Music is my life. OK, not my life, but my essence. Music is how I express myself. Whether reminiscing about the past, lamenting love lost, declaring my devotion, setting my mood or losing myself in comfortable numbness (God, is that really cheap to steal that?).
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| That's me on the left with poofy hair and a porn stache. The assorted friends are from junior or senior year. |
Anyway, about five
years ago I set about creating a playlist of songs representing the soundtrack
of my life at Western Illinois University back in the mid-to-late 1980s. The
notion was inspired by the start of my oldest daughter’s impending college
career at Illinois Wesleyan University. I was working on words of wisdom for
her regarding college life (I’d already made her a playlist of songs to live by
upon high school graduation – I thought that one was pretty inspired).
But the playlist I
was building was for me more than her. I’d draw on the book “You’re On Your Own
Now (But I’m Here if You Need Me)” for the words of wisdom (for both of us).
With the playlist, I wanted to reconstruct moments of my college life. The capstone
was to be a WIU radio jingle that played during Leatherneck football games. I
never was able to track down a recording of it, despite the best efforts of a
new friend on the university staff.
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| Wetzel Hall, my freshman abode. It was demolished last year. |
The jingle was key,
really, because my first-ever girlfriend was in the WIU Marching Leathernecks
and I recall how irate she and other band members were that the university didn’t
take advantage of the talent available in the Music Department, but rather
contracted with an outside company to create said ditty.
Anyway, the rest of
the music came together pretty easily. The songs span decades, but each applies
directly to an experience during my days at WIU. The “Sweet WIU” playlist still
gets frequent playtime, and I chose it for this morning’s run. The list runs 29
songs long. On a 3.2-mile run, I made it through eight of them. Below, where I
usually list the day’s playlist (typically from shuffle), I will share the liner
notes for today’s tunes. They are ultimately personal; I’ve shared them with
fewer than half a dozen people.
Today's Stats
Temp: 45 degrees F
Distance: 3.19 miles
Weekly Total: 8.97 miles
Treasure: Nothing. Took no bag, wasn’t looking.
iPod Playlist (Sweet WIU Mix):
1. Dance Hall Days (Wang Chung): This dates from my earliest days at WIU and a radio mix I
made on cassette. Remember setting the tape and pressing record in hopes of a
good song? If it was a loser, you just hit rewind and waited for the next one.
Well, this was one of those. It takes me back to early fall 1984 and freedom. I
had a single for the first three weeks of school because my first roommate
quit. That was pretty cool.
2. Sister Golden Hair (America): See above. But there's more. This great tune reminds me also of the girl with golden hair from my first sophomore English class, the one that set me on the course to becoming an English major. Maybe she was the reason. She was a freshman, with the most gorgeous honey blonde hair down to her butt. She was in the color guard (flags) for the WIU Marching Leathernecks. I actually worked up the courage to call her up and ask her for a study date (though I doubt the word date was uttered). We met in the library and studied our English lessons mostly in silence. I get dreamy-eyed just thinking of her still. I have a thing for long hair.
3. You're the Inspiration (Chicago): OK, the start of a lot of repetitive music. This was our song – Marybeth and me (I, mine?, whatever). We met Dec. 1 with a group of Catholics from the Newman Center (my closest friends were Catholics, OK?) attending the movie "A Christmas Story." I kissed her for the first time on a dare from my friend, Dave Staden, as we stood in line in Hardee's on Jackson Street. Later we went back to the Newman Center and three pairs of us ate waffles (a euphemism for making out, because Dave said our apparently sloppy kissing sounded like somebody eating syrup-laden waffles). Wow, my first experience with a girl. Seriously. That's all just background about the relationship. This song wasn't even playing during that make-out session. It was just our song.
4. Lady (Styx): MB and I shared a liking for Styx, Chicago and Billy Joel. She liked to point out that the guys from Styx came from a Chicago suburb near her home of South Holland.
5. Best of Times (Styx): And they were. We spent many a long night making out to Styx, Chicago and Billy Joel played on my roommate's kick-ass stereo. We probably even played a few of Eric's Duran Duran albums (yeah, on a turntable; remember those?). God, those were great times, before the sex. Not that there's anything wrong with sex, of course, but the innocence of those early days cuddling, kissing, groping and dry-humping (sorry for the vulgarity) was something special.
6. I Can Dream About You (Dan Hartman): OK, that was pretty personal. Moving on. My friend Harry Bednarczyk used to moan forlornly whenever this song played after he broke up with his girlfriend, Rosemary (one of the Catholics from the Dec. 1 sessions). I seem to recall that they got back together and broke up a couple of times. “Hairball,” as we affectionately called him was from the Milk Capital of the World, Harvard, Illinois. He was friends with Scott X, or "Smoke" as he was known, my original roomie, who lasted but three days. But he brought Harry and Dave and me together somehow. Dave and Harry lived on Wetzel 7; Smoke and I were in 828, one floor up. Harry was roomies with Chris Renner, a baseball jock, and Dave's roommate was Mark somebody.
7. Can't Fight This Feeling (REO Speedwagon): This was another one that got Hairball crying for Rosie. I think it was playing in the car the night he drove us three couples (me and MB, him and Rosie and Dave and Jana) out to see the WIU farm. Hairball was a farm boy after all, though he ended up in the Navy. Go figure.
8. Come Sail Away (Styx): More great Styx make-out music. Brother Scott made a really nice Styx mix tape from about four albums and I stole it when I went away to WIU. He left it at home, so I figure he had outgrown it. Sadly that tape is long gone, stolen from my 1978 Thunderbird in 1988.
2. Sister Golden Hair (America): See above. But there's more. This great tune reminds me also of the girl with golden hair from my first sophomore English class, the one that set me on the course to becoming an English major. Maybe she was the reason. She was a freshman, with the most gorgeous honey blonde hair down to her butt. She was in the color guard (flags) for the WIU Marching Leathernecks. I actually worked up the courage to call her up and ask her for a study date (though I doubt the word date was uttered). We met in the library and studied our English lessons mostly in silence. I get dreamy-eyed just thinking of her still. I have a thing for long hair.
3. You're the Inspiration (Chicago): OK, the start of a lot of repetitive music. This was our song – Marybeth and me (I, mine?, whatever). We met Dec. 1 with a group of Catholics from the Newman Center (my closest friends were Catholics, OK?) attending the movie "A Christmas Story." I kissed her for the first time on a dare from my friend, Dave Staden, as we stood in line in Hardee's on Jackson Street. Later we went back to the Newman Center and three pairs of us ate waffles (a euphemism for making out, because Dave said our apparently sloppy kissing sounded like somebody eating syrup-laden waffles). Wow, my first experience with a girl. Seriously. That's all just background about the relationship. This song wasn't even playing during that make-out session. It was just our song.
4. Lady (Styx): MB and I shared a liking for Styx, Chicago and Billy Joel. She liked to point out that the guys from Styx came from a Chicago suburb near her home of South Holland.
5. Best of Times (Styx): And they were. We spent many a long night making out to Styx, Chicago and Billy Joel played on my roommate's kick-ass stereo. We probably even played a few of Eric's Duran Duran albums (yeah, on a turntable; remember those?). God, those were great times, before the sex. Not that there's anything wrong with sex, of course, but the innocence of those early days cuddling, kissing, groping and dry-humping (sorry for the vulgarity) was something special.
6. I Can Dream About You (Dan Hartman): OK, that was pretty personal. Moving on. My friend Harry Bednarczyk used to moan forlornly whenever this song played after he broke up with his girlfriend, Rosemary (one of the Catholics from the Dec. 1 sessions). I seem to recall that they got back together and broke up a couple of times. “Hairball,” as we affectionately called him was from the Milk Capital of the World, Harvard, Illinois. He was friends with Scott X, or "Smoke" as he was known, my original roomie, who lasted but three days. But he brought Harry and Dave and me together somehow. Dave and Harry lived on Wetzel 7; Smoke and I were in 828, one floor up. Harry was roomies with Chris Renner, a baseball jock, and Dave's roommate was Mark somebody.
7. Can't Fight This Feeling (REO Speedwagon): This was another one that got Hairball crying for Rosie. I think it was playing in the car the night he drove us three couples (me and MB, him and Rosie and Dave and Jana) out to see the WIU farm. Hairball was a farm boy after all, though he ended up in the Navy. Go figure.
8. Come Sail Away (Styx): More great Styx make-out music. Brother Scott made a really nice Styx mix tape from about four albums and I stole it when I went away to WIU. He left it at home, so I figure he had outgrown it. Sadly that tape is long gone, stolen from my 1978 Thunderbird in 1988.
(If you watch no other videos here, watch this one. It brings tears to my eyes. Sincerely.)
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