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Monday, January 15, 2018

Playlist for 1988

Here's a picture I took of Dinosaur Jr. in 2015. They made, maybe, my favorite song in 1988.

High School Grad

1988. I turned 18. I graduated from high school and started up at NYU. I voted for the first time. 30 years ago. Shit, I'm old.

Anyway.

I figured I'd make up a playlist of some of the music from that year.

Green by R.E.M. was a big album for me back then. I remember spinning it on my combination turntable / tuner / tape deck as my parents and I moved me into my dorm room in Hayden Hall on Washington Square West. Hayden sat just around the corner from the address where my grandmother first lived after arriving in America as a young girl from Italy. (UPDATE: I must be remembering Document as far as the moving in part goes. I don't think Green came out until later in the year now that I think about it. Hey. It's been 30 years.)

Worker's Playtime by Billy Bragg was another big one. Like lots of Billy's stuff from back then, the lyrics are a little dated now; but that's what makes it such a fun listen as part of a look back kinda thing.

Some of my favorite songs of all time are on here. I play Morrissey's "Everyday Is Like Sunday" on the guitar almost every, single day. I don't know another song by The Primitives, but "Crash" is an absolute masterpiece that foreshadowed lots of the sounds that would come just a few years later. The Sugarcubes' "Birthday"  and Public Enemy's "Don't Believe the Hype" are songs that kind of define the year for me. Other songs like "Feed Me with Your Kiss" by My Bloody Valentine and -- maybe my favorite song ever -- "Freak Scene" by Dinosaur Jr. are songs I came to know a good while after 1988.

Prince's Lovesexy came out in 1988; but Spotify has it in its 45-minute, single-track format; so I left it off. Michelle Shocked doesn't have her stuff on Spotify, otherwise "Anchorage" from Short, Sharp, Shocked would be here. Same goes for Camper Van Beethoven. The only track from Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart available on Spotify is "O Death," and I much would have preferred something like "She Divines Water" or "Turquoise Jewelry."

This one's collaborative so feel free to add to it.


1 comment:

  1. Great list! Seems so long ago. I remember always having a sore throat trying to sing Birthday like Bjork.

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