What's a song that takes you right back to a specific moment?
When I was in the 7th grade, I broke my femur just a couple weeks before my birthday. I mean, I broke the fuck out of it. Major surgery, a week in the hospital, broke the fuck out of that bone. For my birthday I was supposed to go to Endless Grind, our local skate shop, and pick a new board. I really needed a new board and at the time my family did not have a lot of money, so this was a huge deal. The one I had been riding, a Rob Roskopp Target III, was absolutely smashed. I had already drilled the back trucks back to get some more life out of the extremely worn-down tail.
This broken bone was a fucking disaster for my birthday plans that year. My parents rightfully thought getting me a new board that I would not be able to skate for at least 6 months was probably a cruel gift, they were probably right. Knowing my obsession with music they thought that replacing my Frankenstein's Monster of a stereo cobbled together from multiple old stereos was a better idea. So my birthday rolls around and I get a new stereo and enough money to buy 3 new cassette tapes, it was not a new board but it was a killer present! My parents take me to the local record store and I crutch in there on my broken leg and start to pour over my decision. Again, we were pretty poor so I had to make really good decisions because I would not be getting new music for a while so I needed to make 3 really good choices.
Choice one was Dokken's Back For The Attack. I already dug Dokken and this album had the song they penned for The Nightmare On Elm Street 3 soundtrack, “Dream Warriors,” and as a horror and metal fan this was a double win! Choice 2 was AC/DC's For Those About To Rock, an album that I love to this day. This was a no brainer choice. I mean the opening track alone was worth the price of admission, let alone the rest of this killer collection of songs.
Side note, I started running around 13 and ran HEAVILY into my very late 40's before shifting over to weightlifting. I sustained an injury to my left knee while training for a 30-mile race with my friend Chris, torn meniscus and an MRI that showed clearly that the years of running and skateboarding had left me with not much cartilage. Running at this point was such a big part of my life that I felt my identity had been stripped away. I worked hard to rehab my knee, and my first run back was to AC/DC's For Those About To Rock. The song hyped me up and got me moving and between the joy that I was running again and the impact of the song I started to cry. So imagine a guy tattooed from the top of his head down to his toes running down the road, crying and yelling along to AC/DC, a ridiculous picture for sure.
Anyway, back on track. The third choice was a wild card. I picked it with no idea what it sounded like. Something about the cover and the band name made me just have to know what it sounded like, it was Metallica's Master Of Puppets. I had no idea when I bought this album it would change my life but damn if it did not do just that! The song that changed the course of my whole existence though was "Battery". I can say without a hint of exaggeration that there was the person I was before I heard it and the person, I would be after I heard it who was forever changed. The aggression and intensity of that song still give me goosebumps when I hear it, there is nothing else like it and for all the heavy music that has come since nothing riles me up like that song does. If I need a shot of adrenaline I always immediately turn to that song.
That song and that record sent me down a whole new path musically and without it, I would not be who I am today. So when I hear that song I can vividly remember sitting in my room with a broken leg, headphones on, listening to that acoustic intro completely unaware I am about to be absolutely mowed over by a single song so intense that it changes my entire life.
I hope you have had a song hit you as hard as this one hit me. If you have, I would love to hear about it!
Comments
I remember purchasing Lateralus by Tool when I was in 8th grade. The first time I listened to the album full through on my headphones was that evening in between a drive-in screening of White Chicks and one of the Mummy films.
I’ll never forget looking up at the stars listening to that album, hearing the songs bleed into each other and having a profound connection to the music.
I think you did a marvelous job of describing your experience of this life-changing music. I don’t think I match your prose, but I know for a fact the song altered my brain:
Daniel Johnston – Hi How Are You
Pharmakon – Bestial Burden
Dock Boggs
Ben Frost – Kill Shot
Cleo Sol – Rose in the Dark
There have been others, but those stick out for completely changing my taste in music as well as how I viewed the world, myself, and creativity.