Some of those moments of yours mirror how the likes of Bowie Reed etc had such a huge impact on my life. However the journey started with early Beatle albums that my older brother owned, it’s was their music that that flicked a switch and all their albums can whizz me back to a time and place.
Bowie’s Blackstar still brings me a tear as well especially the last two tracks which have a habit of sounding like he’s talking to me.
Thank you for sharing.
Hi Pete
I recognise I’m late to this thread, but I totally get what you mean.
There are many, many triggers in my collection.
One or two that I CAN’T listen to anymore.
One overriding memory that brings me back to the album time and again is the first time I heard “A Farewell To Kings”. It started a now 45 year following of my most favourite band of all.
1977, the year of Star Wars and my 2nd year at Secondary School. The year after the long hot Summer of ‘76.
A time to look back on and remember the innocence and the very beginnings of a long relationship with Music. Not just Rock, but all Music, from Opera and Mozart to Prog Metal and Dream Theater.
BUT… There will ALWAYS be RUSH!
A Time Machine indeed😊
Yes I have a few that I’m reluctant to play. Bowie’s Blackstar is very painful for me but I really like the album.
Martin, I fear that the autocorrect function has mauled your contribution above, to change the name of the peerless Kirsten Flagstad to ‘Flagstaff’.
(It tried to do the very same to me as I typed this just now, and I had to change the name back manually!!)
You will have seen, no doubt, that Decca are about to re-release Solti’s ‘Ring’ on LP for the umpteenth time shortly.
Most of my Time Machine moments are pleasant ones even if the nostalgia generated leaves me wishing I was young again. However with a fair bit of listening to Bob Seger over the past couple of days I’ve realised just why I like his work so much. I am sitting this afternoon alone while Mrs Bruss is out and Bob’s songs really are quite depressing. I am this afternoon taken back to a time when I was living alone and thinking I may be remaining that way.
Fortunately I recovered and now can listen to the excellent music without the pain, normally. It’s no bad thing to be reminded where we have come from sometimes. Music has that power.
Edit and now ‘In your time’ has just played. 
When I was a teenager I went camping in Looe, Cornwall with a couple of mates. The only music we had access to was on a portable cassette machine. We had a recording from an OGWT from earlier that year which had on it the following:
Captain Beefheart - Lo Yo Yo Stuff
Joan Armatrading - Child Star
J.Geils Band - Looking for a Love
Hearing any of these today transports me back to those great times
Great to see this conversation starting up again… Had another of these moments this Saturday night. Don’t know if many know the group Delain but they wrote and released a single The Others about the murder of Sophie Lawrence wept like a child because my system took me back to the first time I heard the news. Being different isn’t a crime hence we are on this forum listening to our music on gear that we choose to own. But it proves that our systems at whatever level have the ability to act as Time machines for the good times and to jog and ensure that our emotional ties to certain musical events are kept alive.
Yes indeed, great post Pete. I think of my Naim hifi (and my Hitachi midi system) as a time machine too. For example, ‘Mystic Queen’ from Camel’s first album ‘Camel’ (1973) and ‘Sheep’ from Pink Floyd’s ‘Animals’ (1977) take me back to a 1977 summer holiday on the Cilan peninsula near Abersoch in North Wales.
Thanks I was a bit worried it was too revealing but hey nobody knows where I live. Music has always been a big part of my life, I’d be happy to pass with a pair of headphones on listening to Bowie, The Beatles or Lou Reed etc.
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