Into a Writer's Head

Play it again, Sam...

nAll of us have those songs from high school. You know the one I'm talking about. Those songs you're embarrassed to admit you ever listened to, let alone worshipped. Those songs that evoke so many memories, both happy and sad, of all your friends and the trouble you got into together. Those songs that take you back to a specific moment in time. We all have 'em, whether we admit it or not.

For me it's the CD Heart of Chicago 1967-1997. Why? It's simple really. My senior year of high school I had a friend totally in love with the bad Chicago. We found out they were coming to town for a concert that summer, and decided to get tickets. Hey, at that time, any concert you got to take yourself to made us feel all grown up. We convinced NYC to join us on our adventure, and bought ourselves lawn seats at Pine Knob. The night of the concert came around, and like the slightly controlling friend I am, I made us go early. Hey, if you didn't get there early (like before the opening band started) you were bound to get sucky seats on the lawn, since it was all open seating. NYC drove The Little Car that Could, and we made it there in one piece. Hee hee...here's where the adventure really begins. The opening band? Crosby, Stills and Nash. Now, thanks to my dad, I was very familiar with CSN (and sometimes Y), and the crowd they drew didn't surprise me all that much. That they were the opening band for lily pure Chicago? Okay, that suprised me a little. Still, when everyone around us (mean age=35+) started lighting up their "special" cigarettes? Not too bowled over, though I could have done without the smell. NYC and J, though, they had no idea what was going on. You've never seen such stunned girls in your life! We managed to bop our way through the rest of the show without anyone (to my knowledge) offering to share with us, much to the relief of all.
The real adventure was on the trip home. Pine Knob was about 45 minutes away from our hometown. In theory very easy to get to and from, however when dealing with I-75 and all it's various detours, it's easy to get turned around. Or so we told ourselves. Especially when we found ourselves lost in the heart of Pontiac (not the nicest place to be on the best of days, let alone around midnight on a saturday), without any real idea of how to get ourselves the heck out of dodge. Needless to say, whenever I hear Chicago, I think of that night, and the three of us in the car, driving in circles (probably yelling at one another), trying to figure out how we were going to explain to NYC's parents why we were so flippin' late getting home.

You're turn. What song does it for you?

posted by Erin @ 1:33 PM