# Songs You Associate to Other Things **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 6, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-associate-to-other-things/243773 "2004-05-06T03:25:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-associate-to-other-things/243773/1 "2004-05-06T03:25:18Z")
Boy, that’s an awkward title, ain’t it? The [Clown Music](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=254541) thread got me thinking about this. Whatever the composer of _Gladiators_ intended people to imagine he wrote the music has been totally supplanted by the image of cartwheeling clowns. In my mind, whenever I hear _Shout Away_ by The Rolling Stones, all I can think of now is that episode of _The Simpsons_ with the Roofi concert. That Herman’s Hermit song they play while Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley walk down the beach in the _Naked Gun_ movie, always brings back the image of that movie whenever I hear the song. I know everybody else must have something similar happen to them. What are some songs you now associate with things other than what the original composer intended? ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-associate-to-other-things/243773/2 "2004-05-06T03:34:41Z")
I remember several years ago Burger King used Modern English’s “I melt with you”…one of my all-time favorite 80’s songs to advertise hamburgers. What blasphemy! Now that song always makes me think of fast food burgers. Oh…and I think the Stone’s song you’re talking about is called _Gimme Shelter_…the lyrics are, in part “War Children! It’s just a **shot away**!” ---
**Author:** ![figenschoug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a698b9/32.png) [@figenschoug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/figenschoug)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-associate-to-other-things/243773/3 "2004-05-06T07:36:17Z")
Quite a few years ago, I had a case of Titanic mania (This was before the movie, mind you.) I knew every little useless piece of trivia you can possibly imagine about the damned vessel. At one point me and my old man spent a couple of weekends putting together one of those model thingamabobs. It just so happened that at the same time, my older sister discovered the not so hidden gems of said old mans record collection. During those few weeks, the greatest hits of “the Doors” were on endless repeat. “This is the end” indeed. It makes me think of icebergs, ships…suchlike. I smell the paint whenever I hear that and a couple of other of their tunes. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-associate-to-other-things/243773/4 "2004-05-06T17:32:19Z")
Well, I would think that most people probably associate the overture from Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” as just “that music from 2001”. Similar with Barber’s “Adagio For Strings” (a piece which I knew and loved long before I ever saw “Platoon”). As for me… if I ever hear “Everybody Wants Some” (Van Halen), it will always bring up images of the little claymation hamburger in “Better Off Dead”. ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-associate-to-other-things/243773/5 "2004-05-06T20:03:12Z")
After watching the show _Get a Life_ (I must be the only person on this planet that remembers that show from the early 90’s and actually liked it) repeatedly, I can never hear the song _Stand_ by REM without thinking of Chris Elliott crashing into his neighbor’s car on his bike and falling across the hood and off the other side. After seeing _Back to the Future_, I cannot hear the song _The Power of Love_ by Huey Lewis and the News without thinking of Marty skateboarding. After seeing _Grosse Pointe Blank_, I cannot hear the song _I Can See Clearly Now_ by Aretha Franklin (I think), without thinking of John Cusack firing on people in the streets below while casually talking to his secretary. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-associate-to-other-things/243773/6 "2004-05-07T00:40:43Z")
_Ashokan Farewell_ better known as the theme song of Ken Burns **Civil War** is not an American Civil War tune, actually it was written in 1982. The tune was originally written to illustrate the bittersweet feelings of the folk music and dance camps in the Northeast. [http://www.jayandmolly.com/ashokanfaq.shtml](http://www.jayandmolly.com/ashokanfaq.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![angelicate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@angelicate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/angelicate)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-associate-to-other-things/243773/7 "2004-05-07T01:36:28Z")
We found out that Bob marley rally calmed our daughter down when she was about a month old. When we were moving from NY to VA and when we were driving from VA to TX for a family visit, _Legend_ was in heavy rotation, and I can’t hear most of the songs now without thinking of them as Emma’s bedtime music. In fact, the CD now has an almost permanent place in a CD player in her room and is played every night. ---
**Author:** ![angelicate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@angelicate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/angelicate)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-associate-to-other-things/243773/8 "2004-05-07T01:37:55Z")
rally=really ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-associate-to-other-things/243773/9 "2004-05-07T02:23:35Z")
I always associate the song Don’t You (forget about me) by Simple Minds with the ending of the Futurama episode Luck of the Fryrish.