Do you have a specific song that is a bookmark in your life which is forever tied to a specific place and time? Obviously most people have plenty. Songs played at weddings and funerals etc but I’m talking about just general, inconsequential times in our lives, marked by a song.
I have two. The first one was when I was 19 and me and Dawn were drinking in the City Tavern in Newcastle. I can’t remember what it was about now but we unusually ended up having a blazing row. This isn’t something we don’t often do now but back then we were considerably more hot-headed after both were emerging from dysfunctional upbringings.
In its conclusion, Dawn stormed out in a fury. Right at that moment, Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd came on the jukebox. I knew I had to choose to go after her or not. 45 years later it’s obvious which I chose. But that song always takes me back to that dark night.
The second came a year and a half earlier and is the ACDC song Whole Lotta Rosie. It was my first term at college and I actually didn’t know much by the band. It was probably too new! I’d seen that Rock Goes To Collage from, I think, Colchester but my real introduction to the group came courtesy of the lad in the room above me. He loved the If You Want Blood album and played it at high volume when his girlfriend was visiting, thinking it would hide their passionate moaning. It didn’t.
After a while, I realised that when Whole Lotta Rosie came on, they were getting down to serious business. Now if you know the song, its riff is very rhythmic and I think he used it as a kind of metronome. The track opens the second side and is 4:05 Every time it was played, the bed springs started squeaking. And boy they did squeak a lot. And though it was 4 minutes long, he never got to the end of the song. I think 3 minutes was his best effort. Ever since I’ve heard the song, it always takes me back to those days and my first exposure to the realities of life.
