2000 Great Songs #1430: On The Roof
This is our third visit to The Good Earth , the Feelies ' 1986 masterpiece of pastoral indie jangle which, as I've spouted ad nauseum, is one of my absolute favorite, most frequently-played records in my Absurdly Oversized Music Collection. And while I think other tracks on the album are "better" (though the blend of guitars here and some subtle piano is simply gorgeous), the album-opening "On The Roof" is an example of a song where just hearing the first couple notes unfailingly brings on a massive rush of nostalgic emotional force. For me, it's the sound not just of discovering a record which would immediately become one of the most personally-defining collections of music of my lifetime, but the conjuring of a specific moment in my life. The album arrived at the very beginning of my junior year in college. I'm back on campus, living in a dorm suite with 3 close friends, a brand new girlfriend (someone I'd been friends with since the first d...
