Top 15 Songs That Take Me Back (And Make Me Feel Old)

Look, I apologize for not filming tonight but sometimes things just don't go as planned. The Halloween special will be completed and ready for view by Wednesday, October 31st. I am not entirely without creativity right now though, and this particular post is an idea that I've had for some time.

For as long as I've been a fan of movies, I've also been a fan of music, perhaps even longer because you hear music before you see movies growing up...or at least, I did. Anyway, sometimes songs come along that really cements that particular time frame in your mind and then when you hear it again years later, you think to yourself, "Wow, this song takes me back..." and then you realize said song is being played on some retrospective music special and then you go, "Damn, this song makes me feel old..." Here are my personal Top 15 Songs That Take Me Back (And Make Me Feel Old). I'm going to leave out some of the more obvious ones that would (potentially) be on a lot of other lists and try to make this one unique.  Was gonna make this list 13 originally, but much like my Guitar Hero blog, more entries kept coming up as I was thinking of them, but I'm gonna cut it off at 15.

#15 - "Summertime In The Void" by I Mother Earth (1998)

Okay, I won't lie, I haven't heard this song in, like, 12 years.  Gimme 5:17.  *5:17 later* Okay, that's better.  Um, truth be told, this song ain't nearly as good as I remember it being back in 98.  Probably why it didn't pop into my head until I thought of this list and why it's on the bottom.  Next.

#14 - "Blown Wide Open" by Big Wreck (1998)

Yeah, the same guys who did "That Song."  Seriously, that's the name of the tune.  It also occurs to me that, for reasons unbeknownst to me, a lot of these songs are probably going to be from around 1998.  I'm not entirely sure why this is.  It's not like 1998 stood out to me as an absolutely stellar year or anything.  I mean, I was finishing Grade 6, I listened to a bit of everything & Roland Emmerich's Godzilla had come out.  Fuck-a-doodle doo, right?  Anyway, "Blown Wide Open" was one of the big songs from that year (as a Canadian radio listener, anyway) and it has a very small piece of nostalgia in my heart.  Has aged better than "Summertime In The Void", but it's not really my kind of rock anymore.  Still better than Ian Thornley's solo stuff.

#13 - "Why" by Wide Mouth Mason (1999)

So I can't find the official video, but oh well.  Wide Mouth Mason's "Why" was sort of a pump-up song for me back in 1999 (sad, right?) and looking back on this song 13 years later, I kinda like the slightly jazzy, Zoot Suit swinger feeling of the guitar riffs now.  Makes me wanna don a Fedora and striped suit to chat with The Rat Pack or something.  Again, not really my kind of rock anymore, but still catchy.  "Sugarcane" is the better song, but "Why" holds more nostalgia.

#12 - "Terrible" by Insane Clown Posse (1999)

Yeah, I used to listen to Insane Clown Posse, what of it?  I never considered myself a "juggalo" by any means, but y'know what?  As a socially frustrated teenager with some dangerously dark thoughts running through his head in 1999, ICP had their use and place and this one was my favorite.  Listening to this song again as a more analytical adult, I still dig the guitar riffs and the whole message that society and news groups do not have their priorities in order and focus on trivial things instead of the real issues ("bombs are blowing and the cops are corrupt, but all you care about is who the President fucked?!" as an example) really isn't that far off, even all the way back in 1999.  I haven't followed them in well over a decade, but I'm sure Violent J & Shaggy 2 Dope are having a field day with the world of news media today.

#11 - "Brackish" by Kittie (1999)

1999 was the year of the infamous Woodstock 99, which got me thoroughly acquainted with the wonderful genre of music called "metal" (my 13th birthday was the same day as the Limp Bizkit/Rage Against The Machine/Metallica riots).  It was also around this time that girls became more...ahem, interesting, if you will, to me.  So when you have a ravenously horny, freshly crowned metal-head Canadian watching a music video of an all-female Canadian metal band...I don't know how to end this sentence appropriately, so I'm sure you can put two and two together here.  Besides, just so I don't end this entry sounding like a gross pig, I'd like to point out that this song is still Kittie's best (IMO, I haven't followed them for about 10 years) and holds up fairly well.  As an adult, I can respect a band who skipped their final exams of high school to tour Ozzfest 2000, featuring one of the best lineups in the festival's history.

#10 - "Independence Day" by Martina McBride (1992)

As I mentioned in my Top 7 Guilty Pleasures In Music entries, I used to be a country fan when I was younger.  However, the official video of this song has been blocked in my home country.  Fine, I can deal with that.  Upon hearing it again, is it bad that...I still kinda like this song?  When I was 6, I just loved Martina's voice and that more or less sold me on this song, not taking the lyrics into consideration (I was 6, who had time for that?).  Listening to the lyrics as an adult, I'm like, "Holy crap, my parents let me sing along to this?"  For those who don't know, the song is about the perspective of a little girl who's mother is tired of the father abusing the child, so to get even, she sends the kid off to the fair and burns the house down.  That's...wow, I didn't realize for all these years that this song was as dark as it was. Well played.

#9 - "Hello Time Bomb" by Matthew Good Band (1999)

Ah, the days where Matthew Good actually had some beat to his music, prior to the days where began singing about how he was the embodiment of panes of glass.  "Hello Time Bomb" takes me back to a specific place, a sock-hop at my school where my buddies and I tried to start a mosh pit to this song (again, sad, right?).  Suffice to say, the teachers separated us all and the song was changed.  Hm, and people wondered why I didn't like going to the dances.

#8 - "You Don't Know What It's Like" by Econoline Crush (2000)

I rediscovered this song the other day and immediately put it on my phone, which is also my car stereo.  Anyway, I can't decide if this song falls under the hard rock or metal category as it seems to have elements of both within, but when I think back to some of Econoline Crush's other stuff, it never quite screamed "metal" to me.  Maybe that's why this one was my favorite back in the day and why it popped back into my head when I was knocking this list around.  I'm glad that I still like it as much as I did 12 years ago and wish Econoline Crush the best.

#7 - "Got The Life" by Korn (1999)

I'd be lying if I said that I was won over by this song on the first listen.  In fact, I remember hating this song when I first heard it.  Yet, much like how Slipknot did three years later with their Disasterpieces DVD, "Got The Life" got the grow on me and I remember spending many nights hanging out at a friend's house listening to the Follow The Leader album, with "Got The Life" on loop a few times.  Listening to it again, it takes me back to those fairly care-free years of biking through the field that is now a Wal-Mart parking lot and talking about how awesome of a show Korn put on at Woodstock that year and arguing over whether or not the amount of tits that are flashed to you during your set determined how well you performed (hint: it doesn't).

#6 - "Above" by Finger Eleven (Released in 1997, didn't hear until 1999)

This was my first introduction to Finger Eleven and 13 years later, I'm still a fan.  I never bothered to buy the album Tip (that this song comes from), but once their follow up The Greyest Of Blue Skies hit shelves, I was on that like flies on shit.  A lot of bands tend to fade in and out of my view over time and I find myself rediscovering old acts quite often (especially as of late), but Finger Eleven has been one band that has always been there.  Say what you will about the direction the band has taken over the years (I could honestly go the rest of my life without ever hearing "Paralyzer" again), but I still like them and I have "Above" to thank for getting me into them to start.

#5 - "Powertrip" by Monster Magnet (1998)

I remember hearing this song for the first time and being told it was on the soundtrack for the movie Soldier.  I wanted to see that movie for the very reason until one of my friends saw it and told me that he didn't actually hear the song featured in the film.  Suffice to say, my interest in the movie Soldier dropped dramatically and I stuck with rocking out to the song.  From what I hear, I made the right call.

#4 - "Du Hast" by Rammstein (1997)
 
This is the song that put Rammstein in North America's notice.  "Du Hast" is Rammstein's "Stairway To Heaven," their "Enter Sandman," their "Pour Some Sugar On Me."  If you don't follow what I'm trying to say, this is their most popular song and chances are if someone says "Du Hast" is their favorite Rammstein song, it's probably the only one they've ever heard.  This doesn't make the song any less nostalgic or enjoyable, because this is the first Rammstein song I ever heard.  I kept an eye on these guys and they just seemed to get better and better with each album.  Oh, and these guys easily put on one of the best fucking live shows I've ever seen.  It should be on everyone's bucket list to see a Rammstein concert.

#3 - "Line Up" by Aerosmith (released in 1993, heard it in 1994)

Probably my second favorite Aerosmith song, taking second place to fellow "Get A Grip" track "Eat The Rich."  I present everyone reading this blog a challenge: listen to this song without thinking of the montage from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.  Go ahead, I'll give you a minute.  You can't, can you?  That's okay, neither can I.  Hell, I like this song because of that movie.  This is a great cruising song, too.

#2 - "The Thunder Rolls" by Garth Brooks (1990)

Fuck yeah!  I've never been able to find the official video for this until now!  I've mentioned this song before on the list of Songs That Should Be Covered By Hard Rock/Metal Acts on my What Gives entry.  If you're a long-time reader of my blog, you probably already know that this is one song that my opinion of has never changed in 22 years and that a metal band could do an amazing cover of it (come on, Machine Head.  Get on that!).  It turns out Jet Black Stare (famous for doing Film Brain's Bad Movie Beatdown Theme Song) did a cover, but it doesn't compare well to the original.  However, when researching the release date of this song, I found that Tanya Tucker had originally written the song but didn't want to release it initially.  Garth picked it up and got a hit single out of it.  Tanya eventually released her version in 1995, but it doesn't hold a candle to Garth's, for his captures the tone of the conflict far better than hers or Jet Black Stare's does.

#1 - "Stereo" by The Watchmen (1998)

I got the urge to YouTube this song the other day and as soon as vocalist Daniel Greaves began singing, I just felt drenched from head to toe in nostalgia.  This song holds a very special place because I believe it's one of the first that I actually went above and beyond to memorize the lyrics for and amazingly enough, 14 years later, I still remember most of them.  And y'know what?  This is still a pretty damn awesome song.  How fitting, a song from 1998 (what was it about that year?) by a band from the capitol city of my home province takes the #1 spot and makes me feel really reminiscent and old at the same time.  How poetic.

Now, if you'll excuse me, Old Man Cynic is far overdue for his nap.  Good night, everyone!

-The Cynic