Dear listeners,
Though it’s been years (and years) since I’ve been in school, the first stirrings of autumn still fill me with that familiar feeling of back-to-school anticipation. What will I wear on the first day? Do I have all the school supplies I need? Who will I sit next to in class? I have no use for any of these questions anymore, and yet whenever that first autumnal chill hits, they start clanging around somewhere in my psyche, like the ache of a phantom limb.
Judging by how many fully adult musicians have written and continue to write about school, I have a feeling I’m not alone. In honor of the first official day of fall (today!) and the arrival of a new school year, I’ve put together a playlist of some of my favorite scholastic-themed songs.
In the interest of keeping things unexpected and eclectic, I decided to skip some of the most obvious ones, like “Another Brick in the Wall,” “ABC” and, well, a whole lot of songs by Taylor Swift. You will still probably hear some familiar tunes, though, from the likes of the White Stripes, Supertramp and Nada Surf, in addition to one of my favorites off Madonna’s latest album.
Maybe you’ve recently begun a fresh school year, and if so, consider this playlist my way of welcoming you back. But even if it’s been years — or decades — since you’ve stepped foot inside a classroom, I hope these songs bring you right back to that first-day-of-school feeling.
I’m not a teacher, babe, but I can teach you something,
Lindsay
Listen along while you read.
1. The White Stripes: “We’re Going to Be Friends”
Let’s kick things off with this lilting folk ditty from the White Stripes’ 2001 breakout album, “White Blood Cells,” which sweetly chronicles the beginnings of both a school year and a fondly remembered childhood friendship. “We’re Going to Be Friends” is, to date, the only White Stripes song to have inspired an illustrated children’s book, though I’m still waiting for one about “Icky Thump.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. Nada Surf: “Popular”
Absurd as they may sound, all the verses of this 1996 alt-rock oddball hit by Nada Surf were taken verbatim from an actual book, “Penny’s Guide to Teen-Age Charm and Popularity,” published in 1964 by the actress Gloria Winters. In a tone that moves from deadpan to frenzied, the frontman Matthew Caws passes on Winters’s timeless advice: “Make sure to keep your hair spotless and clean / wash it at least every two weeks / Once, every two weeks!”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Madonna: “School”
“There’s only one thing I like more than sharing what I know with other people / and that’s learning,” the apt pupil Madonna intones on this hypnotic highlight from her most recent album, “Confessions II.” “Please, someone teach me something I don’t already know.” Calculus, perhaps?
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. Hot Chip: “Boy From School”
The English synth-pop group Hot Chip conjures nostalgia for bygone school days and the fleeting connections made when we’re young on this wistful, twinkling tune from the 2006 album “The Warning.” It also provided a fitting soundtrack for a montage depicting Bart’s scholastic ennui when it was used in a 2012 episode of “The Simpsons.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Beyoncé: “Schoolin’ Life”
On this beloved bonus track from her 2011 album “4,” which sparkles with Prince-like pizazz, Beyoncé poses a question that may not go over so well in a guidance counselor’s office: “Who needs a degree when you’re schoolin’ life?”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Deftones: “Back to School (Mini Maggit)”
The original version of the alt-metal band Deftones’ excellent 2000 LP “White Pony” did not contain this pummeling, scholastic-themed reworking of the album’s epic and atmospheric closing track, “Pink Maggit.” The band wrote “Back to School” quickly, in response to the record label’s suggestion that it produce a more radio-friendly single; the frontman Chino Moreno has said that Deftones only capitulated to the request to show them all how easily a hit could be written. “‘Back to School’ was a mistake,” he later admitted. It’s certainly a departure from the rest of the album, but at least as a stand-alone single, I like it more than Moreno does.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. Van Halen: “Hot for Teacher”
Speaking of ostensibly crass and gimmicky rock songs about high school that shouldn’t work as well as they do, I give you the song that I and my college roommates spent way too many hours attempting to master on Guitar Hero, Van Halen’s 1984 scorcher “Hot for Teacher.” More hit singles should begin with lengthy and virtuosic drum solos, if you ask me.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
8. Supertramp: “School”
Five years before Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two),” Supertramp released this melancholic and defiant rebuttal to scholastic conformity as the opening track on its 1974 album “Crime of the Century.” “The teacher tells you stop your playing, get on with your work,” Roger Hodgson sings, bemoaning the rigidity of rule following. But the song’s surprising, ever-shifting structure — who saw that piano break coming? — provides its own implicit ode to thinking outside the box.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
9. Wheatus: “Teenage Dirtbag”
Finally, let’s go out with this anthemic high-school fairy tale from 2000, in which two Iron Maiden-loving misfits prove that feeling like a dirtbag is a universal teenage experience. In 2016, after the master was lost, Wheatus rerecorded “Teenage Dirtbag” and attempted to get as close to the original version as possible. Who says you can’t go back to high school?
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“A Back-to-School Playlist” track list Track 1: The White Stripes, “We’re Going to Be Friends” Track 2: Nada Surf, “Popular” Track 3: Madonna, “School” Track 4: Hot Chip, “Boy From School” Track 5: Beyoncé, “Schoolin’ Life” Track 6: Deftones, “Back to School (Mini Maggit)” Track 7: Van Halen, “Hot for Teacher” Track 8: Supertramp, “School” Track 9: Wheatus, “Teenage Dirtbag”
Bonus Tracks
Ella Langley’s monster hit “Choosin’ Texas” just made history as the longest-running song ever to top Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart: This is its 23rd nonconsecutive week at No. 1. If you are still scratching your head over this song’s colossal impact, I highly recommend the latest episode of my colleague Wesley Morris’s podcast, “Cannonball.” He spoke about the success of “Choosin’ Texas” with the chart expert (and, I’m told, loyal Amplifier reader) Chris Molanphy, and their discussion is the most illuminating I’ve encountered yet about the whole phenomenon. Listen to it here.
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The post A Back-to-School Playlist appeared first on New York Times.
