The Vine: January 5, 2007
Dear Sars,
I’m looking to make a Mix CD for my upcoming high school graduation. I’ve found a couple of good songs (“Time of Your Life” by Green Day, “Graduation” by Vitamin C, et cetera) but I’d really like to find more. I was wondering if you or any of your readers know of some good graduation songs, the nice cheesy kind that’ll make my friends and I cry our eyes out, as is graduation tradition.
Thanks,
Oh my god I’m meant to be an adult now
Dear Adult,
Hee, this will be fun.
I will confine myself to two songs here, both of which were girls’-school mix-tape gold standards back when I graduated a squillion years ago: “You’ve Got A Friend” (Carole King or JT version acceptable), and “Bookends” by Simon and Garfunkel.
I mean…”mix-tape,” okay?
Let’s see if the readers, who are on average not quite as ancient as yours truly, have some suggestions. Readers, please also confine yourselves to two songs. Email subject line: “graduation mix.”
Hi Sars,
I was hoping either you or your readers can help me locate a song. It wasn’t popular enough to warrant much airplay on Top 40 stations, but it was played fairly frequently on the more indie-rock-leaning station in town. (At the time, I lived outside of New York City.) I heard it most often in the summer of 1999. It was kind of poppy, with female vocals, and if I remember correctly, there may have been a few slide guitar moments involved. Sadly, the only lyrics I remember distinctly (that aren’t a mumbled mess) are these — “don’t walk on by.” It’s not the oldies song with similar lyrics, and I actually think the title of the song is “Walking.” I can’t seem to remember the artist, though, so I can’t find the actual song.
I’ve searched through Google and did a few searches on iTunes, but nothing sounds familiar. Maybe you or your readers have a better recollection of vaguely popular pop tunes from 1999?
Thanks.
Now all I can think of is Aretha Franklin
Dear And All I Can Think Of Is Sweet Dionne,
I have no clue what that song might be, but the readers are pretty culturetastic with this kind of thing; let’s see what they’ve got.
Readers: it’s not Dionne Warwick. Any thoughts? Email subject line: “’99 song.”
Sars,
This has been bugging me for ten years and I was hoping that you or your readers might be able to solve the mystery for me. I know of two songs, one from Rod Stewart and one from That Dog, that refer to one lover giving another a broken arrow and a bottle of rain. It’s a very pretty line and it seems really romantic at face value. However, it has always seemed to me that in order for it to show up in two different songs, that reference probably comes from somewhere else. I was thinking mythology or poetry, maybe? Google has failed me by returning pages upon pages of links to song lyrics. (Thanks, Big G. I got that far on my own.)
So, can you help a sister out?
Thanks,
Boy Am I Going To Be Embarrassed If It Turns Out Rod Stewart Got This From A Fortune Cookie
Dear Cookie,
I did a bit of Big G-ing myself, and it’s not just Rod and That Dog who use that image in their lyrics; Robbie Robertson uses it in a The Band song, and that’s the reference that keeps coming up, at least in my search. There’s a Time review that seems to imply it’s a Native American mythological reference, but I couldn’t get any deeper on that.
I also saw references to Sanskrit story-making, but who knows what relevance that has; I’m fairly sure it’s not a Greco-Roman allusion, but I’m not as up on those stories as I used to be.
Readers, if this isn’t just a hive-mind thing among musicians, let us know. Email subject line: “arrow and rain.”
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
