Crazy-Pops

…I graduated from college. Saturday, December 13^th, 1986, was the first winter graduation ever held at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly, as it’s known – or “Cow Poly” for you humorists). I guess up until then they never had anybody take more than 4 years to finish a degree, but for me and about 1,000 other slow students, a winter graduation was the perfect thing. Because, yes, I took 4 ½ years to finish a 4 year degree. As did 5 of my Architectural Engineering classmates (out of a class of 48).

What does this have to do with music? Well, dear friends, it has a lot to do with music. Let me explain. No, no time, let me sum up. 3 things:

1) I was, in some sense, aware of the big change I was going to go through. I had a job waiting for me in Los Angeles at a large architectural firm, I was leaving a small town, and more importantly, I was leaving all of my college friends behind and moving to a big city where I knew exactly nobody. So I was feeling slightly reticent to go through it all. And sad about losing what I had. And afraid of starting over. Then, a couple of nights before I graduated, I drove out to Los Osos (a smaller town right on the coast) to my favorite place at the time – a little coastal inlet surrounded by trees that nobody really knew about – and I sat and I pondered. And a song came into head. An incessant song that wouldn’t go away as I sat there, looking out over the water, pondering what was coming up. A song that somehow made it all okay. That song? “Solsbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel. More specifically, the part with the lyrics “grab your things they’ve come to take you home.” When that song wouldn’t get out of my head, I somehow knew I was going to be okay. And that I needed to go to Los Angeles.

2) As a defense mechanism against the deep emotional aspect of it all, my classmates and I employed humor to help us all enjoy the actual graduation day. And, being that it was 1986, and we all had a very bright future, we all wore shades to the ceremony. Yep, “The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades” by Timbuk 3 was one of the hits of the day. It’s funny to look back and see that they were a one hit wonder, and that we used their one hit at our college graduation.

3) The Architectural Engineering Department had some sort of senior “party” that year, where we all got together somewhere to eat and drink and celebrate our impending Overworked and Underpaid status (little did we know!), and they asked me to provide the music for said party. Somehow I had a reputation for listening to lots and lots of music – probably brought about by the fact that I always had my Walkman on at our engineering lab, where we spent most of our waking hours, and by the fact that I was always listening to something quite loudly. Anyway, I made two 90 minute tapes for this party, and, sadly, the second one has gone missing. But the first one still exists, and yesterday I tortured Emily (my 27 year old assistant) with it by playing it. First I had to go find a tape player…what an archaic piece of machinery! Anyway, as a gift to you, dear reader, here is the song list from Mix Tape 1 prepared (from records!) in 1986 for a bunch of engineering students. Enjoy:

Side 1:

1) Old Mother Reagan – Violent Femmes (it was 1986!)

2) Let’s Go Crazy (12” remix) – Prince

3) Are You Leading Me On – General Public

4) She’s a Doll – Jesse Johnson’s Revue (he’s a former member of The Time)

5) I’m Down – Adrian Belew (the Beatles song)

6) Never Say Never – Romeo Void (“I might like you better if we slept together…”)

7) Bachelor Party – Oingo Boingo (the theme song from the movie)

8) La Bamba - Richie Valens

9) I Wished I Looked A Little Better – Sparks

10) Shining Star (live) – Earth Wind and Fire

11) Hungry Wolf – X

12) I Saw Her Standing There – Beatles

Side 2:

1) Can’t Get There From Here – REM

2) Close to Me (extended) – The Cure

3) Kiss Off – Violent Femmes

4) 867-5309 – Tommy Tutone

5) White Lines – Grandmaster Flash

6) Tell Me – Bangles

7) Shout – Otis Day and the Knights (From the “Animal House” soundtrack)

8) Modern Love – David Bowie

9) Jeanette – English Beat

10) The Bird – The Time

11) I Do – J. Geils Band

# posted by Jeff C. @ 9:22 PM