hear those songs. Most of the songs I happen to love can be associated with some random escapade that I was involved in…..LOL! I may try to forget but when that song comes on I’m like “Oh yea…..***** and I were…(insert funniest story ever!)”
“Imatation of life” is the movie that I am banned from watching because I would call my mother crying telling her how much I loved her to which she would reply “You watched that damn movie again didn’t you? (If you have seen the movie you would understand why) Now that she is gone I can’t even watch it. It is still my favorite movie.
Like Bella…. all of those college frat parties songs will send me right back to college. I wrote all of my college papers to music. I still write to music.
I do not think I can live without music or movies.
Bre’, you were so right! My head is swimming with songs and good memories. And yes, I’m right there with you on “Fidelity” by Mint Condition, beating the hell out of my car’s dashboard. And a great follow-up head-banger by Mint Condition is “Spend the Night”. 2Pac was my boy, and my favorite 2Pac jam is “So Many Tears”. Then I immediately think about Warren G. and “Regulate”, one of the smoothest rap songs ever! My R&B side loves Jill Scott (A Long Walk and Trombone Slide) and Erykah Badu (Next Lifetime and Window Seat and everything in between), but I get the absolute chills when my boy Prince is singing anything (Adore and Beautiful Ones top my list). But Eric Benet (Femininity) is a close second.
So my pop side can’t do without John Mayer (just pick a song and it’s one of my favorites) and Nikka Costa (Like a Feather).
As far as the negative vibe goes, I can’t stand Luther Vandross’ “A House is Not a Home” thanks to my first boyfriend, and then another buster, who will remain nameless, ruined Teddy Pendergrass for me entirely. LOL!
So I’ll end on a high note and give Miss Lauren Hill her props for “Sweetest Thing”. That song just takes me to another place that’s mellow and easy. Gotta love it!
I wasnt gonna comment at first b/c y’all (you…bre, and your bestie) know how I feel about music. but, I’ve had some good memories to songs (and movies), so…here goes.
Anything that takes me back to the summer of ’95 makes my day. Anything off of E.1999 by Bone, Regulate by Warren G, Swangin’ and Bangin’ by ESG, and Hypnotize by Biggie…all remind me of the best summer of life. Right b/w 5th & 6th grade. Funnest summer of my life. hands down. Also…Clueless became my fave movie that summer. So much so that I used to get out the pool early to make sure I caught in on HBO. lol. Still one of my faves.
Kiss of Life by Sade. I just told my bestie on Saturday that might be my wedding song if I ever get married. I’ve always loved Sade thanks to my mom blasting it on Saturday mornings to get us up to clean, but when I heard my summer crush blasting it from his mom’s radio while he was cleaning her car… I’m sure I died. Now that I’m older…the words are just beautiful. Hope I feel like that about someone one day. And vice versa. Oh yeah, Al Green makes me wanna clean up too. Thanks Mom. 🙂
Anchorman & Old School remind me of the semester I was “supposed” to be going to UNT…fun times.
Now, here’s the big one. Weezy F. Baby reminds me of the dude that broke my heart. He used to play the hell out of Wayne when we were in the car or at his crib, and liking/listening to Wayne and being silly when his music was on just kinda became our thing. Now that he’s gone (and I’m thankful for that), it just kinda puts a smile on my face b/c it brings back the good memories.
Any country song reminds me of my Uncle Scotty. He’s the first black person I knew that loooooved country music. When I hear “The Thunder Rolls” by Garth Brooks, I totally picture Uncle Scotty singing the hell out of it. 😀
Ether reminds me of senior year of high school (class of ’03). If I could go back, I totally would. Life was more than good. 🙂
Pingback: Lyrically Speaking | The Writerz Block