Wednesday Wist

This is a meme created by Amy that I found at the blog of Chief Slacker. The idea is this: you put your digital music player of choice onto random/shuffle and listen to the first five songs that come up. You write the memories that you associate with each song, or (if you've never heard the song before) your first impressions. Be wistful. I did a trial run-through last Friday and actually ended up with A Jimmy Buffett-Themed Circular Stream of Consciousness, but for this post I'm just going to follow the guidelines. So let's get down to business:

"Welcome back, your dreams were your ticket out..."
Uh...then they didn't get me very far, did they?

The Theme to Welcome Back, Kotter ("Welcome Back")
I have several CD's full of television theme songs. I remember watching this show in reruns as a kid and the credits were especially interesting because there were places I actually recognized. (The only other places that I'd seen on the big or small screen that I recognized from my neighborhood appeared in--you guessed it--Saturday Night Fever.) The high school you see in the opening credits is New Utrecht High School, which is the school I was zoned to attend if I didn't go to Catholic school. The show is about a remedial class and gets most of its humor from exploiting Brooklyn, Italian, and Jewish steretypes. Ironically, I am currently teaching a remedial English class, though at the city college, not high school.

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"I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now..."
Major wist. Haven't we all thought that at one point or another?

"There are many things that I would like to say to you but I don't know how..."
Pretty much the story of my life. And I call myself a writer.

“Wonderwall” (Oasis)
This song reminds me of the mid-90s, when I was going to NYU, working at a movie theater, and spending most of my time hanging out with the people I worked with. It was an ever-shifting but always fascinating group of people with really eclectic musical tastes. We would go from listening to grungey stuff to bands like Oasis to hip hop (uh…the Wu-Tang Clan were frequent visitors to our theater) to going out after work and dancing to house/techno. Good times.

Method Man: “I want mad butter on that yo, maaaaaaaaad butter.”

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"I never thought that she would say /Say good-bye / But she did
And now I / Wanna die / I wanna die..."
Someone, please. Make it stop. Wanna die. I wanna die.

“Why Judy Why” (Billy Joel)
This is one of the most wrist-slitting songs ever written. Every time it comes up, I skip it. The album Cold Spring Harbor is depressing as all hell. I'm sorry Billy Joel was in a difficult place when he wrote this, but I have to get this off my freakin’ iPod. There’s no rule in this meme stating that I have to listen to the whole song, is there? Because if I keep listening to this my ears might start bleeding.

By the way, I love Billy Joel.

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"The only one who could ever reach me..."
"The only boy who could ever teach me..."
I hear ya, honey! Few and far between, they are. But damn exciting when you find one.

“Son of a Preacher Man” (Dusty Springfield)
Ok, now we're talking. Most people of Gen X and beyond only know this song because it was on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack; however, as a kid I spent a lot of time in the car with my parents, Baby Boomers who listened to CBS FM 101, which was the “oldies” station in NYC until very recently (when CBS fired their DJs, reformatted their station, and began referring it to Jack FM. Jack is acually pretty good if you ask me, but that's a topic for a different post.) So this is a song that I grew up with, due to its extensive airplay on 101. And I love it. Love it love it love it. So thanks to Mom and Dad for forcing me to listen to Dusty Springfield.

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"If you wanna find all the cops are hanging out in the donut shop..."
This is a terrible stereotype! Or at least I think so until I'm walking home from the bus stop at 2am and find a cop convention at the new Dunkin' Donuts. And speaking of DD, they have declared war on Starbucks. They're multiplying like freakin'...Starbucks.

“Walk Like an Egyptian” (Bangles)
This reminds me of those days when I was actually wearing the uniform that I wore for Halloween this year. The days when you could still see videos on MTV. This is not my favorite Bangles song. The Bangles could have been a good girl band. Then those marketing geniuses turned Susanna Hoffs into a pin-up girl and took the attention away from the band as a whole. Now don't get me wrong--if I were a man, I’d’ve been all over Susanna Hoffs. Hell, I don’t like women, but I’d seriously consider making an exception for her. But not just for her looks. Besides looking good, she has a sexy voice, an amazing stage presence, and can move.

And in case you were wondering, my favorite Bangles songs are "In Your Room" and their cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter". (Sorry, fellow geeks, I loved that cover before my musical elitism evolved and allowed me to become pretentious enough to make lists of things like "songs you just shouldn't cover, ever".)