Though summer is starting, it’s hard to forget the school year that lies ahead. For the most part, people are done filling out scholarship forms and sending out applications, and they’re now anxiously waiting for their acceptance — or rejection — letters.
And though I’m more than happy to be relieved of the pressure that goes along with picking a college, I have to own up to some nostalgia. As a recent graduate, desperately trying to postpone the dreaded 9-to-5, I spend more time than I should reminiscing my university days. I catch myself thinking of the dorm life, the bar scene, the house parties — and getting sappy when I hear the music that accompanied those experiences.
In honor of my borderline obsessive sentimentality, here’s a list of five songs sure to take me back to my college days when I’m well beyond my years:
1. Get Low – Lil’ Jon and the Eastside Boyz
It was the weekend before school started, and I was a University of Iowa freshman, on my way downtown via the campus bus. I was joined by the roommate I met hours before and about 70 other kids from our dorm. Most of us were tipsy or flat-out drunk from the shots we’d downed before the bus arrived, the ones we hoped would calm our nerves and ease us into our first night out in the city. It worked. After the initial 20 seconds of silence, the driver’s radio belted “Low” and people were strangers no more. The boys without seats started awkwardly dancing and those of us sitting shared in the excitement with shouts of “yeahs!” and “okays!” Who would have thought that Lil’ Jon and his Eastside Boyz would be responsible for such diminishment of fear and warmth of togetherness?
2. Blackbird – Beatles
I can say, without doubt, that one out of every three guys at my school had the Abbey Road poster in their room. You know, the one from the cover of the album with the guys stretching their legs on the now legendary street. And nine times out of 10, right below the poster sat the owner, acoustic guitar in hand, butchering yet another lovely Beatles tune. I remember a girl from my hall dragging me to some kid’s room who was clumsily trying to make his way through “Blackbird,” AKA the sensitive man’s “Stairway to Heaven.” When I saw the girl practically drooling over his shoddy finger-picking and nasally voice, I realized it would be the first of many renditions I’d wince though over the next four years.
3. Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
Maybe it’s just the Midwest, but you cannot be in a bar without hearing “Sweet Caroline” as the bouncer tries to shuffle you out the door just seconds after the bartender sells you one final round before closing out your tab. Yes, it’s cheesy. Yes, it’s Neil Diamond. But it’s also last call and you’re drunk and ready to showcase your singing chops. And you don’t sound half bad, at least to the other wobbly-legged individuals belting out the wrong words in between guzzling down what’s left of their beer or cranberry vodkas. It may not be the coolest song played at the bars, (though it beats the overplayed “Take Me Home Tonight” and definitely “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy”), but it’s the one I heard the most.
4. All These Things That I’ve Done – The Killers
Whether it’s thanks to The O.C.’s Adam Brody or just the fact that indie rock is synonymous with college radio, the music I loved was finally (oh, how elitist of me to say) getting some airplay. Though Franz Ferdinand and Babyshambles weren’t for everyone, bands like The Shins, The Postal Service and, most notably, The Killers slid into the hearts and ear buds of the mainstream. I listened to the entirety of their debut CD Hot Fuss more times than I can count, but there’s something about the line “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a solider” in this song that stuck with me after graduation.
5. 2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm) – Radiohead
Radiohead in the 2000s is what Dave Matthews was in the ’90s. Before the hate mail floods in, I’m not saying in terms of talent or genre. I’m strictly speaking of both bands’ abundance on the college scene. I couldn’t walk to class without seeing someone donning a tour shirt, or be outside of a house party without overhearing people rave about the last show they saw. Hail to the Thief was in the minority of albums readily agreed upon as background music at get-togethers, with few people who didn’t appreciate its brilliance. Maybe it was the fact I was finally on my own and, for the most part, away from confines of authority, but “2 + 2 = 5″ was easily the favorite.
I know my old roommate could have something completely different on her collegiate “top five,” as could my ex-boyfriend or the girl who sat next to me in modern astronomy. It’s random, I get that. But so is college.
