derrill larkin loved his music

i know i've written before about how much i love music---it plays a HUGE role in my life, and i associate so many different memories with music.

if i don't have music, i wont:
clean the house
weed the yard
exercise
drive anywhere

in fact, my biggest example of what a freak i am about music happened about 4 years ago. i used to run out in the fields by our house--never long distances, usually about 3 miles.

i had an mp3 player that i had 40 or 50 songs loaded onto, and i nevereverEVER went without it. i was about 1/3rd of my way into the run one morning when all of a sudden the player stopped. i checked the batteries, and they were totally shot. i turned right around and ran home. i was done.

but i digress...


i remember riding in my dad's brown buick with him when i was 10 or 12--it was a big car, one with a full bench seat across the front, upholstered in heavy brown velvet-velour fabric and it had a kickin' 8-track stereo system. i remember that well because buick gave an 8-track tape designed by buick specifically for buick car buyers that was in the glove compartment. when i would ride in the car with him, i would pull it out and pop it in.

my dad and mom didn't really listen to popular music on the radio--we did have a LOT of abba and carpenters and "west side story" going on at our house, but this 8-track had some songs that i thought were the BOMB.

i remember mary macgregor's "torn between two lovers" and rupert holmes' "escape (the pina colada song)" both being on there, but i had to look up the other song--i was trying to explain it to my friends the other day, and i was saying, "remember that song where she says she's been with kings and preachers and then sings, 'i've been to paradise, but i've never been to me?' " and then there were crickets chirping and my friends were looking at me with blank stares and i guessed then that they didn't.

but, lucky for YOU i found that little gem, done by an unknown artist by the name of:

now i'm REALLY aging myself because this bad boy was popular back in 1982. i just remember sitting in the car as my dad drove and flipping through the buttons on the stereo, trying to get to the song i wanted (WAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY before the days where you could just skip to the next song--criminy, you couldn't even fast forward yet--you just had to wait it out.) and him putting up with it as long as he could until i drove him crazy and he shut me down.

so what i wanna know is, are there any songs that you hear a few bars of and they just take you back to a place or time in your life? let's hear it.
btw, if you want to see the spectacular video by charlene, clickity HERE