THE SONG CLOCK: Oakhaus’s post on songs that remind you of breakups you’ve known (mine is in the comments) reminded me of a post I’d been pondering for a while–listing the songs that colored and reflected an entire period in my life. Don’t know if you care, but here is the soundtrack for the movie that is me:

High school:

Severed Heads, “Contempt” and “Hot With Fleas”

Coil, “Tainted Love.” Actually, I’ll listen to pretty much anybody’s version of “Tainted Love.”

The Smiths… um, everything, really. Manic-depressive jukebox featuring “I Know It’s Over” and “Vicar in a Tutu,” though my actual favorite Smiths song is definitely “Rusholme Ruffians.”

A.K.A. Harlot #1, everything… especially their one and only release, “100% Criminal Candy.” Huggy Bear run through a shredder in Port-au-Prince. Click here for more info.

Chumbawamba, “Morality Play in Three Acts”

Vestpocket Psalm, “Ocean” and “Broken”

Violent Femmes, “Look Like That” and “Add It Up”

Nirvana, “Lithium”

Louis Armstrong, “Kiss of Fire”

The Slits, “So Tough”

Bratmobile, “Where Eagles Dare” and “…And I Live in a Town Where the Boys Amputate Their Hearts”

Huggy Bear, “Carnt Kiss” (and much more)

Summer before college:

Nas, “If I Ruled the World”

The Clash, “Rudie Can’t Fail”

Jane Hohenberger, “Mirror”

Skunk Anansie, “Weak” and “I Can Dream”

Fugees, “Family Business” and “Fu-Gee-La”

Vestpocket Psalm, “Sonic Reducer”

Nina Simone, “Sugar in My Bowl,” “Real Real Real,” and “My Man’s Gone Now”

Elvis Presley, “Blue Moon”

Big Mama Thornton, “Unlucky Girl”

The Adverts, “New Boys” (“A tendency to intellectualize, won’t let things be/Your conversation locks my doors then throws away the key/You can’t help me”)

1996-7: Elvis Costello, “Little Palaces”

The Roots, “Do You Want More?!?!?!?!?!”

Sex Pistols, “Sub*Mission”

U2, “One”

Elvis Costello, “Green Shirt”

Rolling Stones, “I Don’t Know Why I Love You”

Talking Heads, “Mr. Jones”

1997-8: Cat Power, “Ice Water”

Patsy Cline, “Strange” and “She’s Got You”

Theme from “Vertigo”

Aerosmith, “Falling in Love (Is So Hard on the Knees)”

Elvis Costello, “Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”

Aerosmith, “Sweet Emotion”

Phil Collins, “Mercy Street”

Nirvana, “Drain You”

Elastica, “S.O.F.T.”

1998-9: Theme from “Lion in Winter”

Nena, “99 Luftballons”

Men in Hats, “Safety Dance”

Cher, “Believe” (this one is NOT MY FAULT!)

UB40, “Red Red Wine”

1999-2000: ABBA, “Take a Chance on Me” and “Dancing Queen” (these really aren’t my fault either…)

Twisted Sister, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”

Theme from “Laverne and Shirley”

Levellers, “One Way” and “Another Man’s Cause”

Theme from “Labyrinth”

Queen, “Princes of the Universe”

Madness, “It Must Be Love”

Dead or Alive, “You Spin Me Right Round”

Rolling Stones, “Mother’s Little Helper”

Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”

Nirvana, “The Man Who Sold the World” and “Pennyroyal Tea”

David Bowie, “China Girl”

Summer 2003: Elvis Costello, “Lipstick Vogue”

Patsy Cline, “You Belong to Me”

Hank Williams Sr., “I Saw the Light”

Blondie, “Dreaming” and “(Touched by Your) Presence Dear”

Elvis Costello, “Return to Big Nothing”

Severed Heads, “Life in the Whale”

Marc Almond, “Blond Boy” and “Tenderness Is a Weakness”

Siouxsie & the Banshees, “Nightshift”

Fall 2003: Elvis Costello, “Battered Old Bird”

Vestpocket Psalm, “Sonic Reducer”

Dead Milkmen, “Stuart” and whatever that song is about the lesbian left-handed midget albino Eskimo (“Life can be pretty hard for that young lady”)

Patti Smith, “Horses,” “Kimberly” (“Countries/Fall into the sea/It doesn’t matter much to me/As long as you’re safe, Kimberly”) and “Elegy”

Avengers, “Cheap Tragedies”

Devo, “Uncontrollable Urge”

The Cramps, “Bikini Girls With Machine Guns” and “Dames, Booze, Chains and Boots”

Always: Morrissey and Siouxsie, “Interlude”