Music History

Listening to a song from Liz Phair's whitechocolatespaceegg album just now and it spurred that strange sensation that's half-memory, have gut-wrenching reflex in the way that certain songs will do. They become epochal, able to represent in a kind of emotional shorthand the texture and taste of a whole period of time. Not just songs you like, songs that fuck with your head. Anyway, it got me thinking of the songs or albums that do that to me and the different periods of my life they embody:

1st or 2nd grade : Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow
3rd or 4th grade : Rolling Stones' Tattoo You
5th or 6th grade : Come on Aileen by those weirdos in the overalls
Onset of puberty : soundtrack to Valley Girl
Post-parents' divorce : The Who's Better You Bet
Senior year of high school : Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti
First year out of college : U2's Joshua Tree
Last year at Disney : Tobin Sprout's Moonflower Plastic
MA program : Liz Phair's whitechocolatespaceegg and those raggae and Filipino folk songs my Marxist roommate used to always listen to

I suspect the current period is going to be defined by The Polyphonic Spree's album. But who knows? Could be surprised.