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Songs about Nostalgia

Is the past really better than the present? Were the good old days really that good? Is it true that "they don't make them like they used to"? Or is the natural delusion we all have to look back on the past and remember only the good parts making those old times seem better than they really are?

In any case, these are the songs that commemorate past times and a fondness for days gone by. You can be nostalgic over the culture of a time, nostalgic for your youth, or just those carefree days of summer when you and your sweetheart had all the time in the world. One notable thing about nostalgia though is that the Internet is making it obsolete. The Internet is great at preserving culture, which is why we still have Star Wars movies coming out some 40 years after the first one was released. Why be nostalgic for the past when the past keeps following you around?

• 
  1979
  Smashing Pumpkins

  "Shakedown 1979, cool kids never have the time
  On a live wire right up off the street
  You and I should meet
  Junebug skipping like a stone
  Headlights pointed at the dawn
  We were sure we’d never see an end to it all"

• 
  A Child of the Fifties
  Statler Brothers, The

  "I grew up a child of the 50s
  Learned to dance to the beat of rock & roll
  Television was my friend
  I Love Lucy, Rin Tin Tin
  Kissed my first girl when I was 10 years old"

• 
  Are the Good Times Really Over
  Merle Haggard

  "I wish a buck was still silver
  It was back when the country was strong
  Back before Elvis
  Before the Vietnam war came along"

• 
  Back To The Shack
  Weezer

  "Take me back, back to the shack
  Back to the strat with the lightning strap
  Kick in the door, more hardcore
  Rockin out like it's '94"

• 
  Bored to Death
  Blink 182
• 
  Chattahoochee
  Alan Jackson

  "Down by the river on a Friday night
  A pyramid of cans in the pale moonlight
  Talking 'bout cars and dreaming 'bout women
  Never had a plan just a livin' for the minute"

• 
  Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?
  Ramones, The
• 
  Do You Remember These
  Statler Brothers, The

  "All the colors of my youth, the red, the green, the whole
  Are beatin me black and blue, cause you’re in every scene
  My friends try to cheer me up, get together at the pizza hut
  I didn’t have the heart to tell em, that was our place"

• 
  Drive (For Daddy Gene)
  Alan Jackson

  "It was just on old plywood boat
  With a '75 Johnson with electric choke
  A young boy two hands on the wheel
  I can't replace the way it made me feel"

• 
  Eddie Walker
  Ben Folds Five
• 
  Field Of Innocence
  Evanescence
• 
  Fields of Gold
  Sting
• 
  First Kiss
  Kid Rock
• 
  Funny How Time Slips Away
  Juice Newton

  "That you'd love him till the end of time
  Now, that's the same thing that you told me
  Seems like just the other day
  Gee, ain't it funny, how time slips away."

• 
  Give Me Back My Hometown
  Eric Church

  "Damn I used to loved this view, sit here and drink a few
  Main street and the high school lit up on a Friday night
  Down there it’s another touchdown, man this years team is stout
  I can hear em going crazy, and up here so am I"

• 
  Good Ole Days
  Phil Vassar
• 
  Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Ol' Days)
  Judds, The

  "Grandpa
  Tell me 'bout the good old days.
  Sometimes it feels like
  This world's gone crazy.
  Grandpa, take me back to yesterday,
  Where the line between right and wrong
  Didn't seem so hazy."

• 
  I Hold On
  Dierks Bentley
• 
  I Wanna Go Back
  Eddie Money
• 
  In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)
  Dolly Parton

  "No amount of money could buy from me
  The memories that I have of then
  No amount of money could pay me
  To go back and live through it again"

• 
  Lukenbach, Texas
  Waylon Jennings

  "So baby, let's sell your diamond ring
  Buy some boots and faded jeans and go away
  This coat and tie is choking me
  In your high society you cry all day
  We've been so busy keepin' up with the Jones
  Four car garage and we're still building on
  Maybe it's time we got back to the basics of love"

• 
  Mountain Music
  Alabama

  "Oh, play me some mountain music,
  Like grandma and grandpa used to play.
  Then I'll float on down the river
  To a Cajun hideaway."

• 
  Photograph
  Nickelback
• 
  Photographs and Memories
  Jim Croce

  "'Cause I have photographs and memories
  Of the times
  When you weren't on my mind
  And I was alone
  And I have poetry and drawings
  Of my life "

• 
  Remember the Time
  Michael Jackson

  "Do You Remember
  When We Fell In Love
  We Were Young
  And Innocent Then
  Do You Remember
  How It All Began
  It Just Seemed Like Heaven"

• 
  Remember When
  Alan Jackson

  "Remember when I was young and so were you
  and time stood still and love was all we knew
  You were the first, so was I
  We made love and then you cried
  Remember when"

• 
  Spotlight (Oh Nostalgia)
  Patrick Stump

  "Every word's a new regret if you say it right, right
  Every wound can be forgotten in the right light
  Oh nostalgia, I don't need you anymore"

• 
  Springsteen
  Eric Church
• 
  Summer of '69
  Bryan Adams

  "Oh when I look back now
  That was seemes to last forever
  And if I had the choice
  Ya - I'd always wanna be there
  Those were the best days of my life"

• 
  Tennessee Waltz
  Patti Page

  "I remember the night and the Tennessee Waltz
  Now I know just how much I have lost"

• 
  The House That Built Me
  Miranda Lambert

  "Up those stairs in that little back bedroom
  Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar
  I bet you didn’t know under that live oak
  My favorite dog is buried in the yard"

• 
  Time To Pretend
  MGMT
• 
  Tuesdays Gone
  Lynyrd Skynyrd
• 
  When I See This Bar
  Kenny Chesney

  "Pieces of our past slowly slip away,
  But time just stands still when I walk in this place."

• 
  Yesterday
  Beatles

  "I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday."

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