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| Thursday Discussion: Songs For The Graduating Class | This shortened week is screwing with my brain. Here we are on Thursday, and I don't even know what day of the week it feels like ... but it's definitely not feeling like Thursday. Over the past few weeks I've attended a few graduations -- my college roommate is making me feel inferior by getting his MBA, and other friends are graduating and looking at a wonder-job-market in front of them. Is that too cruel? Is my sarcasm too thick? I can never tell. Anyway, after a tweet yesterday from a reader, the idea of a Thursday Discussion centered around the best "graduation" songs just felt right for today. First off, congrats to all you grads out there. Be it high-school, or college, or some upper-echelon of education: congratulations. I spent a good eight years trying to figure out anyway I could to get out of school -- but I definitely understand and respect the hard work it's taken to get to this day.
So, with that - today I am going to compile a list of my top 10 or so "play this at graduation" songs. Totally cliche, yet hopefully also awesome. I'm going to include a playlist in the replies for anyone to check out the songs if they haven't -- and I encourage you to let me know what you've got on your graduation playlist, and why you picked those songs. It can be anything from "yeah, this just defines this part of my life" to "I never have to see any of these fuckers ever again" to "yeah, I remember my first beer too."
Ok, to start out I'm going super cliche. Like, the mother of all "play this, pretend you don't like it, and then be singing along by the end" cliche graduation songs: Eve 6's "Here's to the Night." It's that sentimental ballad. It needs to be on your graduation mix just like "Time of Your Life" by Green Day needs to be there. Because if you don't pepper a few of the classic/no-shit songs in, then it just seems a little weird for not including them. Totally cool to ignore that Vitamin C song or whatever though. Fuck that.
I've got this weird thing for wanting to put The Format's "Give It Up" on these kinds of mixes -- but that has nothing on my urge to toss Alkaline Trio's "Armageddon" in the middle. It's my not-so-subtle jab in this kind of setting with the awesome line, "Before we say goodbye give us something to believe in, Armageddon, we're not begging for too much I don't think, just need a goodbye kiss (one last salute), before we sink." I'm weird. I know.
Ok, we know Brand New's "make everyone cry" song about staying 18 forever has to be on here. If you want to get a girl to like this band ... play this at or around some kind of graduation event when you're still 18. It's basically guaranteed to work.
In preparation for this list, I actually found a CD-R from when I graduated from high-school. Yeah, Blink-182's "What Went Wrong" is definitely on this thing ... it's got that super "I'm going to be alone forever emo-as-shit" thing going on. If you have the unfortunate luck of your relationship crapping the bed right before you take a giant leap forward with your life -- this one would fit nicely. If you want to go the more traditional route, I guess "Going Away to College" is the safe pick.
Before Soupy was singing about bro-down college life -- we had Relient K doing the whole "College Kids" thing. That one's going on my list to throw some upbeat goodness in the middle of a bunch of sappy stuff. And while I'm in the mood to keep my mix up-beat, I'm tossing the nostalgic "San Dimas High School Football Rules" from The Ataris on there. Still one of the best pop-punk songs ever.
Ok, I've gotta mellow this thing out a little bit and give you a few things to learn on the acoustic guitar for your last few parties, nights around a camp-fire, and forever etched moments with your friends. I'm going with Butch Walker's "Take Tomorrow (One Day At a Time)" to start with ... get everyone singing, "Give me all your fear, throw it all away. Think about the good things, no matter what they say. We'll take tomorrow baby, yeah, One day at a time." -- and you've got yourself a memory. If you're graduating high-school you can go with Jimmy Eat World's "My Sundown" -- I love that feeling that comes up with the lyric of "I could be so much more than this" ... and then if you're doing the whole college thing, it's gotta be "23" as you take the huge step into the "real world" and "Don't give away the end, the one thing that stays mine..." |
| #ap playlist #playlist #thursday discussion |
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Displaying posts 1 - 15 of 130. |
02:08 PM on 05/31/12 | We can gallop upon the sea... in before Head Automatica
edit : well it's already on the playlist | | |
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02:08 PM on 05/31/12 | wait. what were we talking about? | | |
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02:09 PM on 05/31/12 | Back when I graduated from high school, the song of choice for my friends was "In This Diary" from The Ataris. That whole, "being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up. These are the best days of our lives," part seemed to fit really well for the theme. | | |
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02:10 PM on 05/31/12 | Love "College Kids" by Relient K - excellent choice. On the day of my college graduation, I woke up to one of my housemates playing "Graduation Day" by Head Automatica.
Third Eye Blind's "Graduate" is another one that comes to mind. | | |
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02:11 PM on 05/31/12 | Back when I graduated from high school, the song of choice for my friends was "In This Diary" from The Ataris. That whole, "being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up. These are the best days of our lives," part seemed to fit really well for the theme. |
While looking at my Ataris' collection, I almost did that ... then I went with San Dimas High School, cause, well ... I wanted to. | | |
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02:11 PM on 05/31/12 | Paper Chase by The Academy Is...
Actually, that entire album (Fast Times at Barrington High) is perfect for remembering high school and growing up. | | |
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02:11 PM on 05/31/12 |
I know its your ring tone. | | |
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02:11 PM on 05/31/12 | Back when I graduated from high school, the song of choice for my friends was "In This Diary" from The Ataris. That whole, "being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up. These are the best days of our lives," part seemed to fit really well for the theme. |
Definitely this one | | |
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02:12 PM on 05/31/12 | Back when I graduated from high school, the song of choice for my friends was "In This Diary" from The Ataris. That whole, "being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up. These are the best days of our lives," part seemed to fit really well for the theme. |
Damn you took the words right out of my mouth. Me and my best friend were the only ones that voted for this song to be our class song but we lost to the majority voting for Time of Your Life by Green Day. | | |
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02:12 PM on 05/31/12 | Maybe I'm alone in thinking so, but "Swim" by Jack's Mannequin seems to fit here. A song about staying strong no matter what..."memories like bullets they fired at me from a gun"...fitting for times of change in our lives. | | |
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02:13 PM on 05/31/12 | I'm graduating High school and my best entry is hoodie weather by the wonder years. That's been it for me all year | | |
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02:13 PM on 05/31/12 | A New Refutation of Time and Space The Replacements - "Bastards of Young"
Nuff said | | |
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02:14 PM on 05/31/12 | The Party Scene by All Time Low. The beginning of the first Verse played while I went on stage to get my certificate. Still think it fits. Although I was 19, not 17 at that point | | |
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