I went to my twenty-year high school reunion this past weekend, and, instead of rambling about my overall impressions (which may or may not ever see the light of day), I thought I'd take a stroll down memory lane and recount the songs I listed as my "favorites" in my Official Class Of 1988 Memories Book. Yes, I'm aware that none of these are actually from 1988. Such is my un-hipness....
"Fallout"/The Police-This was sort of a holy grail for me and some of my friends waybackwhen. CD's weren't even the most popular format yet, and i-tunes? Ha! Anyway, I remember how excited I was to unearth this debut track from The Police on an out-of-print IRS Records compilation, and how cool I thought I was. Now I see it as an okay song, but far from being on list of favorites.
"Stone Thames"/Big Audio Dynamite-Learned about this song from a girl in my class and dug it as much for the chaotic beats as I did for the fact it had the queen mother of all dirty words in its lyrics. Again, an okay song for me now, but I far prefer others from This Is B.A.D.
"Once In A Lifetime"/Talking Heads-My older brother, of all people, turned me onto Talking Heads, but his favorite bands were often those with geographical names. Still like this song a lot, and I still try to explain to my brother-in-law how cool the rhythm is.
"Glory Days"/Bruce Springsteen-A bit of preemptive retrospection from senior year. I really dug Born In The USA for a while, but these days, I can only handle The Boss in doses few and far between.
"Come Sail Away"/Styx-Okay, here's the deal: I went to a church lock-in my freshman year and met this girl who ended up being not only the first girl I had a crush on, but also the first girl to give me the "just friends" line. Anyway, they had played "Come Sail Away," and me, in my high school geekdom, obsessed over this girl and the song. Hey, I admit I still like Styx sometimes, but generally not this song.
"Too Nice To Talk To"/The English Beat-So what if The Beat had disbanded before I even made it into high school? From the first time I heard "Save It For Later" on a mix a friend made for me, I was hooked. I bought all their albums (on cassette, of course) and this song stuck out to become one of my favorites. Still is, amazingly.
"Bohemian Rhapsody"/Queen-Now, you've got to remember, this was long before Wayne's World.... I remember a friend from grade school being in love with this song, and I ended up explicating the lyrics for an English assignment. A great song, to be sure, but I've got to be in the mood for it nowadays.
"Summertime Blues"/The Who-I pretty much hated The Who in high school, but I knew some guys who played a cover of this at the St. X Battle Of The Bands. I don't know,the hanger-on-wannabe in me influencing my musical faves.... I like a lot of early Who now, by the way.
"These Important Years"/Hüsker Dü-Along the lines of the Springsteen pick, actually. I tried to like Hüsker Dü more than what I actually did to musially keep up with a friend (if that makes sense). A decent song, but a favorite? Not really, no.
"One Tree Hill"/U2-I remember buying The Joshua Tree the day it was released (cassette, natch) and really dug this song. In retrospect, it's probably better as ammunition for U2 haters, and for me, often the victim of the "Skip" button.
There you have it. Warts and all. Yikes. By the way the album I listed as my favorite was The Replacements' Pleased To Meet Me and I claimed that my favorite band was the aforementioned Hüsker Dü. Somehow, none of these songs got played at the reunion....
