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Nostalgic songs that make me remember times that never happened

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vizviz Frets: 10775
edited June 9 in Music
There are some songs that really put me in a pensive, nostalgic mood and put me in mind of times I never experienced, places I’ve never been to, and I don’t know why.

Keane - Somewhere only we know
Robbie Williams - Feel
Wil Young - Think I Better Leave Right Now
Manics - Design For Life
Alan Parsons - The Eagle will Rise Again
New Model Army - The Price
Gilbert O”Sullivan - Alone Again
Abba - One of Us
Olivia Newton-John - Hopelessly Devoted
Stevie Wonder - Lately

what is it about these beautiful songs? Are there any other similar ones?

https://youtu.be/Oextk-If8HQ


Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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Comments

  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14782
    Every song on Astral Weeks evokes another time, another place and another face. 

    Specific locations and characters are mentioned but should not necessarily be taken literally. 

    Some of Moondance is similarly evocative without tying itself down to actually meaning anything.
    You say, atom bomb. I say, tin of corned beef.
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  • robertyroberty Frets: 10915
    Land of hope and glory
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16396
    I love Janis Ian’s At Seventeen. Beautiful song and evokes much of the sadder side of teenage years although also I’ve never actually been a teenage girl. 
    The Toots and The Maytalls version of Take Me Home Country Roads makes me a bit homesick for a place I have never been to. 
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • NiteflyNitefly Frets: 4952
    ^^ Wis for Janis Ian.

    The Eagles' Tequila Sunrise does it for me, the mournful pedal steel guitar makes me feel I'm waking up around the dying embers of a campfire somewhere out on the range (somewhere I've never been in my life!), and the chords in the bridge part ("Take another shot of courage") make for a really haunting feel.

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  • CaseOfAceCaseOfAce Frets: 1432
    Pretty much most of the Grateful Dead catalogue.

    I can hear stuff like Dire Wolf or Jack Straw and instantly place myself living in the American mid-west in a tumbledown shack.
    ...she's got Dickie Davies eyes...
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  • vizviz Frets: 10775
    Nitefly said:
    ^^ Wis for Janis Ian.

    The Eagles' Tequila Sunrise does it for me, the mournful pedal steel guitar makes me feel I'm waking up around the dying embers of a campfire somewhere out on the range (somewhere I've never been in my life!), and the chords in the bridge part ("Take another shot of courage") make for a really haunting feel.


    Ah yes. Also Wasted Time, so poignant.
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • vizviz Frets: 10775
    roberty said:
    Land of hope and glory
    Nimrod for sure
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • KilgoreKilgore Frets: 8601
    edited April 2023
    Who Knows Where the Time Goes - Sandy Denny.

    Space Age Love Song - A Flock of Seagulls.

    Biloxi - Jesse Winchester.

    The Dutchman - Liam Clancy.
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  • Creed_ClicksCreed_Clicks Frets: 1422
    God Save the Queen
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  • tone1tone1 Frets: 5203
    Shine David Gray

    http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/59137/tone1#latest
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  • BlueingreenBlueingreen Frets: 2647
    Springsteen by Eric Church and Night Moves by Bob Seger.
    “To a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.”
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  • MPHMPH Frets: 56
    Off the top of my head, the following three songs have always made me feel particularly nostalgic.

    Time Passages - Al Stewart
    Marlene On The Wall - Suzanne Vega
    MacArthur Park - Richard Harris

    None of them have any significance to my past, so it can only be down to song mood and/or lyrics.
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28354
    I love that will young song. Good video as well. I heard another today on the radio Daniel Beddingfield if you’re not the one - is that the title?

    my all time fave nostalgic melancholic song is Wishing on a star, Rose Royce. It’s a very dear song to me. Totally throws me back to my happy teen years with my family, with that tinge of sadness that those days are gone forever.
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  • thingthing Frets: 469
    Not  a song but Adagio for Strings-Barber. Always a throat constrictor.

    Music, it's what emotions sound like.
    This is absurd.  You don’t know what you’re talking about.  It warrants combat.
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  • LitterickLitterick Frets: 679
    Anything sung in French, but especially this:

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  • BigMonkaBigMonka Frets: 1793
    @viz if you're not familiar with Jason Isbell he's the king of story telling song writing so loads of his give this kind of feeling, its an incredible ability.
    There's Elephant which is sad but beautiful song about a friend dying of cancer:

    Or Live Oak which has a historical setting but somehow still really takes you there:
    Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman, in which case always be Batman.
    My boss told me "dress for the job you want, not the job you have"... now I'm sat in a disciplinary meeting dressed as Batman.
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  • DontgiveupyourdayjobDontgiveupyourdayjob Frets: 3980
    edited April 2023
    Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
    Pearl Jam - Small Town
    Ash - Girl From Mars
    Suede - Saturday Night

    Can you tell I'm a kid of the 90s?!
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  • OffsetOffset Frets: 12514
    edited April 2023
    I love Janis Ian’s At Seventeen. Beautiful song and evokes much of the sadder side of teenage years...

    Oh boy.  Now you've taken me back.  This one reminds me of a time that DID actually happen, and every time I hear this brilliant song I think of it.

    October 1999, Pebble Beach, California (yes THAT Pebble Beach for those golfers amongst you).  Mrs O and I and another couple were driving up the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego to San Fran.  On this particular leg of the trip we hadn't booked anywhere in advance and we'd been driving for c.9 hours without finding anywhere to stop.  There was a jazz fest on and Monterey (where we'd intended to stop) was completely booked out.  We then saw a sign for a hotel in the dusk and we turned off and pulled up outside.  It was spectacular and VERY expensive-looking.  Even I had heard of Pebble Beach golf course and this was right next to it with spectacular clifftop views across the ocean.  We realised it was going to be ludicrously expensive but we were all tired so my mate and I went in to check quite how eye-watering it was.

    There was a price list on a board.  The cheapest double rooms were $300 a pop.  A $600 stopover was not what we had in mind.  We were about to go back to the car and set off when the receptionist asked if she could help.  We explained that lovely though the hotel was, it was a little more than we wanted to pay for a one-night stopover.  "Ah well sir, we have an offer on this weekend.  If you stay with us for tonight (Friday) and tomorrow, our double rooms are $99 a night.  And I can offer you a free upgrade to a premium room."

    Fifteen minutes later, the four of us were sitting in a hot tub sipping cocktails and gazing out over the Pacific.  Bliss.

    The girls went to bed after dinner and my chum and I decided to have a nightcap or three.  We found a little basement bar and there was a flyer stating that a local singer/guitarist was playing that evening.  The lady in question appeared and was extremely good.  Great instrumentalist, great voice.  She did some of her own stuff and then asked the small audience if they had any requests.  I popped up my hand and asked for 'At Seventeen'.  She sang it.  You could have heard a pin drop.  I will freely admit I was crying at the end - it was that moving.  Rapturous applause.

    Apologies for the meandering story but the song fitted in to the whole tale otherwise it would have been slightly meaningless!


    Currently for sale: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/247085/pro-ject-essential-ii-turntable
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  • Open_GOpen_G Frets: 153
    edited April 2023
    Never any good by Martin Simpson. First time I heard it, and for a while after it actually moved me to tears. 

    https://youtu.be/cBq2upq_AG8

    I’m not sure who it is the subject of the song makes me think of. Probably me but none of the subject matter really relates to me at all. 
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  • KittyfriskKittyfrisk Frets: 19399
    edited April 2023
    thing said:
    Not  a song but Adagio for Strings-Barber. Always a throat constrictor.

    Music, it's what emotions sound like.
    Also Arvo Pärt: "Spiegel im Spiegel".  And so many more.
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