Why does music have the power that it does?

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” ― Albert Einstein

There’s nothing else quite like it. By just hitting play on the right song and suddenly we’re traveling through time, dropped right back into a moment we haven’t thought about in years. No matter how long it’s been, the details snap into focus—vivid, sharp, almost startlingly clear.

I got reminded of that power this week.

Everyone else had called it a night, and I still had a little work left to knock out. I slipped on my headphones to get in the zone. Outkast had just been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so I fired up one of their playlists on Spotify and settled in the zone. A couple of songs played, I was cruising, getting things done…

Then a song from Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik came on, and suddenly I wasn’t in 2025 anymore. I was sitting in a 1950s metal desk in the world’s glamorous dorm room, looking out the window and over the balcony of Admin onto the campus of Virginia Intermont. It’s the winter of ’96, and I’ve got a philosophy paper due in the morning. The adrenaline from procrastination is kicking in, mixing with that relentless blast of uncontrollable steam heat hissing out of the radiator.

Wait—I’m 48. Why does it feel like I’m 18 and about to let Dr. Rainwater down?

Or how can one Molly Hatchet song throw me straight back to being a seven-year-old kid getting woken up for school? And every time Centerfold comes on, I’m instantly at Giovanni’s with a pocket full of quarters, playing Ms. Pac-Man while a hot ham and cheese is on the way—with absolutely no idea what the lyrics mean, and blissfully unconcerned.

That’s the power of music.

So what’s your song—the one that pulls you straight out of the present and drops you somewhere else entirely?
Or, if you’re trying to get things done, what’s the track you throw on when it’s time to lock in and GSD?

Let me know. I love hearing what takes people back.

Music isn’t the only thing that sends us inward or backward—good books do it too. Here’s what’s been on my reading list recently:

I’ll be working on these books below the rest of 2025 and into 2026.