Everyone can listen to a song and remember a time, place, or event. What song gets you in the camping mood or makes you think of camping.
Whenever I hear "Signs" by 5 man Electrical Band I always think back to the summer of 1991 when I was working at my Boy Scout camp. I remember hearing that song often during that summer. I always picture staff week at the end of the summer when there were no campers around so there were radios all over camp and cranked up (we were teenagers). It was the end of the day and I was passing handicraft and they had a radio sitting on top of a chuck box used to store stuff and the song was cranking. I stopped and we just sat on the picnic tables as the song played. It was a unique moment in time that I will always remember.
Five Man Electrical Band - Signs (1971)
Another song that gets me in the camping mood is 30 thousand pounds of bananas by Harry Chapin. My Dad bought a 1978 Dodge Station Wagon with an 8-track player and the previous owner through in the few 8-tracks he had, one of which was a live Harry Chapin album (this actual cut). Whenever we went on a weekend camping trip with the Scouts we would inevitably get out of radio range and he'd pop in an 8-track. We would always be listening to this as we hit the real mountain roads with the woodsy smell. It meant the start of a fun weekend in the woods.
Matt O 2006 Skyline Nomad 27' travel trailer. Previously owned 1986 Coleman Columbia / 1992 Coleman Senecca / 1989 Born Free Class C RV.
Anything by John Denver also gets me thinking of camping. Country Roads always made me think of how I feel at home in the woods and I start thinking of camping. I visited the last Boy Scout Jamboree and they played this song often....since the next Boy Scout Jamboree will be in West Virginia on their own property. I can't wait to visit there, I think that will be a very special time to be able to say I was there at the first.
Country roads John Denver Almost Heaven West Virginia Parkersburg WV
Matt O 2006 Skyline Nomad 27' travel trailer. Previously owned 1986 Coleman Columbia / 1992 Coleman Senecca / 1989 Born Free Class C RV.
No, it was the original, but I do remember the Tesla remake as well.
There were a couple of older kids on staff that were total Deadhead's. We used to listen to a lot of The Doors and the Grateful Dead that summer as well. We had a lot of fun that summer. 20 teenagers living in the woods with the majority of the adults living in cabins 1/2 mile away......lets just say we had fun 😉
Matt O 2006 Skyline Nomad 27' travel trailer. Previously owned 1986 Coleman Columbia / 1992 Coleman Senecca / 1989 Born Free Class C RV.
I don't listen to music while camping, as both DH and I both have hearing loss in both low and high ranges, respectively (our primary instruments are electric bass and acoustic violin, respectively). In order for us to both enjoy music, it usually has to be turned up loud enough to the point where it would be heard by other campsites (our boys always tell us that it's too loud in the car when we ourselves can hardly hear it) and, as musicians, we realize that what one person loves might be totally irritating to others.
That said, we love listening to music while driving to the campground; to us, the driving music is an essential part of packing for the trip and has become integrated into the camping experience itself. On one of our typical summer weekend trips to the Delaware shore, I and the boys (14 & 16) leave around 10 on a Friday and come home on a Monday; DH drives to the campground directly after work on Friday after work, and drives directly to work (from the campground) on Monday morning.
Our favorite driving tunes (warning: this is a lengthy list, sorry that I can't condense it into just a few songs):
Me: Moody Blues: Days of Future Past (album), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (album), The Voice, Gypsy/Grateful Dead: Eyes of the World, Playing in the Band, Franklin's Tower, Ripple, Lovelight/ELP: Toccata, Karn Evil (all movements), Pictures at an Exhibition (all movements)/Yes: Perpetual Change, Heart of the Sunrise, Something's Coming, America, Silent Wings of Freedom, Your Move & All Good People (Yessongs version), Everydays, Leave It, Emmylou Harris: Roses in the Snow (album), Sound of Music Broadway Recording with Mary Martin, the Fantasticks (original Broadway Cast), Unwritten (Natasha Bedingfield), Bob Marley: One Love, Redemption Song, Rush: everything, especially Hemispheres and Roll the Bones/Iron Maiden: Wasted Years, Aces High, The Trooper/Israel Kamakawiwo'ole: Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Genesis: Trick of the Tail, Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Wind and Wuthering, Foxtrot, Nursery Crymes.
Most of all, I never tire of the Who's Quadrophenia; it's fit my life perfectly as both a teenager and a mom, though for different reasons (i.e. a mom's job is to be that of the Bell Boy, "Always Running at Someone's Heel"). Also, we love to camp at the beach, and "A beach is a place where a man can feel he's the only soul in the world that's for real" and "Sometimes I still sleep on the beach - remember when stars were in reach" just fits our lives. Sorry if I've given too much info.
Great thread idea.
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