Rock 'n' Roll High School

All for the love of molding young minds …

Since we reached the end of the alphabet last week, and since it’s the beginning of September, I figured this week I’d try a thematic list to see what our iTunes libraries hold as far as school-related songs.

“ABC,” Jackson 5
“Birth, School, Work, Death,” The Godfathers
“Campus,” Vampire Weekend
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” The Police
“Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes,” Beck
“Headmasters of Mine,” Jeffrey Gaines
“I Don’t Like Mondays,” The Boomtown Rats
“Jeremy,” Pearl Jam
“Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” Paul Simon
“Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” Peter Bjorn & John
“No Such Thing,” John Mayer
“Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,” The Ramones
“School,” Nirvana
“School Days,” Chuck Berry
“Teenagers,” My Chemical Romance
“Troublemaker,” Weezer
“What I Go to School For,” Jonas Brothers
“Wonderful World,” Sam Cooke
“You Learn,” Alanis Morisette

No Alice Cooper or Lulu in my collection. And I’ve got The Wall on VHS somewhere, but not the album. I’m sure, though, that there are a whole bunch of school songs I’m missing. What are they?

The JoBros track there comes from sharing iTunes with two teenage daughters. But hey, that’s also how I came by that My Chemical Romance song, which is pretty fantastic.

I love the giddy New York summer vibe of that Paul Simon video, but one thing about it bugs me. Simon’s a southpaw and Mantle was a switch-hitter, so why did he go up there batting lefty? And also, whatever did happen down at the schoolyard that horrified Mama, shamed Papa and required the intervention of the radical priest?