Cars and Music = ?
Discussion
I picked up this CD in a charity shop at the weekend:
Put it on in the car and was instantly transported back to a sunny Saturday morning in spring 1984:
Sitting in my Dad's (metallic brown!) Mk4 Cortina estate at a builder's merchants while he went inside to order some paving stones. We had just stopped off at WH Smith so I could pick up a copy of this on cassette. While I waited I popped this in the cassette player and proceeded to listen to Radio Ga Ga...
Memory is a funny thing, but for me there seems to be a particular connection with specific songs and cars (ie listening in the car) that I don't have with music listened to elsewhere. These seem to be very singular moments/events that I instantly associate with a piece of music. Usually mundane in themselves but the intersection of car and music is the common theme. Often sunny days with the windows down - driving into college (Coventry, 1988) in my red Mini 1000 to take a summer exam listening to Good vibrations, driving along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice with an old girlfriend in her MX5, roof down listening to Santana - Oye Como Va (ok, that one is a bit more than humdrum)...
Is it just me, or is nostalgia all I have to look forward to these days?
Put it on in the car and was instantly transported back to a sunny Saturday morning in spring 1984:
Sitting in my Dad's (metallic brown!) Mk4 Cortina estate at a builder's merchants while he went inside to order some paving stones. We had just stopped off at WH Smith so I could pick up a copy of this on cassette. While I waited I popped this in the cassette player and proceeded to listen to Radio Ga Ga...
Memory is a funny thing, but for me there seems to be a particular connection with specific songs and cars (ie listening in the car) that I don't have with music listened to elsewhere. These seem to be very singular moments/events that I instantly associate with a piece of music. Usually mundane in themselves but the intersection of car and music is the common theme. Often sunny days with the windows down - driving into college (Coventry, 1988) in my red Mini 1000 to take a summer exam listening to Good vibrations, driving along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice with an old girlfriend in her MX5, roof down listening to Santana - Oye Como Va (ok, that one is a bit more than humdrum)...
Is it just me, or is nostalgia all I have to look forward to these days?
Interestingly when I hear a song from the '90s and early 2000s I can pretty much nail what year it was released because I can recall which of my cars I was in when I played it.
Back then I had a different car every year so it sends me back to owning/being in that car and all the nostalgia that comes with it
Back then I had a different car every year so it sends me back to owning/being in that car and all the nostalgia that comes with it
sherman said:
I cant listen to the beatles without being brought back to going on family summer holidays as my dad used to play their cassettes ad nauseum as we drove to whereever in tbe country.
Same; anytime I hear a song that's on the blue or red albums I instantly remember driving through the countryside to a leisure centre deep in rural Scotland with my mum as it was the only CDs we kept in the car permanently. Same with "children" by Robert Miles; always reminds me of driving through the Cairngorms on a wet autumn afternoon, heading south to visit family.
Yeah, I have a few associations. Most notably Roll Away the Stone, from the same album by Kelly Joe Phelps. Dad had that album on repeat in his Peugeot 406. We'd occasionally go and see some of the extended family who lived in various parts of London. I would be sitting in the front on a booster seat (I must have been about 5 or 6 at the time) and we'd make the journey down the M1 and through London. I associate that song with the profound feeling of carsickness which I never voiced but seemed to be brought on by hearing it.
On one trip, we stopped at London Gateway and dad bought a coffee (he used to drink cappuccinos, but I'd usually have the foam off it first). He put the cup on the roof, made sure I was belted in and drove off. A few minutes later he wondered where his coffee was. We'd always come back late in the evening and the suspended lights that still occupy part of the M1 stuck in my mind for some reason. I always found them relaxing but I don't know why.
Lane Boy by Twenty One Pilots is another - it's what was playing on Spotify when I had my crash last month. Perhaps a little ironic that one of the lines is 'they say stay in your lane, boy, lane, boy / but we go where we want to'.
On one trip, we stopped at London Gateway and dad bought a coffee (he used to drink cappuccinos, but I'd usually have the foam off it first). He put the cup on the roof, made sure I was belted in and drove off. A few minutes later he wondered where his coffee was. We'd always come back late in the evening and the suspended lights that still occupy part of the M1 stuck in my mind for some reason. I always found them relaxing but I don't know why.
Lane Boy by Twenty One Pilots is another - it's what was playing on Spotify when I had my crash last month. Perhaps a little ironic that one of the lines is 'they say stay in your lane, boy, lane, boy / but we go where we want to'.
Anytime the following come on I'm transported back to my Dad's cars:
Living in a Box - Living in a Box
Mid 90's Renault Clio
Anything by Nik Kershaw
Marcos Mantula
Listening to So Long, Astoria (the album) by The Ataris instantly takes me back to the summer of 2003 and driving around my local town in my Mondeo Estate.
Living in a Box - Living in a Box
Mid 90's Renault Clio
Anything by Nik Kershaw
Marcos Mantula
Listening to So Long, Astoria (the album) by The Ataris instantly takes me back to the summer of 2003 and driving around my local town in my Mondeo Estate.
Om said:
I picked up this CD in a charity shop at the weekend:
Put it on in the car and was instantly transported back to a sunny Saturday morning in spring 1984:
Sitting in my Dad's (metallic brown!) Mk4 Cortina estate at a builder's merchants while he went inside to order some paving stones. We had just stopped off at WH Smith so I could pick up a copy of this on cassette. While I waited I popped this in the cassette player and proceeded to listen to Radio Ga Ga...
Are you me?Put it on in the car and was instantly transported back to a sunny Saturday morning in spring 1984:
Sitting in my Dad's (metallic brown!) Mk4 Cortina estate at a builder's merchants while he went inside to order some paving stones. We had just stopped off at WH Smith so I could pick up a copy of this on cassette. While I waited I popped this in the cassette player and proceeded to listen to Radio Ga Ga...
Edited by Zoon on Thursday 24th June 14:52
cherryowen said:
Now I really feel old! 
I had a P6B 3500S in 1979 when I was 20 - only because I couldn't afford to insure a 3 litre Capri.
I remember listening to The Pretenders like Brass in Pocket, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the B-52s, Thin Lizzy and that ELO double album on a C90 cassette. My Sharp radio/cassette with APSS seemed like magic at the time!
Gassing Station | Music | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff