One time it particular, mid 70's.
It wasn't one song, it was one album. Dark Side of The Moon.
I was 13-14 years old and my friend an I were riding around in his older bothers shitty van. Sitting on a beat up couch accompanied by 2 Dobermans. His brother was 10 years older and he and his buddy were cruising around smoking dope. They had Dark Side Of The Moon playing.......
Thus started my Floyd listening career....
I had many of those moments back in the day. One of them was also a Pink Floyd. I had never heard of them before until a friend gave me an 8-track of "Atom Heart Mother" back in 1970. I was hooked. Went out and bought everything that I could find. About six months later our local PBS TV station showed a Floyd concert and also simulcast it on an FM station. My parents had a huge ass Magnavox console stereo that I cranked up to listen to the concert. I can still see them playing "Cymbaline" with a bunch of clouds floating by in the background. That song remains one of my favorites. All this was pre "Dark Side Of The Moon" when they became hugely popular. In the intervening years I bought pretty much everything that they released. Sometime back in the late eighties I even found VHS copies of "More" and "Obscured By Clouds", the two movies that they did soundtracks to.......
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM5iopSs_rI
Had a rear shock housing bust in my 67 GMC van going down the Dan Ryan expressway at 65 mph. Think of it every time Dark Side of the moon play.
ReplyDeleteJerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" 1978. I was standing in line at a taco stand in Panama City Beach, Florida with some girls in bikinis. I was almost fourteen. Not that it is one of my favorites, but when I hear that song today, I can still feel the heat of the asphalt and smell the Hawaiian Tropic Coconut tanning oil and tacos.
ReplyDeleteFor me it was Billy Squire, emotions in motion. Whenever I hear that song, I remember my first car, my first girlfriend, driving around the mountainside of Northern NJ. Just got the car (1972 Camaro RS), and my license and never felt more free. Those were good times. Damn it. Thanks for making me pine for them.
ReplyDeletePink Floyd....got turned on to Ummagumma in 1969...."Astronomy Domine" and "Careful with that Axe, Eugene"....classic....we were passing around some Columbian at the time....first time for everything...
ReplyDeleteMy friend Dave from Mesa College came over one evening and said,"Hey man... ya' gotta' listen to this!!".. I had this great Stereo system I got over in WESTPAC in the NAVY...(1968) "Dark side of the Moon" was hot off the press and the rest is history!!!
ReplyDeleteskybill
I can't even remember when I got turned onto Floyd anymore but my best guess is the local radio station in Portland back in about 1970 before we moved back to Coos Bay Ore. (Bumfuck Redneckistan)
ReplyDeleteI do however, very clearly recall the first time I ever heard Green Manilishi off the Live Judas Priest album in same Redneckistan back in 79 or 80.
That one was a life changer for me.
I always liked heavy rock but that one pushed me over the edge into Metal territory.
Been a Metal Head ever since. Still love the Floyd though, I consider David Gilmore's guitar work to be a Gift from God to us mere mortals.
No one comes even close to his level.
The opening riff of "Killing Floor" by Led Zeppelin takes me back to when I was stationed at Gila Bend AFAF, Arizona. It deemed to define the desolate landscape of the South West Desert.
ReplyDeleteBayouwulf
I saw pink Floyd in 1972 tripping on choclate mescaline. they opened the show with "one of these days"
ReplyDeleteFour of us neighborhood guys were riding down Graymont Avenue, listening to the radio, the first time any of us heard Led Zep. We sat there in silence stunned at this wonderful music and when it was finished we started screaming at each other "did you hear that?"
ReplyDeleteWore out my first 2 vinyl copies of Dark Side Of The Moon.
ReplyDeleteMade several clean cassette copies from a 1/2-speed master LP by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs.
It was the first CD I purchased.
It is still THE sound track the Smarter Half and I use when we're covering long distances at night.
Speaking of night, I hate it when I hear DSOTM during daylight hours. In fact, DSOTM should only be listened to after Midnight.
Other "stop-what-you're-doing-and-listen" music: Solsbury Hill, Maggie May (one of THE great rock riffs), ... oh Hell. We could play this all night.
Rolling Stones, Satisfaction. Deer Lake, cabin #4
ReplyDeleteI was a late comer to Pink Floyd. I had heard them but didn't officially become a floyd fanatic until the year 1985. I was a freshman in college and my roommate was a stoner and decided I needed to come over to the dark side. Years later I would be speeding down a dark road at 2 in the morning in my 1980 black buick park avenue. "On the run" was booming loudly from the cassette player. I was speeding. Cops...elude...crash....run....hide....k9 unit...found. Jail for a day, a shitty lawyer, and paid the price. Good times.
ReplyDeleteLed Zeppelin, "You're Time is Gonna Come". We were coming back from a night of culture in Juarez, Mexico. 1971
ReplyDeleteI'd been listening to Pink Floyd since about 1968, but when DSOTM came out it blew me away.
ReplyDeleteI have several different "driving" collections depending on what car I take, and where I'm going.
First album I played on vinyl for my daughter. Three times in a row until the Sony SL220 drive motor seized. The CD is hanging out of my truck CD player right now and has been there for 9 months. Push it in when I need a little rejuvenation. I Robot is up there with seminal albums.
ReplyDeleteSpin Drift
As a kid in 1976. Not ‘a’ song, but a group of songs.
ReplyDeleteI had heard of The Beatles and figured they must have been a decent band. So when a radio station was going to do a morning of Beatle songs, I figured I might listen and see if I recognized any.
They played so many good songs I recognized, I couldn’t believe that one band did all that in 6 or 7 years. I more often listen to more modern songs, but I was ‘blown away’ that day and continue to have the utmost respect for their music.
First time I heard Allman Brothers Live at Filmore East. Enough said.
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