I remember falling in love with music as a kid. My dad was a die-hard Johnny Cash fan so we listened to country music at home. My favorite song from back then was The Ballad of Ira Hayes on the Bitter Tears album.
 
My mother pulled me aside and told me I could listen to whatever genre of music I wanted to, I didn’t have to listen to country just because my Dad did.
 
As I entered high school I became exposed to other types of music, especially Rock and Roll.
I remember listening to Stevie Wonder’s Sir Duke, Paul Simon’s Kodachrome, and America’s Sister Golden Hair on the radio on long Boy Scout car trips. In fact one of my favorite lyrics of all time is in Sir Duke:

"Music is a world within itself, With a language we all understand."

As I’ve grown older I’ve noticed some songs will transport me back to the past like a time machine.
 
Whenever I hear Hotel California by the Eagles I’m transported back to the summer between my sophomore and junior year when I was scraping and painting my Dad’s store.
 
As I listen to Johnny Lee’s Stranger I’m whisked back to basic training at Fort Benning, GA. The only luxury we were allowed was music. I had a cassette player and I bought three tapes, Tanya Tucker’s Greatest Hits, A K-Tel country music compilation, and the Eagles Greatest Hits 1971-75.
 
Whenever I hear Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock-n-Roll I’m reminded of my first Army roommate in Germany. We listened to Seger and the Who constantly.
 
Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark seemed to be playing every time I walked into the club in Giebelstadt, Germany on my first tour.
 
I’ll never be able to hear Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild, without remembering a deployment to Japan. Several members of the battalion packed their instruments and had an impromptu jam session. It was one of three songs they all knew. Beer helped.
When my son Danny died of SIDS, I listened to Elton John’s Daniel, over and over. I think it helped me heal.
 
When I was getting out of the Army in 1992 there was a song by Michael White, Familiar Ground. It had a line in it that summed up my time in the Army.
 
“You never know how far you’ve run until you’re standing where you started from.”
 
Tim McGraw’s I Like it, I Love it, became my wife, Anna, and my song when we got together in college.

When my Mom and Grandma died, In the Garden, was played at both funerals. And of course Johnny Cash’s Daddy Sang Bass, was the song my Dad had picked for his service.
 
There are many other songs that trigger memories, good and bad, which make up the soundtrack of my life. And I wouldn’t trade them for the world.