Showing posts with label The Replacements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Replacements. Show all posts

Sunday, June 9, 2013

10 Nostalgic Songs

As my pre-post internet search for "nostalgic songs" would suggest, nostalgia is a very personal thing. Every similar list I came across was radically different from the last, in terms of genre, time-period, etc. Therefore, perhaps most of what follows is only relevant to my own, narrow experiences, but hopefully there's something here to which you can relate.
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"Losing Haringey," by The Clientele
Remember those long, contemplative walks? Remember that feeling of 1982-ness: dizzy, illogical, as if none of the intervening disasters and wrong turns had happened yet?


"Slide," by Goo Goo Dolls
Remember consolations?


"I Will Remember You," by Sarah McLachlan
Remember the last time we saw each other? I've long associated this one with graduation day...


"Fast Car," by Tracy Chapman
Remember forgetting it all to wild exhilaration?


"You Get What You Give," by New Radicals
Remember the 1990s: Beck, Hanson, Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson? Remember what the Staten Island Mall looked like back then?


"Green and Grey," by New Model Army
Remember the one who got out, sold out?


"Drops of Jupiter," by Train
Remember your best friend always stickin' up for you? The best soy latte that you ever had?


"Late Night, Maudlin Street," by Morrissey
Remember moving away from the street you grew up on?


"Post World War Two Blues," by Al Stewart
Remember your youthful idealism? Which way did the 60's go?


"Talent Show," The Replacements
Remember how cool we all thought we were in our younger, dumber years?
(Hon. nostalgic Placemats mention: "When it Began," of course)

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Eleven Ecstatically Happy Songs

To celebrate the return of my favorite childhood confectionery - hot cinnamon tic tacs - there follows a list of all-purpose, ebullient tunes. This should recompense for a previous entry suiting quite the opposite set of moods. Enjoy!
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"Sweet Jane," by The Velvet Underground
I'd call this classic, but then again, I call everything by The Velvet Underground classic.


"All Around You (Intro)," by The Brian Jonestown Massacre
The warm, friendly bit of psychedelic trippiness that kicks-off The Satanic Majesties' Second Request.


"Punk Rock Girl," by The Dead Milkmen
I can't listen to this one without grinning widely. Everything about this is hilarious. Three cheers for the Philadelphian accent!


"Certain People I Know," by Morrissey
Miserablist my arsenal: a song for those days when you can take just about anything with a grain of salt... or sand.


"The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)," by Simon and Garfunkel
I listened to this frequently when I first returned to dear old Glasgow. Continuing my education in the city I loved most meant the constant need to stifle spontaneous smiling. "What the fuck is he so happy about?"


"Can't Hardly Wait," by The Replacements

Nervous anticipation, when, after far too long, we finally know for certain that it's all going to turn out wonderfully.


"Change," by The Lightning Seeds
"Oh, you fool, you've got me started..."


"I Kissed a Girl," by Jill Sobule
A convincing little love song for the list.


"The Big Sky," by Kate Bush
"That cloud... that cloud... looks like Ireland!" I likewise tend to spot geopolitical entities in the sky.


"Waiting for the Great Leap Forward," by Billy Bragg

Takes you down before taking you way, way up. This is for all of you dispirited lefties out there: if no one out there understands, start your own revolution and cut out the middle-man!


"Tom Hark," by Elias and his Zig Zag Jive Flutes

Pennywhistle playfulness from South Africa, 1956. Stewart Lee must be a fan.