Great musical moments burned into your brain

Bahamas on a Spring vacation, 19 year old with two friends. We spent all day lazing on the beach. At the end of the day, we got changed to go out for dinner. I was waiting for my friends to come out, wearing a black silk shirt and a cheap straw hat from the millions they must sell down there...standing at the edge of the sand listening to my walkman, waiting. In that moment, it was Eno & Cale's "Spinning Away" from Wrong Way Up, the breeze rippling gently against my shirt as the sun sank down over the ocean.

Wow.

Never worn a silk shirt since then, and lost the hat a while ago. The sun and the wind remain, but not that sun and wind.

Joe - awesome. Spinning Away is perfect for that moment.

Dec 1971. The Eastown Ballroom in Detroit. Headlining :Black Sabath, Fleetwood Mac(when they were good pre Nicks and Buckingham), and an unknown band opened. An excellent baseline opened to a fine guitar solo,being blown away by both smoke and sound I was thinking who the fuck are these guys? When they were done the mc said: Give it up for YES! BTW- It cost $2.50 to see those 3 bands!

The third time I heard Loveless. For some reason, at that point it really began to make sense to me. It was like a whole new world had been opened up for me, once I got that record and fell in love with it. The only thing I can compare it to would be my first listen of Bitches Brew, which did largely the same thing in making me see things in a completely different light.

in a terrible blizard, driving an hour to see Suicide at the Middle East in Boston, and because of the snow only 25 people showed up (in 2003!), and being 1 of 3 people dancing, the other 2 were a guy in a neon blue hawaiian shirt and the girl in neon plastic wayfareres, and Alan Vega is singing a song whose lyrics at this point involve the repeated shouting of "YOU'RE ALL GONNA FUCKING DIE", and Vega's wife(?) starts gesturing over to him from the side of the stage, mid-song, so he stops singing and lets Martin's beat drive on, and she whispers something in Alan's ear, and the his son - who's maybe 3 years old - comes out on stage and gives him a kiss on the cheek. Alan says to the audience "That's my boy", and all 25 of us cheer.

Listening to John Beltran's Collage of Dreams on my way to a New Year house party in Leicester, the road was barely visible in the snow and dark. Before I was a bit tense - was beginning to wonder if I was going to get stranded but the gentle sound of the electronics fitted the heavily falling snow so perfectly that I just felt safe... and hence I made it to the party.

Sitting up late with a friend watching Saturday Night Live on Halloween back in 1981. The musical guest for the evening was some band from L.A called Fear...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN5xhqxvud8&search=Fear%20snl

after the dust settled and I was busy trying to figure out what the hell had just happened, my friend says to me "you know what I really hate about this? I know my parents are watching SNL in their room... they're gonna see this and they're gonna think that this is what rock and roll is all about".

The dude was a big Angel fan, what can I say?