“Seasons in the Sun” (yeah I know!) always reminds me of hanging out in my grandmother’s back yard in the 70’s, listening to my nifty transistor radio.
“Comfortably Numb”, Pink Floyd. I’m not into drugs and I didn’t appreciate Pink Floyd until my late 20’s, but they are a great band to unwind to.
“Lyin Eyes” reminds me of a good/bad relationship I had.
A couple by Pink Floyd–*San Tropez *brings up memories of every lazy day I’ve ever spent at the beach. *Grantchester Meadows *does the same for the times I’ve relaxed in an open field somewhere; listening to the birds, the burbling of a stream, and wind in the trees.
Thirding Under the Milky Way - very evocative, true.
Other songs that capture a mood for me:
Nightswimming by *REM *- one of those songs that screens little film clips in your head, IYKWIM? The lake, the moonlight, the raft, the oil slick creature…OK, maybe not that last bit.
Blue Bell Knoll by Cocteau Twins - unintelligible words but again, they paint pictures in the head - English woods and wild flowers…
Bird Dream of Olympus Mons and Velouria by *Pixies *kinda forms the soundtrack to half the SF short stories I read nowadays - before I read them!
Raping a Slave and A Screw (Holy Money) by *Swans * evoke, alright - they evoke anger, like a motherfuck.
Oh, and I was just listening to Dead Can Dance’s Severance - now there’s a song that evokes sadness mingled with a weird worldweariness.
There are a million of them – I’ll list a few off the top of my head.
First off, this is an excellent opportunity for me to mention one of my all-time favorite songs ever ever: “Soul Coaxin’ (Ame Caline)” by Raymond Lefevre. It’s an old-fashioned instrumental (came out in 1968 but sounds like it could have been from 1958), and is, I guess, frankly mawkish and cloyingly sentimental… but it just totally grabs me, just like it was designed to do. It makes me feel like I am soaring over the rooftops in pursuit of my dream, or something.
I’m a sucker for a lot of stuff like that. Like, any of those old theme songs to Western movies – especially the theme from The Magnificent Seven, which still gives me chills even though it got ruined by becoming the theme for the “Marlboro Country” ad campaign. It puts me right out in the wide open spaces of the Old West.
“Kind of a Drag”, by the Buckinghams, and “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)”, by Jr. Walker and the All-Stars, are two songs that instantly take me back to my adolescence, not because of association with any specific event, but just because of something about the way they sound.
Brian Eno has a lot of very evocative stuff, especially on Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, Another Green World, and Before and After Science. Listening to Another Green World is like taking a 45-minute trip to the Caribbean – and not in a rowdy, Margarita-drinking Jimmy Buffett sense, but like when you’ve been there awhile and the tranquility just settles down on you and everything seems to glow.
Devin Townsend, “The Death of Music”
Call me cheesy, but I have a whole story imagined for the Dan Fogelberg’s Another Auld Lang Syne. When I got familar with it as a kid, I could see the locations in my hometown, picture the characters, everything.
I also agree with Baker Street, and I would throw in as well On And On by Randy Van Warmer (It’s the one that starts “Down in Jamaica they got lots of pretty women…” You’ve probably heard it a million times), The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot, and - believe it or not - the theme songs from Welcome Back, Kotter and Taxi.
What can I say? I’m a child of the 70’s…
Eveybody’s talkin’ at me
I can’t hear a word they’re sayin’
Only the echoes of my mind
Love this song. The older I get the more it applies.
Al Stewart’s Roads To Moscow which captures a feeling of the weariness and pain of an endless war in the winter.
“Come Away With Me” by Norah Jones
“Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin
and my odd pick, because I’m an orchestral nut:
“Jupiter” from The Planets Suite by Holst. The entire song seems like sex to me, happy energetic foreplay at the beginning, slows into a romantic theme in the middle, then it builds into an exciting, erupting climax at the end. He can bring the Joviality for me.
Soo…this Jupiter thing by Holst is like the Doors? “Light My Fire”?
Ish… but longer, and with more contrasting moods and themes…
Oh, I know, I’m familiar with Holst. “Light My Fire” has, to me, a definite rhythm as background to the sexxxy.
Bonnie Raitt’s, “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” The sheer resignation in her voice conveys at least as much as the lyrics.
Warren Zevon has two. Both, “Keep Me in your Heart,” and “Don’t Let Us Get Sick,” are a couple of the most touching, tear-welling songs I’ve ever heard about dying and moving out of your life.
“Desperado”
Oh, there are many. This list is just the tiny sample that occurs to me at the moment:
“Signal to Noise,” Peter Gabriel. I adore this song. The crescendo at the end is positively orgasmic. I’ve been lucky enough to see him perform it in concert, and it was absolutely amazing.
“Christmas Eve/Sarajevo,” Trans Siberian Orchestra. Powerful stuff. Just hits me in the gut every time I hear it.
“Winter,” Tori Amos. I can’t listen to it without puddling up. Not sure why. My dad is still alive and healthy, but…yeah.
“Approaching Lightspeed,” Wolfsheim. I can’t hear it without visualizing a music video showing a montage of space-shuttle video, and culminating with the footage of the Challenger explosion. I doubt that’s what they had in mind, but that’s what I see.
“30KFT,” Assemblage 23. Another one I can’t hear with out getting all choked up.
“Oh Life (There Must Be More),” Alan Parsons. Beautiful song, very sad.
“Subdivisions,” Rush. Love the music, and the message is spot-on for every high school misfit who ever lived.
“Might As Well Be On Mars,” Alice Cooper. Especially the part about “Maybe I should try…” Another song that I have a music video (of my own imagination) playing in my head.
A lot of Al Stewart’s stuff. My personal favorites are Time Passages and Song on the Radio. The combination of guitar and sax on both is outstanding.
Another Al Stewart - On The Border
George Harrison’s - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Van Morrison’s - Moondance