Great Car Stereo Moments

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So I was reading the walkman thread and all I could think of was the time I was driving two friends and my brother home from a party in the country at about 9 am on a sunny morning and was about to enter the fancy scenic part of Melbourne's Citylink. The two in the back seat had just smoked a joint. When it was almost too late I remembered to rewind my Neu! 75 tape (naturally), and made it just in time. The beautiful opening piano chords of 'Isi' rang out, the city climbed into view, the motorik got into gear, and everything was totally perfect. The scene recalled those great movie moments where wide-eyed characters encounter the Big Smoke for the first time and point at landmarks while neon lights shine on their faces (mental note: listen to Kraftwerk's 'Neon Lights' at night in city) but this was just bliss bliss bliss. Especially for the two in the back seat, I bet.

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 07:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Any similar experiences? Or has anyone had any incredible coincidences of scenery and song on the radio?

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 07:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't 'get' the Beach Boys until I drove my parents (fast) car down England's A303 to Cornwall.

Hmmm... that gives me an idea for a thread ...

This isn't a 'driving' story, but I vividly recall putting on Riders on the Storm once. It started raining outside the second I put it on - a soft, persistent rain just like the one on the record - and stopped the second the song finished. Spooky.

I had a similar experience with Scott Walker's Tilt, played on a stereo in a particularly dry and volcanic part of the Canary Islands during a thunderstorm.

― jon, Tuesday, 3 September 2002 08:16 (twenty-two years ago)

My Bloody Valentine's Instrumental B after visiting the remains of Belsen concentration camp. Those ghostly, disembodied guitar chords suddenly felt very eerie. My travelling companion + I exchanged looks, both quite unnerved.

― stevo (stevo), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 08:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Not on a car stereo particularly, but the first time I went into Manhattan alone (I had rode around it on the back of a Harley the night before) I came up at Central Park to 100 degree heat and the track that started on my walkman at that very moment was Martha and the Vandellas' Heatwave.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 10:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Enslaved Vikingligr Veldi on a long drive at night in midwinter, speeding at 180 on the Autobahn. Because so many elements of the music matched the environment: the crisp coldness, the relentless speed, the clear-skied darkness, the length and the endless, trance-inducing repetition.

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 10:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Driving along a So. California highway heading towards Arizona, FM radio comes into its own. I particularly recall 'Gypsy' by Fleetwood Mac, which has been one of my favourites by them ever since.

― zebedee, Tuesday, 3 September 2002 11:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Without fail, every time there was a overcast, sunless day last winter and spring, the radio would play "Beautiful Day," and I would blast down Virginia Beach Boulevard singing as loud as I could. Good times, good times...

― My name is Kenny, Wednesday, 4 September 2002 02:13 (twenty-two years ago)

My daughter, learning the chorus to "I'm a Slut" by Bis during our drives to pre-school. She then belted the song out in front of my wife. I was so Bis-busted it wasn't even funny. Also great was hearing her sing "P-I-Z-Z-I-C-A-T-O! Five!"

My son's preferred morning commute? "Bwackawicious."*
_______________
*Speech thing played up for humorous effect by asshole father.

― Matt C., Wednesday, 4 September 2002 02:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Driving around Edinburgh with my brother we were playing the Proclaimers' Sunshine on Leith album and the rain stopped, and it was!

― felicity (felicity), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 02:36 (twenty-two years ago)

there was a time (late high school) when folks were into big show-off systems in their cars. this guy we worked with at the grocery store was putting a new system in his car about once a month. each time got a little bit more outrageous. he went from systems with like 4 @ 10" to maybe 4@12" but finally installed this getup with just two 18" woofers for the lowend. it was really funny because every time a bass note hit, the rear view mirror would vibrate until it rotated all the way down and he couldn't see anything, then he'd push it back up, then the next bass note would hit, etc. ridiculous.

greatdayndamornin by d'angelo only sounds right in a car. once i heard it in my house, i realized that the bassline i had been grooving to was actually not the notes i had thought. in a bad way

― ron (ron), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 03:07 (twenty-two years ago)

the alt-rock station in DC used to play "under the milky way" by the church a lot on beautiful nights, and it became profound as I would haer it every time my parents would pick me up from shows. I am 21 now, so what I am really saying is that WHFS hasn't been good since I was 14.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 03:47 (twenty-two years ago)

'spring rain' by the go betweens playing loud, with the sun shining but...you guessed it...the windscreen wipers workin' overtime. great symmetry.

― angelo (angelo), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 04:57 (twenty-two years ago)

After a frantic 15-hour day in London I was driving down the M4 fast in the dark. it was late and I was more knackered than I realised.

I'd taped a Crowded House album from a friend and was listening to it for the first time.

Nails in My Feet came on, and at the moment he goes 'total surrender!' I froze, tears in my eyes. Rewound. This time the tears were streaming down my cheek. Rewound. This time I had to park up on the hard shoulder, as I couldn't see the road at all.

As I sat recovering, I idly hoped I'd get pulled over for being parked on the hard shoulder without good reason, or dirving erratically or something.

Wouldn't it be great to end up in court where your defence was 'sorry officer Iwas driving badly officer, but this music made me cry...'

― jon, Wednesday, 4 September 2002 10:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Too many car moments to mention...... there's one ever time I turn the engine on. Car stereos are as important to me as Winamp or Technics.

― nick.K (nick.K), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

6 am, just driven a minibus through the night, very foggy dawn, bus full of sleeping kids and bits of junk on the way to holland to do a show. pulling into the gate area of the channel tunnel for the first time, the fog clears, the kids are waking up, there's a bank of what seems like 100 gates lined up, all with powerful strobe lights (for no apparent reason) flashing randomly at us, and the tune that starts the tape: pfm and conrad: western, off of logical progression 1. its the first time that these kids have ever heard any real drum and bass, and the effect was significant, to say the least.

― dbini, Thursday, 5 September 2002 16:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I was getting a ride home after school with a friend. We were chatting, probably about the rehearsal we'd just been at (probably for a musical, although it could have been show choir) when "Burning Inside" by Ministry came on the radio. I said, "Excuse me for a minute," turned up his radio full-blast, and began screaming the lyrics at the top of my lungs. My friend merely tightened his grip on the steering wheel and looked scared.

When the song ended, I turned the radio down and resumed the conversation like nothing had happened.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 5 September 2002 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

January 2001, I had four more months of study of my A-levels, and then I was free from my hometown. I'd spent all week travelling around prospective universities, every one seeming much better than where I was living. On the Thursday, my mate who'd dropped out a few months beforehand asked me if I wanted to go for a ride. He'd been floating between jobs, he'd resigned himself to earning a pittance for the rest of his life. We were good friends, but we knew we couldn't remain so. Too different. Wanting something different. We drove up to Sixfields Stadium, ordered two fries and two cokes from McDonalds, and just sat in the car staring over our hometown. The Evening Session was on, and he played "Oh No" by Mos Def, Nate Dogg, and Pharoahe Monch. Fast yet slow, angry yet laid back. And sounding nothing like Northampton.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 5 September 2002 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I had just recently bought a new VW Cabriolet and my friends and I were cruising along the coast listening to "Pink Moon" while on our way to a party. When we arrived at the party it was so crowded. We all looked at each other and decided it would be much better to continue driving to nowhere with "Pink Moon" on repeat.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 6 September 2002 12:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh that's funny...

― JM, Saturday, 7 September 2002 00:58 (twenty-two years ago)

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