Roots

My Junior year of college I woke up in the middle of the night and had this revelation that I should make a mix CD of all the songs that I grew up with, shaped my musical tastes or inspired me in some profound way. These songs are not necessarily my favorite by these artists by any means but they are the ones that "started it all". It's been years since I last listened to it and it blew me away when I popped it in the other night. It's definitely comfort music and it takes me to a time that was simpler and brings back great memories from growing up. I intend to make a Roots II CD very soon with more. Here is the track listing and a little commentary on each track:

1. "Free Fallin"- Tom Petty - 1989

The first real rock CD that I got into was Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty and this was track 1. My cousin Derrick's parents had this CD for years and he started listening to it; whenever I'd come over, he would play the CD and and I soon became hooked. So many good memories of hanging out in his garage with his sound system and playing this track. A true classic.

2. "Learning to Fly" - Pink Floyd - 1987

I thought Pink Floyd was a person's name before I heard this song. I remember some friends from Cross Country, Adam, for one, was obsessed with PULSE. They would watch it all the time and have the album playing all the time. It even had a blinking light on the box which was so cool. After practice one day, Adam drove me home and he had this song playing in his car. I asked what it was and he said it was from PULSE. The next day I went out and bought it and I was hooked! Ironically, on the drive home from Media Play, as I was on the on ramp for 41, this song started playing on WOZZ. Forever a Floyd fan!

3. "We Didn't Start the Fire" - Billy Joel - 1989

I have strong memories of listening to this song on the bus with Andy's Walkman in like 6th grade going down Bell St. It sounded so cool! It started my whole Billy Joel kick. Those drums, great chorus, just a rockin' tune!

4. "That Was a River" - Colin Ray - 1993

A song that was one of my favorites right before my dad died in December of '93. It's a country song that I heard in my Uncle Steve's car while going bow hunting with him up north that fall. I also remember going to see the movie The Three Musketeers at the cheap seats at Northland Mall with Adam Buckingham and his parents. After the show, we were talking about music or something and they asked what my favorite song was, I told them it was this song. They said they never heard it; I was not surprised :-)

5. "Streets of Philadelphia" - Bruce Springsteen - 1993

I remember waking up to this song on May 29th, 1997, my 16th birthday. My mom and I were going to go shopping that day to get some birthday gifts for me, I didn't have any idea what I wanted. I remembered this song I heard on the radio by Springsteen so I got his Greatest Hits. That day I became a Bruce Springsteen fan. I also bought Sting's Mercury Falling and Jon Secada's Secada that day(which I sold a few years afterwards) That was momentary lapse of reason!

6. "Another Day in Paradise" - Phil Collins - 1989

My first song that I was obsessed with, I would normally put obsessed in quotes, but that would mean that I really wasn't obsessed, which would be a lie. I must have listened to this track about 10,000 times my freshman year of high school. The song blew my mind away with the soft chord intro, lyrics, cut-off drums, melodic chorus. I have two strong memories of this song: 1. Laying on Andy's bedroom floor and him having a cassette single of this song and him popping it in and listening to it a few times and immediately liking it; 2. Sitting in my cousin Derrick's bedroom, seeing a Phil Collin's CD, looking on the back to see if this song was on it, which it was, putting it into the CD player above his bed and stood mesmerized, I was a Phil Collins fanatic after that moment. I also believe I took that CD home with me and never gave it back.

7. "Learn to Be Still" - The Eagles - 1994

My mom bought Hell Freezes Over in 1995 because she liked the track "Love Will Keep Us Alive" "Learn to Be Still" had this great feel to it, very relaxed, Don's voice just perfect plus the opening line is "Just another day in paradise" which was pretty cool since I was obsessed with the song mentioned above. I remember up at my Grandparent's cabin, sitting in the living room late on a cool summer evening with the lights off and popping this song in and looking out the window. Funny how you remember things like that.

8. "The Bluest Eyes in Texas" - Restless Heart - 1988

This is one of those songs that I remember listing to in the car when I was 7 years old and I knew there was something special about it. The 3 part harmonies, beautiful melody. I remember thinking that it sounded like a stormy night. Big Dreams in a Small Town was the second CD I ever got; I fell in love with the first 4 tracks and always skipped to track 8 which was this song. Great chorus lyrics:

"The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight; like the stars that fill the midnight sky, her memory fills my mind..."

9. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2 - 1987

The song that started my U2 obsession. In 1989, my Uncle Steve gave me a cassette tape of The Joshua Tree from his collection. He just got the CD version so he didn't want the cassette anymore. He also gave me a Cinderella tape which I wanted very badly because I loved the Disney Movie...little did I know it was NOT the soundtrack :-) Anyway, I never listened to that tape until 1997 when Andy and I finished watching the movie Blown Away on a Saturday afternoon. This song and "With or Without You" were in the movie. I remember liking both songs and waited until the end credits to see who they were by. It was of course U2 and I remember a tape my uncle gave me by that name. I dug it out, brushed off the dust and the rest is history...

10. "Invisible Touch" - Genesis - 1986

I loved this song before I even knew who Phil Collins was. I remember watching TV in the living room at Andy's house and the music video for this song come on and I thought the song sounded so cool and I loved the lead singer's voice. This caused me to buy Invisible Touch and it turned out like 6 out of the 8 tracks on the album were huge singles that I've heard before. I was hooked.

11. "Goodbye Says it All" - Blackhawk - 1994

The first country band that I was obsessed with, starting with this song. I remember getting this CD for Christmas and being sooo excited. I think the drive up to deer hunting for the '94, '95, '96, and '97 was spent listening to my two Blackhawk CDs over and over again. I'm sure my uncle was sick of it! Also, great memories of singing Blackhawk songs while mowing the lawn. A really great pop-country band!

12. "Still Crusin'" - Beach Boys - 1987

I remember lying in bed after we bought our first stereo system from American in 1990. My dad was up all night setting it up. At 1:00 in the morning heard the glorious harmonies of the Beach Boys come out of the speakers. This was the first track on that album. I remember getting up out of bed to check out what was going on. I played that CD a LOT in my youth.

13. "Fields of Gold" - Sting - 1993

The warm pad, Sting's yearning lyrics, delicate bass, tasteful guitar all came into a perfect balance with this song. I remember hearing this song on long drives coming back home from the cabin up north. Looking out into the open fields. We also had this BMG music service where you could get like 10 CDs for super cheap. Ten Summoner's Tales was one of them. Classic Adult Contemporary and 94.3 WROE stuff. Delilah eats this s*&% up.

14. " All for Love" - Sting, Rod Stewart, Brian Adams - 1993

The very first CD I ever got was the soundtrack to Disney's The Three Musketeers. I saw this movie many times in middle school and this song was the reason I bought it. I must have played this song so many times on our cheap Panasonic CD player. Great vocals, though. Check it out if you haven't heard this one in a while!

Funny how my brain remembers specifics like these. A fair amount of country on here since that's what I was raised on. Man, how my tastes have changed. But it feels great to pop this CD in and relax and have all those memories come flooding back...