Which songs/albums take you back to college?


Some of my most vivid memories are from my college years and certain albums/songs really transport me back in time. Just curious what those may be for you.

1. Pearl Jam - Ten. Nothing defines my college experience more than this, nothing. Every song has a special meaning.

2. Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger. Lots of drinking happened to this album, memories a little fuzzy.

3. Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy. New romance.

4. Tool - Undertow. I'm really sick of college (esp electromagnetics) at this point and this album lets me rage.
jim_swantko
Since I was in the military during what would have been my college years...
1. Sanford Townsend Band
2. Bob Seger-Night Moves
3. Climax Blues Band-Gold Plated
4. Heart-Dreamboat Annie
Violent Fems, U2 Joshua Tree, Talking Heads Stop Making Sence, The Cult. I was young and foolish...
Freshman year, some guy down the hall in my dorm played "Lady" by Styx (or was it Kansas?) over and over at high volume. I still shudder whenever I hear it.

Bob Seger (Live Bullet) was always in rotation in Michigan. The first Boston album was released just as I left for school. Talking Heads, Genesis, Springsteen, The Who, Rod Stewart, Patti Smith, Sly Stone and a bunch of others, including Elvis, played locally -Ann Arbor, Detroit and/or Pontiac- and were always heard a lot after the shows took place. Sometimes a song on the radio will recall one of those performances. Same deal with George Thorogood.

Marty
Paul Westerberg's first foray into solo stuff (post-Replacements), REM, Live, and then some stuff that I just could not stomach like Blind Melon and the theme song to the show "Friends" and that type of soft edgeless music.
1. Led Zepplin 1--Dazed and Confused was the song we played most often that first year in the dorm.

2. Cream--Wheels of Fire; I was psyching up for their concert at Olympia Stadium in Detroit that Fall.

3. MC5--Kick out the Jams; they were local and big at U of Michigan in the Fall of '68.

4. Joni Mitchell's first album, Song to a Seagull. I listened to this a lot, as I was learning most of the songs to teach a friend of mine. Helped that I knew she used open G tuning on her guitar, otherwise my friend and I would have massive arthritis in our hands today.
If college isn't one of the best episodes of your life, you're doing it wrong . . . my list is too long to include, but here's some of them

Neil Young - Harvest
Boz Scaggs - Boz Scaggs
Traffic - Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
Camel - Mirage and Snow Goose
Illusion - Out of the mist
Genesis - Lamb Lies Down
!.The Doors, S/T
2.Jimi Hendrix Are you Experienced
3.Cream,Disrali Gears,
4.Love, Forever Changes
5.Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow
And many more Psychedelic and Prog Rock Bands.

Then I turned on,Tuned in and dropped out..........Peace !
Bruce Springsteen. Mostly "The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle" , "Greetings From Asbury Park" and "Born to Run". I don't think there was a single frat party that didn't blast "Rosilita" at least 3 times a night.
psychedelic furs and rem. can't listen to either without thinking about the good ol days.
Anything from Supertramp "Breakfast in America", "My Sharona", The Cars, Tom Petty "Damn the Torpedoes"...all transport me back to freshman year '79/80.
I left for college with 2 suitcases, and in there were 2 CD's in those suitcases:

1) U2 -- The Joshua Tree
2) REM -- Green

And a couple albums/songs that were most memorable for me in college:

3) Pearl Jam -- Ten
4) Sir Mix a lot: Baby Got Back

Michael
Martyk1-I always confuse the following bands that positively SUCK too:
Kansas
Styx
Journey
REO Speedwagon

We listened to a lot of Dead, Stones, Kinks, Bowie, Talking Heads and Costello.
at the risk of dating myself :

Bachman Turner Overdrive

Mcartney "Band on the Run"

Spirit, Blue oyster Cult, Queen Just a few of the many incredible pieces of work!
High school for me but "Grand Illusion" is actually quite a good solid rocking album end-to-end by Styx. "Miss America" is one of my favorite rockers from the 70s and has a simple but killer guitar riff that I love to this day.

The rest of their subsequent output is less consistent.

"Leftoverture" by Kansas ain't bad either.
Excellent Thread, another thread made me think about this recently:

INXS - Shabooh Shabaah

Prince - Purple Rain

U2 - War

U2 - The Joshua Tree

The Cult - Love

REM - Murmur

REM - Life's Rich Paegent
"The Song Remains The Same" can anybody say "PUSH"
"Montrose"
"Bad Company"
"Hair of the Dog"
All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople
My Old School - Steely Dan
Theme For An Imaginary Western - Mountain
My college years were from 1975 - 1979 ... so I had prog rock, disco, and punk going on.

Albums that take me back to the good old NYU days:

Dylan - Blood on the Tracks; Desire
Cars
Elvis Costello - Oliver's Army
Harry Chapin - Greatest Stories Live
Springsteen - Born to Run

Best regards,

Rich

Don't recall the album names... probably weren't any albums back then... but I do remember...

in fact I don't think there were too many instruments, mostly just hollow logs.

The big ones were the drums, the skinny ones became flutes.

The real skinny ones became forks.

The short ones were toothpick.

A couple years removed from THE show up at Max's farm in M.Y., some fallout was still going on and some new arrivals that gained ground rapidly with my friends and I.

Little feat's Waiting for Columbus
Marshall Tucker's A New Home
Van Zant & Co. got their deal Pronounced Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Jackson Browne's For Everyman
Jimmy Buffet
E.L.O.'s Eldorado
Dave & Roger hit the big time on Dark Side Of The Moon.

I totally burned up on Stage by Loggins and Messina, as well as ';4 Way Street' by C.S.N.Y.

We paused long enough to listen to some island music from Bob Marley too.

following a brief pause, Southern Rock came into vogue. We went to as many shows as we could afford. $6 - $12 wasn't anything to sneeze at... one had to be picky!

With few exceptions though the flavor always was some southern based mainstay or firey newcomer.
KISS & Queen began to get attention and we had to see them.

I stuck with the local fare as my defaults.
The Outlaws Green Grass and High Tides
Black Oak Arkansas - Jim Dandy
Elvin Bishopp & dickie Betts with Great southern
Allman Bros minus 1.
Little feat
Little River Band
Charlie Daniels & and Marshall Tucker, seemed almost inseprable showing up at each others gigs routinely unanounced.

Billy Gibbons ZZ Top remains a fav today.

All in all, it was sort of a dull era wehn you stop to think and compare it to what passes for popular and hard rock now.

Oddly enough with all that, the songs that transport me to '71 - '74, are Gino Vaneelli's Storm at Sunrise, Robin Trower's Bridge of sighs, Golden Earring Radar Love, ELO's Can't Get you Out of My Head, and Marshall Tuckers Fire On the Mountain.

then disco came along and everybody lost their ever loving minds. Thankfully I was at ssea during much of that time.
Jackson Browne "For Everyman"
Lou Reed "Transformer" "Rock n Roll Animal"
Rolling Stones "Beggar's Banquet"
Frank Zappa "Over-Nite Sensation"
ZZ Top "Tres Hombres"
Little Feat "Sailin Shoes"
Led Zepplin "IV" and "Houses Of The Holy"
Richard Torrance "Eureka"

More I'm quite sure, but this will get me started.
Born To Run/Darkness On The Edge Of Town, Bat Out Of Hell, Horses/Easter, Late For The Sky/The Pretender, Turnstiles/The Stranger, My Aim Is True/This Year's Model/Armed Forces, Blues For Allah, Katy Lied/Aja, Wish You Were Here, Blood On The Tracks, Alive On Arrival, Look Sharp, Squeezing Out Sparks, Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, Court And Spark, A Night At The Opera, Hearts Of Stone, Prisoner In Disguise/Hasten Down The Wind, The Cars/Candy O, The Roches, Steve Goodman, Excitable Boy, Hotel California, Some Girls... I'm sure I'm missing at least a few more, all 1975-79. Obviously, I don't think that the late 70's were bad at all for music.
Joe Jackson, The Police, The B-52's, The Specials, The Clash, Blondie, and yes, Supertramp's "Breakfast in America" was heard spilling out of dorm rooms all over campus 79-1980 and thereabouts.. oh and "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" played everywhere on campus also.
It was the Marine Corps for me. An erudite audiophile I am not.
But I did try to party and pick up some G.I. benefits when I got out, so...
I was at the beach with some kids I'd met, and you know how you'll have heard a song a couple of times, and your subconscious is starting to try to alert you that "Hey, dude, this song's pretty effing good", but your too busy doing other stuff and not paying attention, so its not in the banks as a "monster" yet, but its destined to be there?
So we're all sitting by the pier on the sand getting high, and someone brought a box that's playing a local station, and the first few notes of "Roll With The Changes" come on, and one of the girls says "Ohhh, REO!", and I say to myself "Oh THAT'S who plays that song", and I sit there and for the first time, really let it sink in.
Another time we're scoring weed at a guy's house (Hmm, I'm noticing a trend here...), and he's one of those cool dealers that lets you stick around and party; and he's got one of those great little seventies systems consisting of a couple of solid monitors, a nice receiver and a vinyl deck, and he's playing Supertramp's "Breakfast in America", and it's my first time hearing it.
Also, guys turned me on to Robin Trower and UFO.
Cheap Trick doing "California Man" became kind of my song.
The fringe dwellers listening to "out there" bands Judas Priest and Scorpions, and me liking them and trying to get their music accepted in my inner circle. Nobody ever said they didn't like them; but you could tell by their body language that I'd crossed a line.
Dylan
Beatles
Doors
Stones
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Coltrane
Al Jerreau
Segovia
Ravi Shankar
Handel
Bach
Haydn FJ
Vivaldi
Bob Marley
Beatles
David Bowie
Lou Reed
Super Session (Bloomfield & Kooper)
Hendrix
Led Zep
Pink Floyd
Patti Smith
Cold Blood
The Knack's My Sharona and Rick Jame's Super Freak. So much the soundtrack of every collegiate dance you just wanted to vomit.

Thank God the Clash came out with Sandinista and allowed me to participate via cassette and the first generation Walkman by tuning out the world, something that the iPod succeeds at even better today.
Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry ...

I'm not that old but that was my phase at the time, along with 60's R&B. I'm old enough to be a fan of Aerosmith in high school and the beater I drove back then is a collector car now.
Somehow I forgot, all of the Beatles Albums. Even though it was 20 yrs later, everyone had, and listened to Beatles albums. Ironically, this week I met my nephew in Austin at the typical college house they live in, and spilling out of his speakers was The White Album (from his iPod, but one battle at a time). One of the pictures on the wall was the Abbey Road album cover picture.

It looks like our Mozart is going to be the Beatles. Re-discovered by every succeeding generation. Part of it is that most new music is just derivative of The Beatles and their contemporaries, so the actual source sounds better.

His other favorite band right now is Led Zeppelin, so there is hope for the next generation of audiophiles. They will want to hear it actually sound good and have impact too.
"It looks like our Mozart is going to be the Beatles."

I'd have to agree.

And our Bachs, Handels, etc. are the various American rhythm and blues and rockabilly artists that preceded and inspired them.
Great point on their influences, it's like it all led to kind of popular music apex with the mid '60 to mid 70's.

I wish something really cool and new would come along again. The last time I heard something I thought was different and took me by surprise was the first time "Smells like Teen Spirit" came on the radio. I loved Nirvana, and much of the Seatlle sound of the early 90's, but it never really evolved much beyond that for me. About 10 great albums in that time (although I don't count Stone Temple Pilots in with the Seattle sound, I loved 3 of their albums).

So anything really good and new on the horizon? Or all just, "well they sound like....."
Jefferson Airplane- volunteers
Youngbloods- Elephant Mountain
Steve Miller- Your Saving Grace
Tim Buckley- Happy/Sad
Grateful Dead- American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, Europe '72
CSN (&Y)- CSN, Deja Vu

Probably lots more but since I really was there for the 60's, I don't remember any more ;~)
Boston; saw them while in college; the Cars; Van Halen (first album, w/ Eruption); Thin Lizzy; Crack the Sky; Pat Thrall; Joe Jackson ("Pretty women out walking with gorillas--classic line!). Since I roomed with other guitar players,some different things--Be-Bop Deluxe, Steve Morse. And country rock was big, so Outlaws, Charlie Daniels, even Asleep at the Wheel.
Jim,

I was EE at Northwestern from '90 to '94, and I believe Undertow was in my CD player for my entire Senior year. Three REM releases occured that time - Automatic for the People, Out of Time and Monster (well, Monster was fall of '94). But Nirvana's Nevermind release late in '90 really defined my time in undergrad. Well, that and Vanilla Ice. :)
Nrenter -

Looks like you and I were sweating the same classes at the same time, my nightmare occurred at NC State Univ however. :)

I remember buying Nevermind and not really liking it, probably because Teen Spirit was being played ALL THE TIME. It's funny because now Nirvana is one of my favorite bands.

I remembered a few others which somehow I left out of my initial list:

Alice in Chains - Facelift (I'd put that right up there with PJ's Ten... almost)

Metallica - and justice for all, as well as the black album

Vanilla Ice - yep, freshman year.

Paula Abdul was everywhere too

Lots of R&B/Hip-hop types like Bell Biv Devoe, Boyz 2 Men, etc my freshman year. I was never a fan but after getting them drilled into your head on the radio they have to be acknowledged for brain pollution.
the Romantics
the Cars
Little Feat- Waiting for Columbus
B-52's
REM- murmur
U2- boy,war
AC/DC- back in black
Earth, Wind & Fire
I'm listening to one right now: Genesis, "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway." Always reminds me of that girl I foolishly broke up with at Bowling Green State University (Ohio) in 1982...

Others, in no particular order:

King Crimson, "Red"
Ultravox, "Rage in Eden"
Yes, "Tales from Topographical Oceans"
Iron Maiden, "Number of the Beast"

-P
Parasound,

Chics do not dig progressive rock in general. Unfortunately, I did not come to a clear realization about this until after college. Better late than never.....

I saw "The Musical Box" Genesis cover band a while back. Packed house but virtually zero ladies in attendance save those humoring their guys most likely. Same true with Yes, Porcupine Tree and other progressive rock groups I've seen over the years. Prog rock is a guy thing for sure.

One exception I can think of is "The Moody Blues". They have lots of great tunes over the years about things that chics tend to relate to better. A more mixed crowd at "Moodies" concerts, and the ladies still dig Justin Hayward in particular.
In college from '77 - '81 so there were several albums & songs:

- Lots of friends were disco heads, but not me, so nothing in that camp
- One Burbon, one scotch, one beer
- UK - In the Dead of Night
- Jean Luc Ponty - anything from Enigmatic Ocean & Imaginary Voyage
- John McLaughlin & Mahavishnu Orchestra
- Return to Forever - Romantic Warrior

way too many more
Started college in '79...
Lynard - Street Survivors
Van Halen I
Sniff and Tears
Led Zep - In through the out Door
Dixie Dregs
Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage
The Cars
Fleetwood Mac
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
college 82 -86

extemely popular on the radio at the time

prince- purple rain
springsteen - born in the usa
michael jackson - thriller
duran duran
madonna

a few albums that i got into in particular during college but released previously

velvet underground - 1969 live
brian eno - another green world
television - marquee moon (my future wife asked me the first time she heard this "why do you like this?")
neil young - rust never sleeps
Ocean Blue and The Cure's all mixed up. Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine were on the play list too.
Where have all the flowers gone and Tbat's the way the world by Earth Wind and Fire. IMO some of the best times fir music. Of course everyone feels their day was the best.
College '89 - '93

Phish - "Junta"

Jerry Garcia band - ST

Love and Rockets - Earth and Sun and Moon

Instantly back in a cramped room packed with good friends.