Are there certain songs that immediately take you somewhere else?

Ooh-Rah

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Sinéad O'Connor singing Nothing Compares 2 You immediately takes me to the beaches of Okinawa in the early 1990’s.

Van Halen Hot for Teacher immediately takes me to high school and playing dungeons and dragons in the library.

Stuck in the Middle takes me to watching Reservoir Dogs for the first time.
 
Pretty much the whole album of Rush Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures brings back the last two years of High School and some great road trips to some state parks and rock climbing after HS.
 
“Wrecking Ball” by Miley instantly makes me think of basic and the night my DS destroyed our bay and smoked us until 0400 while he played that song.

“Omerta” by Lamb of God is theme song to the coolest company live fire I’ve ever done. End of the training cycle, leave in a week, out at JRTC, SL plays it in the tent while we kit up and the whole company crushes it.

“Back Down South” by Kings of Leon brings me back to the golf course I worked on as a grounds crew guy while I was in college. Best job I’ve ever had (jury is still out on the Army)...
 
Marathon Man when I was in basic. The Cult, Sonic Temple driving an M113 balls to the wall to fuck with LT’s. I would pump it through the helmets with my Walkman
 
Hotel California in 93 when our DS smoked the shit out of us one night, he was playing it.

No homo, the song from Pink, "try". I heard it in the ICU when Kim was still on the vent, not waking up. Every time I hear that song now, it causes me physical chest pain.

Montgomery Gentry, Roll With Me. First song I heard the night my ma died.

Bruce Hornsby, The way it is. During middle and all of high school, I had a summer job, building chain link fencing with our neighbor in Philly, my pops friend. Back breaking work, I was the shovel monkey and mongo lifter. I learned work ethic and respect. I recall being in work truck with my boss, this song on and hating 80s music. Now, it takes me back and I love it.

Don Henley, End of innocence. Saudi, 97. I was senior line doc for Bco., I and 1st platoon, 2nd squad was QRF for the week, had an airport run to secure some brass from Bragg. Driving through Dahrahan, this song was on radio. No AC in the suburban we had, windows down, hot air blowing, feeling like giants but hoping we did not get hit by some hadji in a white caprice VBIED. LOL
 
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“The Dirty Song” by Cars Can Be Blue takes me back to ECP 4 on VBC. Every. Single. Time. That was my PSG’s song that he’d play as we rolled out the gate.

“Lay Down Sally” takes me back to a much tamer Rte. Irish when we were trying to beat the commander’s convoy back to the Green Zone after conducting a PBA on a house. That was a funny story in its own right.

“The Porpoise Song” by The Monkees sends me back to when my father passed away.

Type O Negative’s “Set Me On Fire”... Let’s just say that’s perfect head space.

That’s just the short list.
 
Metallica: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Marching up Misery, Agony, Heartbreak at Ft. Knox in basic toward the end of our 15km ruck. DS was blasting that in the Blazer, from the woods or an adjacent trail or from the sky, I have no idea where it was coming from. Maybe they had speakers set up in the woods.
 
Don Henley - Sunset Grill
Reminds of the Gulf Coast beaches where I grew up

Eric Clapton - Let It Rain
If it ain't rainin, we ain't trainin......
His guitar riff later in the song is legendary

Boston - Long Time
Senior year in HS. Nice Rock and Roll break from all the disco stuff being played. You could play the whole album and not have to skip tracks.
Thought it was 21st Century technology used in some studio to produce the music and was stunned later to find out that Scholz produced and recorded the whole album down in his basement

The Chordettes - Mister Sandman
Every and any time I would start droning, this fucking song starts playing in my head

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Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day takes me to FOB Kalsu, Iraq

Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash - 17 August 2006, my first firefight.

Anything DMX - high school wrestling practice

Dear Agony by Breaking Benjamin - June 2010 before SUT

AC/DC - Any Army formation mandatory fun run....ever
 
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"Siamese Dream" and "Superunknown." I listed to these over and over in Guatemala. I think Fresh Tendrils is one of Soundgarden's most underrated songs.

Big Empty, Stone Temple Pilots. AIT, first time I heard the song I was packed into a cab with about 20 other Joes one weekend, coming back from a mall in Augusta, GA.

Voodoo People, the Prodigy. Pulling into the airport in Waycross, GA about 4AM, still jacked from work and eating breakfast at a Famous Amos. Trying to sleep for a few hours and then catch the first load of the day. The Continental's purr in a Cessna would put me to sleep, we had enough time during the climb out, that's for sure. I can still see the "S" turn leading into the airport.

Nobody Rides for Free, RATT. From the Point Break soundtrack, I rediscovered in in Afghanistan. The title says it all, doesn't matter where you're at or what you're doing, everyone pays a price...including those around you.

This Love, Pantera. Our family's song, long running inside joke centering around "love fist."
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Break, break, you "kids" in your 20's and 30's, if you listen to music from us old guys like 90's grunge, go check out the MTV Unplugged series. Pearl Jam, Nirvana, STP, and Alice in Chains' shows are freaking legendary. You really appreciate those bands once you see their acoustic shows.
 
"Siamese Dream" and "Superunknown." I listed to these over and over in Guatemala. I think Fresh Tendrils is one of Soundgarden's most underrated songs.

Big Empty, Stone Temple Pilots. AIT, first time I heard the song I was packed into a cab with about 20 other Joes one weekend, coming back from a mall in Augusta, GA.

Voodoo People, the Prodigy. Pulling into the airport in Waycross, GA about 4AM, still jacked from work and eating breakfast at a Famous Amos. Trying to sleep for a few hours and then catch the first load of the day. The Continental's purr in a Cessna would put me to sleep, we had enough time during the climb out, that's for sure. I can still see the "S" turn leading into the airport.

Nobody Rides for Free, RATT. From the Point Break soundtrack, I rediscovered in in Afghanistan. The title says it all, doesn't matter where you're at or what you're doing, everyone pays a price...including those around you.

This Love, Pantera. Our family's song, long running inside joke centering around "love fist."
---

Break, break, you "kids" in your 20's and 30's, if you listen to music from us old guys like 90's grunge, go check out the MTV Unplugged series. Pearl Jam, Nirvana, STP, and Alice in Chains' shows are freaking legendary. You really appreciate those bands once you see their acoustic shows.


Old guys...damn...I was thinking more like Cream, Deep Purple, Hendrix...maybe even a little Beatles action...
 
“Wrecking Ball” by Miley

The Miley song for me is "Party in the USA". My unit had just finished day 7 of redeployment briefings, and our leave was starting Monday. That also happened to be May 1st, 2011, when they announced Bin Laden was killed.
Party in the USA was on repeat while we all got shitfaced and partied in the barracks; it was only the next day I learned they were playing it outside the White House as well.
 
Whitesnake - Still of The Night - Spending the day with my dad at his work, we'd blast this in the car on the way with the windows rolled down til our ears hurt. Still miss you dad.

Waltz Across Texas - Ernest Tubb - Working with my grandpa when I was a kid on his 74' Power Wagon. He ran his hand on a corner or something and got a big gash on his hand, all he said was "hand me a towel" and then put grease in the cut to seal it up, then kept working on the truck. Toughest man I've ever known.

Minor Threat - Minor Threat - First, but not last time I would break a bone, was horsing around with friends which turned into semi-fighting/wrestling. Ended up with a broken arm and a intense appreciation for hardcore and punk.

Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic - Isaac Hayes - Nunya. Nunya business.

Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuting to F' Wit - Wu-Tang Clan - Wrestling practice, monkey rolls till throw up, weights room. It became the unofficial team song.

Hey, Soul Sister - Train - Hadn't slept for a day and a half and needed energy to get through the school day. So chugged 2 5 hour energy, 1 big can of redbull. I was ready to tackle the day, but forgot that we had the mile run in gym and that was my first class. I felt like my heart was going to explode while I ran it and almost collapsed after I was done,that song played on repeat the entire time.
 
MTV Unplugged series. Pearl Jam, Nirvana, STP, and Alice in Chains' shows are freaking legendary. You really appreciate those bands once you see their acoustic shows.

It's not all of Soundgarden but Chris Cornell's Songbook album silences anyone who has ever doubted the dudes ability to sing. Loved him, Audioslave, and Soundgarden before listening to that, loved them even more so after.

Mix - Chris Cornell - Black Hole Sun [SONGBOOK]:
 
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