Not literally, mind you. Just whip up a tracklisting of 10 songs that remind you of times more carefree than your immediate present, when you could easily while away a Saturday doing absolutely nothing meaningful. I've been thinking about this a bit today, maybe just because there's so much to be accomplished in what seems to be such a short period of time.
To get us started, here's my list:
1. LAGWAGON "May 16" - The chorus here is "It's just another Saturday," which jibes nicely with this project, no? Lagwagon - who keep straggling on despite being well past their sell-by date - specialize NOFX-influenced pop-punk about personal identity. Back in the day when we all carried a lot less responsibility, my brother-in-law, Alecia, and I would crowd into the basement of my in-laws' split level home for Saturday morning sessions with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, and this was one of jams that'd play in the background, along with tons of vintage hardcore and rap classics. Good times, even if they both insisted that I was too hard on the joystick.
2. RZA as BOBBY DIGITAL feat. METHOD MAN "NYC Everything" - The best - or most memorable, take yr pick - track from RZA's 1998 debut. Meaningless, but intriguingly so; takes me back to those long, gas-wasting drives back and forth between Chestertown, MD and Newark, Del. to blow wads on music, chicken wings, and The Baffler back in college (and the year immediately after). Meth: "Gotta can't forget Bobby, if I did I'd feel gyped/Like my sandwich ain't a sandwich without Miracle Whip." Today these dudes probably aren't even on speaking terms.
3. CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL "Down on the Corner" - My dad made me a tape that had this song on it when I was a kid, or maybe someone else's version of it; not sure. Anyway, it reminds me of my dad and his cassette-dubbing fetish and how he'd use magic markers on the spine, making little designs (like waves or dots or what have you) to approximate a minimal artwork or something. Such things seem silly and not worth thinking about when you're little, yeah? Then you're old enough to recall your elders at the age you've reached and the passage of time hits you like a load of bricks.
4. THE MOLDY PEACHES "NYC is Like a Graveyard" - I bought this album when I was too broke to buy it with a credit card on the way to an employment agency; I didn't have a job because I'd foolishly quit one - for the first time in my life - a few weeks earlier. Not too long afterwards, 9/11 happened and this song stopped being even remotely funny. In retrospect, this song shouldn't even make this list, because it meant something to me during one of my lowest periods.
5. PAVEMENT "Rattled By The Rush" - Any track off of Wowee Zowee would do here, really. Spring of 1995, senior year of high school, first crappy car (1982 Ford Mustang), broken radio so I'd jam batteries into a portable and bring it with me and invariably I'd be listening to this album, which represented a new sort of freedom and endless possibility. The future was an open book, college loomed, I could reinvent myself as a different person and make new connections = which did happen.
6. GREEN DAY "Geek Sick Breath" - Man, I used to get such a charge out of hearing this on the radio before Insomniatic even dropped. Didn't even know much about amphetamines or what the song meant per se, but Billie Joe's stilted cadence and the hook just worked better than anything off of Dookie, somehow. Anyway, context: driving to and from work as a dishwasher at the Towson Golf & Country Club along winding, leafy backroads, volume all the way up, wearing a GBV t-shirt, winter break or maybe summer, etc. in the VW Jetta I bought from mom.
7. DEPECHE MODE "Walking In My Shoes" - See #3. My pop was killing the music industry even before anybody conceived of the mp3! Also, Alecia loves loves LOVES Depeche Mode, and through her more than anybody, so do I.
8. QUEEN "Bohemian Rhapsody" - Because I watched Wayne's World more than was healthy for a teen and because for a bit I was homies with a dude who was obsessed with Queen compilations. Fuck it - sub in just about any Queens hit single. "I Like to Ride My Bicycle"? Sure. "Killer Queen"? Okay. "You're My Best Friend"? That'll work.
9. HARVEY DANGER "Flagpole Sitta" - The distillation of alt-whatever/zinester/zeitgeist/youth culture post-grunge, maybe that disapora's shark-jump moment, too. It's tough to pin this one to a specific memory because radio molested the hell out of it for what seemed like months. just milked it til it bled and you didn't wanna get any on you, you know? Bill Denton's apartment in C-town near the Royal Farms and the fucked-up night where his downstairs neighbor had a party and a bunch of our crew were there, agreeing to drive Beth Davis to some baseball game and this song coming on and her screaming it at the top of her lungs, so much more besides, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a whooooole lot.
10. MADONNA "Live to Tell" - Adolescence, summer, Towson YMCA camp, heat, sweat, infatuation, rejection, wishing I had the cool OC shirts and jams the other kids had, thinking that'd make me happier. This song really scared me, not so much because of the vocal performance or the lyrics but because of how amorphous and shadowy and emotional the production was.
Care to play along at home? Email me your lists, and I'll post 'em here.
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