I spent most of yesterday looking around on Facebook and making contact with people I haven’t talked to in years. I discovered that roughly half my graduating class from high school (Springfield High School, Class of ’87) is on there, and, well… what a trip. Seeing the people I grew up with looking like adults and posing in pictures with their spouses and children is both disorienting and flashback inducing.
In the spirit of the flashback, I decided to take a few minutes to reflect on some of the music that accompanied my high school years. The town I grew up in (Springfield, OR) is a very blue collar place, supported mostly by a dying wood products industry. In her book about child-murderer Diane Downs, author Ann Rule described Springfield as an ugly step-sister to neighboring city Eugene (and I’m not sure which hurts more – the semi-truth of that analogy, or that I just cited Ann Rule as an “author”). She may be right, but Springfield is a place with many interesting nooks and dramatic vistas, and I spent a lot of my teenage years behind the wheel of a red 1972 VW Bug, driving all over that town and dreaming of the day that I could leave its sawmills and orchards behind.
All of my trips up Hayden Bridge Road and down Main Street were punctuated by music from my modest collection of cassette tapes – remember those? Some have held up pretty well, others are as embarrassing as the bowl haircut I sported in my 5th grade photos, but they were all part of the soundtrack of a time when I was a restless kid, rolling down the road to somewhere else.
Prince | Sign O’ The Times
dk says: Prince was an essential for me in high school. Around The World In A Day, Under The Cherry Moon, and 1999 all got play, but Sign O’ The Times was the dominant tape in my deck.
Listen: [link removed]
AC/DC | Who Made Who
dk says: The original AC/DC best-of, this compilation leans heavily toward the Brian Johnson years, but rocks from start to finish.
Listen: Ride On
INXS | Kick
dk says: The band behind my first concert, it seemed like everyone at Springfield High listened to these guys in 86/87…
Listen: Need You Tonight
Beastie Boys | Licensed To Ill
dk says: This tape stayed in the deck for two straight months during spring term of my senior year.
Listen: The New Style
Def Leppard | Hysteria
dk says: This one really speaks for itself.
Listen: Animal
LL Cool J | Bigger And Deffer
dk says: I knew every word of this album back in the day, but it hasn’t held up well.
Listen: Get Down
Bon Jovi | Slippery When Wet
dk says: This one also speaks for itself, although it led to a good debate here.
Listen: Or not.
Dead Or Alive | Youthquake
dk says: This one has drawn some verbal fire from friends and family over the years, but it’s still a thumbs-up in my book.
Listen: Lover Come Back To Me
The Cars | Greatest Hits
dk says: Not necessarily a favorite, but a staple nonetheless…
Listen: Since You’re Gone
Billy Idol | Vital Idol
dk says: Billy Idol is funny. And another debate ensued…
Listen: Catch My Fall
*****
QUESTION: What did you listen to when you went cruising during high school?
Tags: AC/DC, Beastie Boys, Billy Idol, Bon Jovi, Dead Or Alive, Def Leppard, INXS, LL Cool J, Prince, Springfield OR, The Cars, Volkswagen, VW Bug
4 February 2009 at 12:04 pm |
Woah. Youthquake. I had no idea. I really had no idea. I’m going to have to take some time out to do some reevaluating….
4 February 2009 at 12:07 pm |
Pearl Jam’s Ten, Vs & Vitology
Soundgarden’s Superunknown
Green Day’s Dookie
Stone Temple Pilot’s Purple
Tribe Called Quest’s Instinctive Paths… & The Low-End Theory
Spin Doctors’ Pocket Full Of Kryptonite
4 February 2009 at 12:15 pm |
95.5 WPLJ in New York was my station of choice: pretty much a Top 40 jukebox. Some of the cassettes that remind me of high school cruising: Storm Front, Billy Joel; Bad, Michael Jackson, and a lot of other vacuous pop. So help me god, though, if I hear ‘Kokomo’ by the Beach Boys one more time, I’m going to shoot myself. Crap, it’s already playing in my head!! Aaack! Aruba, Jamaica …
4 February 2009 at 12:16 pm |
Paul’s Boutique was the most memorable
The Hooters
Wham
The Dead Milkmen
Butthole Surfers
4 February 2009 at 1:05 pm |
I had two sets of friends in high school, the hard rockers and the prog rockers. And all the girls I knew dug the singer-songwriters. Of course I was also just finding out who that singer from New Jersey was.
Aerosmith: Get Your Wings, Rocks, Live Bootleg
Ted Nugent: Ted Nugent, Cat Scratch Fever
Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town
Jackson Browne: Running on Empty, The Pretender
Kiss: Love Gun
Al Di Meola: Elegant Gypsy
Return to Forever: Romantic Warrior
Yes: Fragile, Yessongs
Genesis: A Trick of the Tail
Steely Dan: Aja
Rick Wakeman: Journey to the Center of the Earth
4 February 2009 at 1:07 pm |
Holy smokes! Carol Miller from 95.5 WPLJ in NY was my favorite DJ growing up.
4 February 2009 at 1:15 pm |
Sigh.
Sign of the Times.
That tape was stuck in the deck of my 1979 brown Volvo sedan for the entirety of my senior year in high school, so every inch of every song is permanently programmed into my brain.
If I could play Name That Tune with any of the songs on that album, I’d win in a nanosecond.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Dan.
4 February 2009 at 1:36 pm |
Depended on who was driving:
Pete J. = The Doors. Lots of The Doors. Occasional Stones, but mostly The Doors.
Pete B. = The Police
Patrick = AC/DC, Alice in Chains, Scorpions, Def Leppard, the Cult, U2, Beasties, Soundgarden, Aerosmith. Luckily, Pat drove most of the time.
Dave = Dead or Alive; at least until everybody started yelling at him to stop, and then we listened to what we damned well pleased.
4 February 2009 at 1:48 pm |
I was listening to LOTS of gangsta rap back in the day (Spice 1, Ice Cube, RBL Posse, The Click, Brotha Lynch, C-Bo, 2Pac, etc)… I thought I was cool cause I had bass in my ride; two Pioneer 12″ woofers + a Jensen 400-watt amp (a ghetto-ass system up for some ghetto-ass tunes). Fun times, though.
4 February 2009 at 1:55 pm |
Love this one. OK, so i had this go to cassette tape with the Doors’ Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine on one side and a bunch of Beatles tunes on the other. could have been White Album. not sure. but it had ‘Blackbird’ and i listened to it over and over again. That and ‘The End’ from the Doors side. But it was this gold tape. really heavy. And the sound was amazing. best i ever heard on a cassette. think it was metal. But also listened to Floyd’s The Wall a lot and Bowie’s Changes. As you can imagine there was a two foot contempo stuffed under the passenger seat. (am i allowed to say that.) wouldn’t want the south carolina police pressing charges or anything.
4 February 2009 at 2:12 pm |
Top of my head selection below…this really was the time in my life when mix tapes we’re king. Driving around in a ’78 orange Vega with a Sears reverse tape deck…
The Clash
U2
Heaven 17
INXS
The Alarm
Thompson Twins
Adam and the Ants
Gary Numan
Rick Wakeman
Allan Parsons Project
Jean Michel Jarre
Gary Oldfield
Kraftwerk
The Ramones
Blondie
B-52s
4 February 2009 at 2:15 pm |
How DARE you say Bigger and Deffer hasn’t held up well! LL Cool J is a rap god. I *still* listen to that album, though, it’s not the same when I’m not riding in a BMW, cruising the main drag of Friendswood, Texas, and drinking cherry limeades spiked with vodka stolen from my parents’ liquor cabinet.
Ah and INXS…I spent many a wine-coolered buzz rocking out to that album…
4 February 2009 at 3:50 pm |
That picture of the old VW Bug sure does bring back some memories, like the time I cracked the windshield with a water balloon, haahahahahahahahahahahahahahah.
Good times.
/I remember jamming to Whitesnake in your car, if you’re man enough to admit it.
4 February 2009 at 5:04 pm |
Alas, Whitesnake was on the playlist…
4 February 2009 at 6:10 pm |
Only lame if it’s anything after Slide It In. That album kicks ass.
4 February 2009 at 6:48 pm |
Actually, I was playing the self-titled album from ’87.
Most definitely lame…
4 February 2009 at 7:08 pm |
Love Ain’t No Stranger wasn’t half bad
4 February 2009 at 7:09 pm |
Aside from that, yep, pretty much sucked
5 February 2009 at 4:48 pm |
Noticed that the long post from JD, that she worked on so carefully this morning and then lost her conncection with the internets, has not found it is way back into the mix. it was good
For me I love the bug..my first one was a 1955 with a cloth push back “moon roof” and 200K miles. Turn indicators were little arrow arms with lights on the end that came out of the door posts. It ran on a lot of Chuck Berry, Motown in general (Four Tops/Temptations/Martha and the Vandellas), early Beach Boys, Dick Dale and the Deltones, Bud Shank (did a lot of jazz sound track work for surf movies), the Beatles, early Stones, the Animals-long version of A House in New Orleans. Wolfman Jack seemed to be on every station along with Kasey Kasem.
Yeah I know I am really really old.
6 February 2009 at 5:30 am |
A sign o the tImes, indeed.
8 February 2009 at 8:17 pm |
Scorps, dude!
Also, Def Leppard, “Photograph” was the flashback favorite for St. Helens, class of ’87!
And throw in some sappy Chicago for the teenage melodrama years.
Cars, “You might think.”
Peter Gabriel.
Huey Lewis & The News
The music was one of my favorite parts about last summer’s 20-year class reunion.
16 February 2009 at 10:20 am |
I remember cruising around in Matt’s corvair convertible with a BoomBox in the back seat listening to Souixie and the Banshees, Beasties, David J (which I hated back then too, but Matt insisted I just hadn’t given it a good listen), Madonna, MJ, and Sir Mix A Lot.
Matt had a Yellow and Black striped Mullet, wore eye liner and preferred to wear knee length pajama bottoms with bears on them, while I was stylishly clad in a polo shirt and outdated bell-bottoms.
My own collection of music consisted of Paula Abdul, Bobby Brown, Atlantic Starr, Phil Collins, Air Supply…basically stuff my mom didn’t mind listening to. A self-styled audio prison of the mind, no wonder I went and lived at Matt’s house after high school.
I do remember shooting baskets at home my junior year when Billie Jean came on the radio for the first time. I thought it was the best song I had ever heard. Still love it.
21 February 2009 at 8:26 am |
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…
3 March 2009 at 4:29 pm |
Hey Dank…enjoyed the trip back down memory lane. No doubt I remember (most of it) those days. Just wanted to share my past love of Men Without Hats/Saftey Dance. Pathetically, and hopefully you have forgotten/forgiven, I had a 90 minute cassette tape with that looped on both sides. Shot baskets every summer day to that bad boy. For that I will forever hate that song!! Thank goodness for the wonderful video that accompanied it. PS I have your back when it comes to Dead or Alive, oh what fun to dance to…I think they are probably the only band that could possibly get me back on the dance floor. Last time I heard them out and about was at the downtown lounge…you guessed it, I boogied my tail off. At least that was what I was told the next day:)….Peace buddy, Bobby.
7 March 2009 at 9:20 am |
Thanks for dropping in BE. If memory serves, you also had every Prince cassette (Controversy, Dirty Mind, etc), all the INXS (Shabooh Shoobah, Underneath The Colours, etc), and a Rick Astley tape that used to get some serious play.
Good times!
13 January 2010 at 12:06 pm |
Did you have a vanity license plate on your Bug?
13 January 2010 at 1:01 pm |
No vanity plates…
28 April 2012 at 6:58 am |
maxi cab…
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