Music With Memories

Matt2000

An Unfortunate Discovery
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A follow on from the 2020 top tracks thread idea, it occurred to me that people might want to share the music tracks that are attached to certain memories. I didn't think I had too many but more keeping popping into my head. They don't have to be good memories and you don't even have to like the song, there just has to be a link with something. I don't mean links to Top Gear episodes either as there are so many I could list.

This idea came to me when we did a little family quiz thing last night and I could immediately identify a Coldplay number 1 from 2008 as it has a strong link to a holiday I went on in that year. I'll go into more detail as I go. I'll add more if I remember them but these are the ones that came to me today.

Eifel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee) - 1998
When I was 8 I got the chance to go and see Robot Wars being filmed for the first time, My uncle was taking me and my dad down in his company Peugeot 306 wagon with fancy auto wipers. I heard this for the first time and it always takes me back to watching the auto wipers in that car while going down the motorway.

Travis - Turn - 1999
When I was a kid I was a huge Robot Wars fan and I liked to sit and write my own 'stories' of imaginary battles. I would play this CD (I think it was my dad's) and usually start with this track. I didn't actually like many tracks on that album.

Cliff Richard - Millennium Prayer - 1999
So I got roped into the millennium show thing my primary school was doing for Christmas 1999. I was a police officer, I had to barge in half way through and try and stop the whole thing. I had a truncheon and everything. Obviously it doesn't work and I had to hang about for the rest of the show. At the end they played this, after 5 performances over a week it sticks with you. I don't particularly like it and Cliff gets creepier every year but I still listen to it very occasionally. I hope this ruins your YouTube recommendations.

Men at work - Down Under - 2000-ish
When me and my sister were kids we used to spend Saturdays at my grandparents while our parents did the Saturday big shop. They had a pretty big Aiwa hi-fi with a triple CD changer that fascinated me and an automatic turntable. We enjoyed playing the 33rpm records at 45rpm for a laugh but I particularly remember playing the Business As Usual album, only Down Under though for some reason. Fast forward 20 or so years and after my grandparents passed I now have that turntable above my desk and the same Business As Usual album is playing as I type this, it's just ticked over to Down Under. Sounds superb. I now appreciate the rest of the tracks on the album thanks to MWF.

Travis - Sing - 2001
We've previously determined that I'm trailer trash and I've been going on caravan holidays with the grandparents mentioned above since I was a little kid. For many years we stayed in the same caravan owned by a family friend, one that was quite old by the time we stopped visiting it but I was really fond of it. This song was released in 2001, my dad again had the CD and I remember listening to it in the main bedroom of this caravan, with its purple curtains. The caravan was sold at the end of the summer and the plot it sat on at the holiday park was empty the next year.

Amerie - 1Thing - 2006
I did a week of work experience in a local car body shop and this was on the radio a lot. Reminds me of having to load up a load of old tyres into a van and deciding that maybe this kind of work wasn't for me. If Cliff didn't ruin your YouTube recommendations, this will.

Coldplay - Viva La Vida - 2008
A strong memory the year I finished school and got my job in IT. We took a holiday to Majorca, the first year I had my DSLR to take pictures so there are lots of those to remind me. This song always pops into my head. The ride to the hotel on the coach is specifically attached to another song on the album - Cemeteries of London. It's not a happy song, it's just attached.

The Killers - Human - 2008
Shortly after starting my job in September 2008 I was going with a colleague to visit our Glasgow office, it was probably November as it snowed while we were in the airport waiting for the return flight. I had to drive to East Midlands Airport early in the morning so had the company pool car, the bright red Octavia vRS. I made a CD of stuff to listen to on the drive and this is linked to that memory of driving up an empty motorway on a dark, wet morning full of nerves and anticipation. Neon Tiger was on the same CD.

Rihanna - Disturbia - 2009
In the new year I took the same car to my first training course about 45 minutes away from home. I listened to Chris Moyles on the radio and this was new at the time. I'm still not sure if I actually like it but it definitely reminds me of that time.

Zedd - Clarity - Roadtrip 2013
Speedtouch Dave had some mix CDs in the Saab on the 2013 roadtrip and this came up quite a few times, I'm glad it did because I liked it. I specifically remember us going along one of the lakes in Italy (might have even been Lake Como) when it was playing, I was in the back falling asleep because @MXM was either driving or in the passenger seat.

Thomas Dolby - Airwaves - 2014
My first introduction to Thomas Dolby as we were leaving the VS campsite in @MWF's 330d after Ringmeet and I decided that Thomas singing the chorus sounded like @IceBone singing. Still does to me.

Alestorm - Shipwrecked (Drop Golbin Remix) - 2016
After certain incidents on the UK roadtrip I was in the Insignia with @loose_unit and he introduced me to Alestorm. I listened to their albums on the way back from Ringmeet that year and this track sticks with me as it was playing as I reached the home stretch of the dual carriageway. I kept the dashcam footage of that for a while but for some reason it looks like I've deleted it now. After Bugsy broke down in 2015 and came home on a truck, coming all the way back in my own car under its own power for the first time had a certain "I'm back bitches" feel about it.

The prodigy - Need Some1 - 2018
I went to Iceland with the family in 2018 and we returned on the 5th November. I had just found this album on Spotify and particularly liked this track so repeated it a good few times. The slightly surreal experience of going down the motorway at night with fireworks going off everywhere on either side of you goes with this track.

Men At Work - It's a Mistake - 2020
As I've mentioned before, MWF broadened my MAW horizons this year when I visited him. When we were going around in the Tesla and on the trip back I was playing an assortment of songs but this one sticks with me the most.

Honourable mentions to:

The entire album Jungle, by... Jungle as it reminds me of Simon Stålenhag's work and Forza Horizon 2 at the same time. I first heard Busy Earnin' on one of the Bucket List challenges in Forza (the one with the Range Rover in the woods I think) and the general feel of the album fits well with Simon's work. I keep meaning to buy his new art book 'Things from the Flood'.

Sam's Town by The Killers as it reminds me of Gears of War, they're both from about the same time. The Other Side by Pendulum reminds me of GOW 2 and the descent into the Locust world.

I wish I could put my finger on the songs that played when I was driving back from Brighton in 2019 after going to the Mini festival. I know what playlist I had on as I drove up the motorway, passing Mini after Mini in the Smart with the roof down. The sun was out and it was a great evening, I even saw a banger race going on to the east of the M23 while driving in slow traffic (Presumably Smallfield Raceway near Gatwick). There's just no specific song that sits with it.
 
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I wanted to reply as soon as I saw the thread, but I really needed to go to sleep at that point. But I did write up few that I thought up at that moment. Similarly lyrical content doesn’t really matter to me, just certain songs I connect to certain moments.

While this is yet another discovery of listening to music channels/stations while traveling, this trip had big long lasting consequences. I’ve wanted to drag my friends abroad for decades and the only way these guys would go would be by renting some motorcycles. So I quickly brushed up my riding skills (as in borrowing a bike from a friend and riding 500km in 3 days, after pretty much 14 year break) and then rented some death on two wheels in the form of MV Agusta hypermotard. This did rekindle my love for motorcycles again and I’ve done 4/5 following Finalgear roadtrips on a bike… But I do remember watching that music video at our apartment, in the middle of the French Alps.

Shorter story, but this song reminds me of the time in vocational school, sitting in my friends old white Saab 900, watching them Sony Xplod speakers almost fly off the dash with the bass. ? The way they were mounted meant they had very little seal, so basically open air speakers at that point.

Back in time some more. Listening to this still makes me somewhat uneasy, as it takes me back to being too drunk, in a typical teenager way. This was playing way too many times at the same place at my friends room, around the same time of the night (like around the time when half the people are passed out already).
 
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