I said I'm sorry Jenny, she said get out of sight

NPR's doing a series on songs your parents listened to that stayed imprinted in your memory. Well, I don't need a reason to think about the music I grew up with. It's so ingrained in my identity that what I call 'vacation music' is never too far from my mind.

Growing up, my dad usually had two greatest hits cassette tapes on rotation during our annual road trips to Massachusetts. As a child, I was always rooting for The Everly Brothers over Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young. I really didn't like CSNY. I guess they offended my fine-tuned pop sensibilities. I mean, what 8-year-old wants to hear Wooden Ships over Wake Up, Little Susie? I remember sitting in the Way Back of the wood-paneled Oldsmobile station wagon making kissing noises on the drum beats of ('Til) I Kissed You with my sister. Other songs conjured up strange images that I still haven't fully replaced with the metaphors that created them, like a girl canoodling with a Bozo-type figure in Cathy's Clown. Why was she romantically interested in a clown? I never understood. Bird Dog was another strange image. A hybrid creature tricking teachers and trying to steal other people's girlfriends? Yes, dating was a weird world I didn't understand yet - one that apparently caused a lot of pain and tears, and sometimes letting your love interest get punched in the face and put in jail. Maybe it would all make sense in high school. I thought the kissing part seemed pretty straightforward. Either way, I never got tired of those harmonies.

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, however, took longer to grow on me. It wasn't until I was in high school that those harmonies took place in my heart. Soon, any combination of the four men in question became my favorite band of all time. My friend and I would sit in her parents' living room and play Deja Vu as I discovered the joys of listening to old music on vinyl. In college I gained the ability to actually download music and burn CD's! I could replicate the CSNY cassette tape of my youth! And I did.

For some reason, it wasn't until tonight, five years out of college, that I decided to recreate the Everly Brothers cassette on a CD. As I type this, my computer is also writing away, preparing the tunes for this year's annual road trip. I don't know why it's taken me so long to return to my roots, one of the greatest pop duos of all time again, but I can't wait to let those melodies surround me once more as I cross the Tappan Zee Bridge.