Set adrift a memory bliss....

So, I may have mentioned that I started running again recently.

Which means I needed to spruce up my IPod; not because I really needed to - but because my old laptop died and ITunes doesn't store your library by your log on -but by your computer. Which is irritating, but it is what it is. So - I need to gain all new songs.

The upside to this is that I started downloading songs that I'd completely forgotten about, and I've spent the last three hours lost in a time warp of the best possible kind.

I completely forgot how amazing both of Pearl Jam's first two CDs were. Every single flipping track. Pearl Jam was life changing for me at the time, they were so very raw, and I adored Eddie Vedder's emotional singing. I listened to those two albums endlessly, for years....literally.

Or how about Guns & Roses "Appetite for Destruction" - another life altering collection of music. The grittiness of GNR in the early days was such a change from the slickly produced heavy metal bands I listened to. Not to say that I didn't become completely engrossed in those either...

Speaking of which, tonight brought me back to the days of classic Queensryche, (no - not the sappy "Silent Lucidity" watered down version which made me swear off cross over music for a few years) with the Operation MindCrime collection. Geoff Tate's voice -- stunning. Rock opera at it's finest.

And of course, there's Iron Maiden. Who didn't love songs like "Wasted Years" or "Run to the Hills". Skid Row's "Sweet Little Sister", always a crowd pleaser....though the whole cd is actually really good, despite the very commercial "18 and Life". "I remember you" waxes nostalgic for me...and few people can rock the ballad like Sebastian Bach can.

This is not to say that I don't have my share of great hip hop and R&B songs on track as well, because I absolutely do.

But to get lost in the rock music of my youth, was like stepping back in time; and that my friends, is not a terrible way to spend a Sunday evening...