In early 2009 I did a post entitled, "Man, that song really takes me back!" in which I talked about some of the songs that always took me back to a certain time or place in my life. Looking back at that post there were only three songs listed, and I've come to realize that they were the three most important songs in my life because they're tied into three of the most important times of my life.
But here lately I've been having the same thought train that I had in 2009, and I've realized that there were a lot more songs that take me back than I had originally thought. Maybe that's because lately, through the magic of the Internet and Youtube, I've been exploring some of the music of my youth that played an important role in the history of the nation (but not specifically to me because I was too young), and I've realized that there were many more songs than just three that will take me back to another time and place in my life.
So let's climb into the Wayback Machine one more time and take a little trip into my early life, shall we? And the first stop is the late '60s, courtesy of...
"Daydream Believer" by the Monkees This song always takes me back to the 9th grade when I was playing the cornet in the Highland Springs High School Marching Band, and the summer that I experienced my first kiss. Both me and my sisters were Monkees fans, although my sisters were MUCH more fanatical about it than I was for the obvious reasons, and they had a complete collection of every album The Monkees released. I used to listen to these albums whenever my sisters weren't home because the stereo was located in their bedroom, and I never went in there while they were there. One of my favorite Monkees songs was "Daydream Believer," and I remember that a friend of mine from the band who also played the cornet, Robert Culbertson, and I used to stand out in my back yard next to the house and play a duet of that song. Every time we'd do that we'd always draw a small crowd of neighborhood kids, and it was a good feeling.
But that's not what you're waiting to hear about, is it? Nah, you're waiting to hear about that first kiss, I know you are! Well, it's like this: I was in my sister's bedroom listening to a Monkees album when my sister Cindy came home with a friend of hers, Lenora Bell. Somehow Cindy wound up in one room of the house and Lenora wound up in the same room with me listening to the album. I was sitting on the floor next to the bed and she was sitting on the bed, and while we were talking I looked up to talk to her and she bent down and kissed me. The kiss was soft, warm, and gentle, and it was the best thing I'd ever experienced in my life to that point. (I think I was twelve at best.) Lenora was a redhead, and to this day I've had a "thing" for redheads. This is the only thing I can think of that could have caused that, and I ain't complaining.
"Crocodile Rock" by Elton John This one takes me back to my tenth grade year of high school, the first year at Millbrook High School after having moved to North Carolina in 1972. Elton John was huge in those days, and this song was always playing on the radio no matter where you were. The tenth grade was a significant year for me because I was struggling to find my place and "fit in" at my new school, and it was proving very difficult. Every time this song would come on it seemed that I was always doing something I enjoyed with people I liked, and all of the problems at school and my being homesick for Highland Springs vanished for just a little while.
"Annie's Song" by John Denver I heard this song for the first time in 1974 when my girlfriend, Gail, and I were driving home from Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh. As soon as the song came on she got a big smile on her face, shushed me and asked me to listen to the song, and then turned it up loud. I pulled the car over and we sat and listened to the song, and as I listened to the words - really listened to them - I looked over at her. She was smiling at me, the love for me plain in her eyes, and they started to tear up. When the song was over she told me, "That's how I feel about you!" and then she kissed me. To this day I think of her and that special summer we had together every time I hear that song. After Gail and I broke up in 1976 it was easily ten years before I could bring myself to listen to the song again, and the first time I did I cried.
"Right Here, Waiting" by Richard Marx This is the song that my first wife, Mary, played for me a few days before I left for my second remote tour in Korea. Richard Marx and this song was very popular then, and every time I heard it over in Korea I'd always think of her, waiting for me back in the States, and it always made me feel so far away from her and the ones I loved. It still does.
"Hotel California" by The Eagles Every hooker in every bar in South Korea LOVED this song, and you were guaranteed to hear it at least a dozen times every time you spent more than an hour in any of those bars. But it's still a great song, and I love it.
"God Bless The USA" by Lee Greenwood This one takes me back to the night I came home from the Gulf War, walking down the ramp from the airplane in the full dark, the flightline lit up like daytime and the sides of the ramp filled with screaming, cheering people. There were dozen of American flags being waved by the people in the crowd, and as I walked down the ramp this song was playing over the PA system. I got to the bottom of the ramp and handed my GAU rifle over to a Security Policeman, the first time that rifle had been out of my physical control for the first time in 212 days. It felt both weird and good at the same time. Then I shook hands with my best friend from the war, Lonnie Fulbright, who had come home two months earlier due to a family emergency, and then after shaking hands with the Base and Wing Commander I looked over at the crowd and right there, right smack dab in the middle of the crowd directly across from the ramp, was my mother and the rest of my family. My mom was jumping up and down, waving her arms and calling my name; she was surrounded by my father, my first wife and our three kids, and everyone in the group was crying. After hugging my mom and then my father, so was I. My mother told me later that during the entire war my father had never cried, always being strong for everyone else, and when he put his arms around me that night he cried for the first time.
Well, that's enough time travelling for now. I'm sure I'l make this trip again, although I don't think it's going to be another three years before that happens. At least I hope not.
Molon Labe!
IHC
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