Comments on: The songs from your romantic youth? http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/ Question As Conversation Sun, 06 Jun 2010 09:11:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: languagehat http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/comment-page-1/#comment-6343 languagehat Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:20:54 +0000 http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/#comment-6343 Simon and Garfunkel circa 1967. Simon and Garfunkel circa 1967.

]]> By: starsonesp http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/comment-page-1/#comment-5649 starsonesp Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:28:04 +0000 http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/#comment-5649 I spent my entire teenage years writing my own songs. I can't say that I had any deeply resonant "external" music of the kind you describe until college. Now, in college, that exploded all over the place, but the #1 has to be "He's On The Phone" by Saint Etienne. It was sorta my 'theme song' at the club I used to go to - it's wistful and catchy and plangent and haunting and a little bit Eurodisco-cheesy, which is just what the gay boy of 20 wanted at the time. Most Etienne fans disown it because it is produced in such a mass-manufacture sort of style, but I think it's gorgeous. It was one of those songs that you're dancing to, enraptured, and you suddenly think, "My life will never again be like this moment." And you both savor it and get a little wistful at the same time - that strange feeling of being nostalgic already for a moment you're still living. I spent my entire teenage years writing my own songs. I can’t say that I had any deeply resonant “external” music of the kind you describe until college.

Now, in college, that exploded all over the place, but the #1 has to be “He’s On The Phone” by Saint Etienne. It was sorta my ‘theme song’ at the club I used to go to – it’s wistful and catchy and plangent and haunting and a little bit Eurodisco-cheesy, which is just what the gay boy of 20 wanted at the time. Most Etienne fans disown it because it is produced in such a mass-manufacture sort of style, but I think it’s gorgeous.

It was one of those songs that you’re dancing to, enraptured, and you suddenly think, “My life will never again be like this moment.” And you both savor it and get a little wistful at the same time – that strange feeling of being nostalgic already for a moment you’re still living.

]]> By: Ambrosia Voyeur http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/comment-page-1/#comment-5630 Ambrosia Voyeur Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:12:13 +0000 http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/#comment-5630 Billy Joel and New Kids on the Block is pretty much everything up to age 12. 6th grade, lonely at a new school in too-hot Bakersfield, dreaming alone in my room: Mariah Carey. Still innocent. Prank-called cute boys and sang "I will always love you." Hung up and laaaaaughed! Boys who like Nirvana are cute but scary and sullen seeming. Sir Mix-a-Lot is pretty awesome. 7th grade: Kopavi brings Dookie to class and gets coolest kid status. Walking with my bffs to the movie theater, singing Salt 'n' Pepa and Ace of Base. SEXUALLY AWAKENED BY MORRISSEY (The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get) and also TRENT REZNOR... 8th grade: Dead Kennedys. I got Pretty Hate Machine for my birthday from the boy I liked, and took it as a SIGN that he GOT me. loooool. Innocent no more. 9th grade: Jump in the line, shake your body in time! OK I BELIEVE YOU This song was played after curtain after the play every night and Shelby and I did this awesome lasso and fishpole and pony dance till we were panting tired and ready for cast parties at Carrows. Coffee ice cream! 10th grade: The techies will NOT stop playing "Piece of Shit Car." I still get this one bad as an earworm. 11th grade: My high school boyfriend bought a big box of vinyl at the swap meet, and we listened to the most RANDOM 70's music on his waterbed all through the hot summer before my senior year. So Creedence and ELO and Styx all remind me of being young and in love. Which is wrong, wrong, wrong. (but REM, too, which is dreamy and nice) Billy Joel and New Kids on the Block is pretty much everything up to age 12.

6th grade, lonely at a new school in too-hot Bakersfield, dreaming alone in my room: Mariah Carey. Still innocent. Prank-called cute boys and sang “I will always love you.” Hung up and laaaaaughed! Boys who like Nirvana are cute but scary and sullen seeming. Sir Mix-a-Lot is pretty awesome.

7th grade: Kopavi brings Dookie to class and gets coolest kid status. Walking with my bffs to the movie theater, singing Salt ‘n’ Pepa and Ace of Base. SEXUALLY AWAKENED BY MORRISSEY (The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get) and also TRENT REZNOR…

8th grade: Dead Kennedys. I got Pretty Hate Machine for my birthday from the boy I liked, and took it as a SIGN that he GOT me. loooool. Innocent no more.

9th grade: Jump in the line, shake your body in time! OK I BELIEVE YOU This song was played after curtain after the play every night and Shelby and I did this awesome lasso and fishpole and pony dance till we were panting tired and ready for cast parties at Carrows. Coffee ice cream!

10th grade: The techies will NOT stop playing “Piece of Shit Car.” I still get this one bad as an earworm.

11th grade: My high school boyfriend bought a big box of vinyl at the swap meet, and we listened to the most RANDOM 70’s music on his waterbed all through the hot summer before my senior year. So Creedence and ELO and Styx all remind me of being young and in love. Which is wrong, wrong, wrong. (but REM, too, which is dreamy and nice)

]]> By: synaesthetichaze http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/comment-page-1/#comment-5623 synaesthetichaze Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:02:44 +0000 http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/#comment-5623 Any track from Radiohead's Kid A will remind me instantly of walking to high school every morning past the cemetery in the early months of 2001 when the snow wouldn't melt. "Stop Breathin'" by Pavement transports me back to my bedroom in high school, staring at the wall until it was time to go to sleep. Any track from Radiohead’s Kid A will remind me instantly of walking to high school every morning past the cemetery in the early months of 2001 when the snow wouldn’t melt.

“Stop Breathin’” by Pavement transports me back to my bedroom in high school, staring at the wall until it was time to go to sleep.

]]> By: Kattullus http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/comment-page-1/#comment-5622 Kattullus Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:51:23 +0000 http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/#comment-5622 I can't hear any song from Air's Moon Safari without thinking about sex with my first girlfriend. I can't hear Offspring's song Self Esteem without reminiscing about a "golden summer." I can’t hear any song from Air’s Moon Safari without thinking about sex with my first girlfriend. I can’t hear Offspring’s song Self Esteem without reminiscing about a “golden summer.”

]]> By: Meatbomb http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/comment-page-1/#comment-5615 Meatbomb Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:26:47 +0000 http://bigbigquestion.com/2008/08/05/the-songs-from-your-romantic-youth/#comment-5615 "How Soon is Now" played on continuous loop on the Betamax, alone with a bottle of Southern Comfort. Maybe I was 15 or 16. My first and only drunken blackout, I awoke in the morning puzzled by the puke all over the floor. That pretty much sums up my experience of teenage romance. “How Soon is Now” played on continuous loop on the Betamax, alone with a bottle of Southern Comfort. Maybe I was 15 or 16. My first and only drunken blackout, I awoke in the morning puzzled by the puke all over the floor. That pretty much sums up my experience of teenage romance.

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