I know a lot of you are in college or have recently graduated and that some of us graduated a long time ago.
I also know that Google is going to squish YouTube very soon. So, while the gettings good, what are the top three songs that remind you of college? I really mean three songs that everytime you hear them you can smell your dorm room and see her lip gloss. On YouTube.
For me:
Almost impossible to pick one by the Pixies but here I go;
Replacements:
(Actually a rare, sober Westerberg without the Replacements)
Ironically enough, in college I mostly listened to classic rock (Who, Zeppelin, Floyd, Queen) and hated college music, and other music that was popular at the time I ended up listening to beyond my college years so they’re not really college songs (Pretty Hate Machine, Tori Amos, Soundgarden, most grunge).
Well, the music that was going around in my time (early 90s) was a lot of grunge, and some “alternative rock” if you want to call it that. Freshman year I remember hearing a lot of that Temple of the Dog song (Hunger Strike, I think), and also REM tunes from “Automatic for the People.” (Drive, Everybody Hurts.) Later (senior year, I think) I remember Alannis making her splash and my roommate telling me about Jagged Little Pill. Obviously Nirvana was pretty pervasive in the early 90s too.
As to what I personally listened to in college… I got heavily into classical music at the time, in part thanks to a boxed set my father sent me of the complete Beethoven Sonatas performed by Alfred Brendel. I also started to get tentatively into jazz; among the key discs were a Louis Armstrong “best of the Decca years” collection and the soundtrack to “Leaving Las Vegas” with jazz standards performed by Sting and Don Henley. I don’t think I bought many rock albums of my own; mostly I heard that stuff on the radio. I had a Beatles mix tape I used to listen to while jogging on the track.
edit: Okay, let me try to answer the original question specifically. 3 songs that make me think of college.
Hunger Strike
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Damn, nothing else made that strong an impression on me. Probably Plush by Stone Temple Pilots comes close, and also Runaway Train by Soul Asylum. That song always seemed to be on.
The songs that most remind me of college unfortunately are shit like Nelly and various hip-hop songs.
Nelly’s “Ride wit me” is probably the number 1 on my list.
Basically my roommate loved shit like this and played it all the time (MTV Jams was on the TV every day when I’d get home). Now, out of college, I don’t have to listen any more. It is indeliably linked to my college days though.
I’m kinda with Reldan. I did my heavier music geekery in high school. College would probably be Top 40 1999-2003 or whatever else came on when I was in the car.
Hmm, off the top of my head, here’s three songs that actually pretty much take me back to college. There’s some music I listened to then (early to mid 90’s) that I just don’t anymore, but I still <3 it.
Lilys, Claire Hates Me – no videos of this gem, sadly. Always my favorite shoegaze song, even more than MBV. The Lilys first record that this is from, in the presence of nothing, totally only gets better with age.
Archers of Loaf, Might – This is before Eric Bachmann turned into Neil Diamon (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Sums up the whole indie rock sound right here…
Mountain Goats, Alphabetizing – (extra) performance from last year of the first song that I ever heard from John Darnielle (round 1995), and made him my favorite guy with a guitar. I wish I could find some of his older stuff in youtube form.
EDIT Oh crap, I almost forgot: Kam Fong, No Roger, No Rerun – Yes, a friend’s band from college, but a pretty great video. The main members of Kam Fong were two philly area garbage men. They drove a van painted like the A Team van. They were pretty awesome musicians who inexplicably passed up an opportunity to record with steve albini.
My old college roomate, from Nassau, Bahamas, has a terrible singing voice, and used to put on his headphones at 8AM and sing along to UB40’s version of Red, Red Wine and Rat in Me Kitchen.
Sadly, some Bon Jovi song about cowboy’s was popular my freshman year ('86-'87). I attended school down in Atlanta, so R.E.M’s Eponymous was insanely popular as well. Oh yeah, and Biz Markie’s Just a Friend.
I’ve always favored straight-ahead jazz, but those are the songs I remember well from college.
The videos for Sandstorm and The Bongo Song are around four minutes, but in the club they had like the six minute version, the twelve minute club EP version, and the various ten minute long remixes.
I haven’t been to a club in Toronto in over five years, but I know they still play Sandstorm.
Bands that make me think of college are Shriekback, Mission UK, Skinny Puppy and The Descendants. I hated most mainstream 80s bands with a passion (I graduated from college in '88).
