Listography - Songs that transport me to a particular time and place

Music is a bit like perfume. One whiff of a certain tune and suddenly you're tumbling down the rabbit hole of space and time into a long forgotten but very precise moment from your past life.

There are so many songs and albums that do this for me (thank you music), but the force is particularly strong in a few select ones.

And so we begin the next Listography. It's a ridiculously easy one - apart from limiting them to just five that is.

Here's mine:

1. Space Oddity - Bowie
Bowie was the gift that kept on giving from my older and cooler siblings. At the time there was something confusing that I didn't get about him, and a weirdness that was almost frightening for a young girl still running around in pig tails and dungarees (cheers Mum). But the draw was always there, and never more so than through Space Oddity. I loved it the minute I heard it and each time I listen to it now I am transported back into the den of my friend Jenny's house, where her sister would eject Madonna's True Blue cassette tape and put it on especially for me. (I never did like Madonna).

2. Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
A double whammy. This still brilliant tune is forever welded in my mind to other delights such as The The and Psychedelic Furs. For me it's the moment of getting ready to go out to the local club, when your fake id was the passport to the night's success or failure.
Years later, finally of age and drunk to prove it, I was standing unsteadily in a busy pub in New Zealand wearing a witch's hat and stripy tights when this song started unexpectedly blasting through the speakers. The joy!
Incidentally, I'd like to apologise to all the people who were in the room that night.

3. I hope that I don't fall in love with you - Tom Waits
University was filled with music, from the obvious Primal Scream and Pink Floyd to the 'friends of a friend' new band The Frames and guilty pleasures such as The Carpenters. But the song that brings me sweeping down to that particular house, in that particular street, where that particular guy handed me a tape and told me to 'listen to this' - is this beautiful tune from the fabulous Closing Time.


4. The Sea - Morcheeba
'Left my soul there, down by the sea'. *sigh* Byron Bay was supposed to be a three day stopover as I backpacked my way alone down the Australian East Coast. But on day one it got under my skin and then I just couldn't leave, It was a special place and a special time and this song was the soundtrack to it all.

5. New York City Cops - The Strokes
A boring Friday night, Top of the Pops on the TV playing the same old crap until - hold on - what the f*ck is that! There was no hype to believe on my part, but they would have lived up to it anyway. That song came out of nowhere, hit me in the face and made me remember that there was great music being made out there. Actually, years later Julian Casablancas would hit his manager in the face too. Glad mine was just metaphorical.

So that's my rather lovely list. Now it's time for yours. If you want to join in just add your post to the linky below and I'll pop by for a visit.

Enjoy the trip down your musical memory lane.