Great songs that you first heard in someone else's car.

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Not on the radio mind.

There's something, to my mind, quite profound about climbing inside someone's electronically sealed bubble and hearing something for the first time as they themself wished to experience it.

I first heard 'Platform on the ocean' by Arthur Russell when driving back from an all-nighter in Manchester in this way and it moved me enough to, first buy the album, then the rest of his recorded work and it still moves me profoundly each time I hear it although I find it impossible to remove myself from the emotional frisson of that first hearing.

Chill out by The Orb doesn't count in this thread right...

― Kris England., Sunday, 1 May 2005 22:11 (twenty years ago)

"Search and Destroy" was a total AWOUEHAOWUH moment in the car. I think I was 15 or something.

― Lethal Dizzle (djdee2005), Sunday, 1 May 2005 22:14 (twenty years ago)

I first heard "Shady Lane" in the car--it almost makes me cry to think about it. Seriously.

― mrjosh (mrjosh), Sunday, 1 May 2005 22:17 (twenty years ago)

pop group y stoned 1979 dubspace mindroot

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Sunday, 1 May 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

"Ignition (Remix)" in a minivan. I remember slowly realising "Oh, this is what ILM's being talking about" as the song unfolded.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 1 May 2005 22:25 (twenty years ago)

"Stairway To Heaven"

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 1 May 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

Has it ever sounded better? if not, why?

― Kris England, Sunday, 1 May 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

It sounded better when I didn't have two guys going "DUDE I can't believe you never heard this before, is this not the best thing ever? So heavy, right?" during its maiden voyage into my eardrums

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)

Aphex Twin Track 1 Disc 1 ("Cliffs") from Selected Ambient Works Vol.II. I immediately reacted to it, inquired and have learned to love being let down with each subsequent release.

― losingsoul, Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

I used to think the Pixies were simply pretentious crap, until my friend Sam picked me up at the airport. The second I got in the car, he started blasting "Isla De Encanta" (off of Come on Pilgrim), which -- I should barely have to note -- rocks rather thoroughly. Sam, at the wheel, was headbanging and strumming invisible strings furiously. "Holy fuck," exclaimeth I, "who is this?" Blah blah blah...Alex stands thoroughly corrected.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:02 (twenty years ago)

"Trans-Europe Express" when I was in 8th grade or so. I remember laughing really hard when the guy driving told me the name of the group. I said, "All this sounds like something they'd play on that SNL skit Sprockets." He was like, "Uh, actually, I think they do play it."

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Monday, 2 May 2005 01:03 (twenty years ago)

"leave the capitol"

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 2 May 2005 02:14 (twenty years ago)

i arrived in the states on the day cobain committed suicide. by the time i got to san diego and my friends place kurt fever had gripped the alternation. sadly my friend was smoking crack, doing heroin and cheating on his girlfriend (not as a result of kc of course) and was on a baaaad schizo stroll. as we drove the freeways in his fucked up car he took to singing "i wish i was like you...EASILY amused" or "married...BURIED" at me very loudly, and then nodding off and swerving dangerously.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Monday, 2 May 2005 02:35 (twenty years ago)

P-FUNK'S GREATEST HITS, 7TH GRADE11!!!!!

― Sonny, Ah!!1 (Sonny A.), Monday, 2 May 2005 03:45 (twenty years ago)

"This sounds like the Toejam & Earl soundtrack!"

― Sonny, Ah!!1 (Sonny A.), Monday, 2 May 2005 03:45 (twenty years ago)

hehe....toejam & earl.

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Monday, 2 May 2005 03:50 (twenty years ago)

ummm let's see. something i first heard in someone else's car eh?.
the first thing that comes to mind would be Death In Vegas' "Dirge" which totally blew me away.

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Monday, 2 May 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

i kept going on about how Band Of Gypsys was boring because Buddy Miles is a fun-sucking machine. on the way back from a gig, buddy of mine puts on Hendrix Live At The Fillmore to prove to me that they were not, in fact, boring; in fact, they were possibly the greatest rock group of the late 60s/early 70s. who knew you could have an epiphany on the New Jersey Turnpike?

― Dave M. (rotten03), Monday, 2 May 2005 03:57 (twenty years ago)

Qucksilver Messenger Service's "Who Do You Love" (long LP version) driving around Oxnard at night after smoking some low-grade weed. Good times...

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 2 May 2005 04:44 (twenty years ago)

You mean like how I first heard "Crash Into Me" in your mom's car while I was making out with her?

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 2 May 2005 04:46 (twenty years ago)

I meant that collectively. All of y'all's mom.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 2 May 2005 04:48 (twenty years ago)

The entirety of Sam Philips' Martinis And Bikinis blew me away when I heard it during a road trip from London to Ann Arbor. (Schoolkids Records was our target. My suggestions that we also try to find the "Stooges Wax Museum" or stalk Chuck Eddy were ignored, and rightly so!)

[Oh, and that's London ONTARIO, obv., not to be mistaken for its better-known namesake. Except by Archie Bunker, who did just that on an ancient "All In The Family" episode.]

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 2 May 2005 05:22 (twenty years ago)

'love vigilantes' by new order, on the bus to a tennis match in 11th grade. the cool kids on the team were playing it on a boombox. i got up my courage and went over and asked them who it was - then said the name of the band to myself over and over for the rest of the trip so that i could go buy it the very next day.

― chr1sb0y (chr1sb0y), Monday, 2 May 2005 12:29 (twenty years ago)

"Ice of Boston," Dismemberment Plan. I was riding around with my friend Jason, who was mostly into grunty emo stuff like Braid and Cursive, so I was skeptical about this single he'd just bought. We were in the ATM drive-thru when I said, "Wait, what is this again? It's kinda good!"

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 2 May 2005 12:54 (twenty years ago)

Random guy in college giving me a ride back to campus typically had Pink Floyd cranked up, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". I've never been crazy about Pink Floyd and I'd never heard the song, but it was obvious it was them. I think it was just the right time of night and the road we were on was sort of vast because it totally did it for me. My favorite song of theirs by far.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Monday, 2 May 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

Jacobites, "Robespierre's Velvet Basement" on a car ride from Berlin to Stuttgart, about 10pm, thunderstorm outside.

― sibsi (sibsi), Monday, 2 May 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

In college. 1985. Driving to Columbus (Ohio) to see X (at the Newport Music Hall), my friend Chad is driving. Slaps a cassette into the tape deck and away we go. Side one is the entirety of Chronic Town by REM (who I'd never thought much of until then, honestly). Side Two, however, was a live bootleg recording of XTC. Prior to that ride, I'd only really heard "Senses Working Overtime," which was fine, but hardly the stuff of legend. This recording (I later tracked down a copy of it for myself....Philadelphia on the Black Sea tour) featured a live rendition of "Living Through Another Cuba" that was so fucking amazing that we kept rewinding it and playing it over and over again. I was hooked and a huge fan from that day on.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 May 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

1987. I didn't even know the guy.

Gregory D & Mannie Fresh - Throwdown

Best of Suntown Records (including Just Give the DJ a Break and Give It all you Got Doggy Style)

― PappaWheelie, Monday, 2 May 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

"leave the capitol"

-- peter smith (reesewitherspoo...), May 2nd, 2005.

Aww that was my car! Pete you're the greatest.

As for me, Pineapples, "Come on Closer," last Friday night.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Monday, 2 May 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

?quien? by juana molina

thanks, peter.

― katie hasty (katie, a princess), Monday, 2 May 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

(and clean up your !@#$ing car)

― katie hasty (katie, a princess), Monday, 2 May 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

"Double Dare," Bauhaus.. on a mix tape, late at night on the highway in Maryland, on the way home from a Sonic Youth concert. I was always massively disappointed that nothing else I heard from Bauhaus seemed to measure up to that..

This also reminds me of a particularly evil friend who made up a mix tape which included five seconds of some rock song I'm sure I know really, really well. But then he wouldn't tell me what song it was. Six years later THIS STILL BOTHERS ME. Don't do this to your friends.

― daria g (daria g), Monday, 2 May 2005 18:06 (twenty years ago)

MDC - John Wayne Was A Nazi.

That pretty much changed everything for me as a lad in junior high in the late '80s when being driven home by a friend's oldest brother.

― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Monday, 2 May 2005 18:54 (twenty years ago)

something by Tori Amos.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 00:44 (twenty years ago)

The Mountain Goats - No Children

"This guy's bitter."

"Yeah, that's his shtick."

― pinkerton, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

Augie March - "There's No Such Place". My friend Will, who drove me to work most mornings, had just bought the album, and would listen to it often. That song in particular almost moved me to tears, I thought it was such a beautiful son. I ended buying the album for my mum for Mother's Day. She loved it.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:29 (twenty years ago)

Beta Band's "It's Not Too Beautiful" in Brent D's Honda, Ashland Ave, ca. summer 1999. The song is still "vidoq," as was commonly said in those days.

― Ryan Pitchfork, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 02:17 (twenty years ago)

The first Aphex Twin ambient album. A friend put it on late one night on the way back to New York from a show in Philly. We all just sat there watching the industry fly past. It was such a perfect mood.

― Seuss, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 03:02 (twenty years ago)

My friend picked me up for a night out on the town. He had a new stereo system in his car. I sat in the backseat (his gf had shotgun). Goldie's "Timeless" was playing, and I instantly fell in love with it.

― jotai, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

Mountain Goats, "Going to Georgia."

― Guayaquil, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

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