Songs that take you back to a specific time and place

I was taking a walk today and "The End" came up on my I-pod. Every time I hear that song, I'm transported back to the last night of my last class in graduate school. We had a dinner that night instead of class and when I got in my car to leave, The End started playing. It was a fitting end to an era for me.

I thought it would be nice to hear your stories about songs that take you back to a specific time and place. So if you have a story about a song, please share it.

The whole of the 'These Days' album reminds me of being around 13 years old and just really starting to appreciate Bon Jovi. I remember my Friday nights consisted of going out with friends to play football or whatever, come home and watch The Wonder Years reruns. When I think of that time, I remember spending a lot of time in awe at how amazing songs such as 'Hey God', 'My Guitar...', 'Something To Believe In' and the rest were. 'Really enjoyable times to be honest.

I also remember a story regarding 'Diamond Ring'. For some reason I picked it out as an early favourite and when talking to my brother we got talking about songs he had heard live. I mentioned 'Diamond Ring' and said ''I'll never hear that live as much as I'd like to!''. At Twickenham it was played as an introduction to 'Always' and I remember having a wry smile on my face. It was a good moment.

There are so many. I probably have a girlfriend or two per album.

Lay Your Hands on Me was first heard by me blasting out of my son's bedroom. I opened his door and asked who it was - the rest is history.

Takes me back to a great time when my kids and I shared music with each other. Believe me - I learned plenty from them and they learned classic rock from me. It was a very good time in life.

Hi all,

When I heard Living on a Prayer or You Give Love a Bad Name I am taken back to the 80's when they first came out. Both songs were played endleessly on the radio. That was wonderful. What amazing songs BJ sang and still sing.

I remember in 2011 when I first listened to LOAP and I said to myself ''This is the best song ever made",I listened to it like 15 times in a row.After that I discovered Bad Name,It's My Life,HAND,This Ain't a Love Song,IBTFY etc.I remember how I felt for every new song discovered,i also remember how great i felt when i started discovering demos,but it would take alot of space to write it all and I'm pretty sure nobody is interested ).

But the most epic discovery I made was Dry County.The instruments,the voice,the lyrics,the epic guitar solo,I can't describe in words how great I felt when i listened to it for the first time.I had butterflies in my stomach and I really wanted to sing along but I didn't knew the lyrics.

The song that got me into Bon Jovi is Born To Be My Baby which I first heard in 1991 which was played on Radio 1 rock show. A friend later lent me a tape of New Jersey which converted me to rock.

The next song I heard was a clip for You Give Love A Bad Name on the late night ITV rock music videos how 'Raw Power'. A short clip of the video was shown. A asked my parent to buy a copy of Slippery When Wet from Britania Music and Video club. The company sent me a Hawkwind tape, which obviously had to be sent back. Eventually I did get my tape and I listened to it and was surprised that I'd ready heard some of the songs. At the time I didn't like 'Livin' On A Prayer'.

I remember when the 'Keep The Faith' single came out. The Bon Jovi come-back became a big thing. In many ways that was when a lot of people in the UK started to like Bon Jovi. Looking back at the UK charts, they didn't hadn't had a top 10 in the UK since Livin' On A Prayer and keep The Faith was the first of 15years of top 10s in the UK. A year later my friend Mark bought me the CD of the album.

All my friend became big Bon Jovi fans from that point and our female friends fancied Jon Bon Jovi like mad.

It's So Hard Letting You Go got me through my first High School break up, which was painful

I knew Bon Jovi. My mom had the Blaze and KTF albums, and liked the singles. I had Crossroads and bought These Days.

The These Days album just got me. The gateway to that album was Letting You Go. Those lyrics, guitar, harmony, and atmosphere expressed perfectly how I was feeling at the time... and none more so that the Whoa, oh oh part. There was such pain in that part of the song. It still is debatably their most perfect song in my opinion.

Now I can't honestly say that it brings me back to 96, freshman year every time I hear it... I mean, it got me through several other break ups too. But if I close my eyes and really listen to it, it more reminds me of when, how, and why I fell in love with that band. They were so good there. That album was perfect.

Aloha !

Like most people here, I've got several songs with memories attached to it. When people ask me what song has the most memories attached to it the one that always comes to mind is Whole Lot Of Leavin'.

In 2007, when I was quite burned out on Bon Jovi, the band released Lost Highway, an album I didn't really care for. My girlfriend back then was a lot less critical than I am and thought it was alright. It was a bit of weird time, she'd grown into my girlfriend while I was getting over another ex, and by the time it had grown into a more serious relationship her mom got cancer and she wasn't available much anymore because she needed to take care of her mother as her dad refused to get help from outsiders.

Back then you used to be able to have these lines under your nickname on MSN, and hers said "I close my eyes and picture your hand in mine". It sounds awful cheesy now, and maybe it is, but it was constant reminder for me that while I was giving support over the phone and chat she did appreciate it. After her moms death the relationship was over rather soon but for a long while I thought I'd always think of her when I'd hear the song. The band played it live in 2008 in Amsterdam and she was stood 3 feet behind me. We completely ignored eachother, but it felt like I could feel her think of me, if that makes any sense.

A few years later, I was in a long distance relationship with someone who had a, let's call it complicated, relationship with her parents. She and I got into a huge fight with her mom and dad and with every passing day I'd see her being more and more worn out by the situation. Meanwhile, these great Skypesessions we used to have had turned into conversations about "The fight". There was no way to avoid it really, whenever she'd show up at home her mom would make sure she'd be reminded of it in every single way. She wasn't doing very well and I remember getting up in the middle of the night for her just so I'd know she'd be in bed safe, until one day my shifts changed and the times we'd see eachother would become even more irregular. One day I got home after what was like a 14 hour shift, and I really needed my bed so I logged in with the intention just to say hello/goodnight, and then go straight to bed.

But she completely broke down. She kept talking about her family situation and how much she wanted out. There was pressure from school, pressure from work, pressure from her parents all while I was on the other side of the world. There wasn't much I could offer her, and I felt helpless. She kept saying how she'd never felt so alone with her parents completely dropping support in everything she believed in, and said it felt like everyone had left her. I think it was something like 11 P.M. by the time she was able to catch her breath a bit, and we talked about me coming over again. I remember grabbing my acoustic guitar, and turning down the lights in my living room. I played and sang Whole Lot Of Leavin' over Skype for her, which finally made her able to relax and that night, for the first time in I reckon over a month, I saw happy tears.

Never did I expect the lyrics to Whole Lot Of Leaving taking on a new meaning to me, and how certain lines would fit a completely different situation. It might've even been September when this was all happening, and she felt like everyone had left her but a guy from Holland. Although this sounds like I'm patting myself on the back, the only thing I really wished for was that her mom and dad would come to realize something similar soon as well, as opposed to trying, and eventually succeeding, to break us up, as I cared and loved this girl a lot more than I ever loved the other one. With their refusal to actually hearing what I had to say and assuming I was the worst thing that could happen to their daughter, they, to this day, have no idea how many times I have defended them to her and how many times I was actually there for their daughter when they weren't.

I never cared much for the song though, and I still don't. I think it's a good song, and I liked playing it, but as for in concert? Nah...It's fun to sing along to, and it's nice to play on guitar, but I don't think I'll ever be playing it on my acoustic again simply due to the bitter taste it's left me with. This reply was supposed to have a better ending, got carried away a bit. I usually don't really attach memories to Bon Jovi songs, but whenever this one comes up on iTunes I'm taken back to the time where I see one ex trying to make peace with her mom dying, and another ex having fun with me over the "You got it Jonny, you got it" moment when the song was played live, when just half a year later having the same song would cause such a bright moment in an otherwise tumulteous and disastrous time in both of our lives.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

It's hard letting you go. An ex.