Sunday Mornings

I have so much electronic and dance music on around the kids, that every once in a while, I feel the need to balance it out with a quality tune from my youth:

Edwin seemed to enjoy the Nirvana, so I tried to push my luck with some White Stripes. But after the second minimalist production-quality, guitar riff-heavy track, Edwin complained it was too loud, and it was back to Ke$ha for us.

Edwin, 1970s Music, & Retro Math

I’ve been listening to a lot—and I mean, a lot!—of Sirius XM ‘7'0s on 7 lately. (Listening right now.) It’s reminded me of my high school days because back then (mid-‘90s), I used to wish I grew up in the ‘70s. I think this was mainly a function of the music I was listening to then—the cool (Pink Floyd, The Who, The Stones), the borderline (Fleetwood Mac, Styx, Boston), and the not so cool (Saturday Night Fever soundtrack)—plus watching Dazed and Confused a few (dozen?) times. It just seemed like a simpler and hipper time to be a teenager.

Well, since the channel’s been on pretty much exclusively for the last week and a half in the car and at home, Edwin’s got his fair share of Todd Rundgren, Seals and Crofts, and Carole King. It got me wondering if I continuously play ‘70s pop and rock throughout his childhood, would he end up a fan just like his dad? But then, I started with (what I’ll call) the retro math…

Retro math is something I do in my head anywhere from once to a dozen times a day. Say I’m grocery shopping at Kroger and “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand” by Primitive Radio Gods comes on. I’m immediately like cool, haven’t heard this in a while…it’s not that old, right? Then I do the math.

OK, this song was out in the summer between junior and senior year of high school (don’t ask), so 1996. 13 years ago, wow. But kids today wouldn’t think it’s old, right? OK, do the math. Hearing a 13-year old song then would’ve meant the 17-year old me listening to a song from 1983. Think, quick example: “Africa” by Toto (again, don’t ask). So a 17-year old listening to “Broken Phone Booth” today is like me listening to “Africa” in 1996. Uh…OK, the song’s old, and I’m old.

I was born in 1979, Edwin 2008, so doing the retro math on me, Edwin and ‘70s music is staggering:

• Edwin listening to ‘70s music is like me listening to ‘40s music (so Curtis Mayfield is to Edwin as Dizzie Gillespie is to me?).
• The ‘70s for me is like the ‘00s for Edwin (Led Zeppelin is to me as The White Stripes are to Edwin?).
• And probably the most unfathomable calculation from all of this: since I got into ‘70s rock in high school (during the ‘90s), I associate Edwin’s taste in music to his high school years—which will be in the 2020s. Whoa.

Sunday Driving

After a fun-filled weekend hanging out with the fam in Canfield, one of our (read: my) favorite things to do on the car ride back to KY is listen to the the '90s channel on Sirius. Every Sunday at noon, they play the Top 40 countdown from a particular year from my formative decade.

Yesterday, they played the countdown from this week in 1998.

Ahhh...winter of freshman year. So many memories. I decide to see how many of the Top 10 songs I can guess. Somehow, I get Mindy to join me.

After hearing some of the songs in the bottom part of the countdown, it becomes evident that there's definitely a stickiness to songs in the Top 40 as songs I associate with summer and fall of '97 are still on here (e.g. "Fly" by Sugar Ray, "Brick" by Ben Folds Five). So we take that into account on our guesses.

We don't try to guess the order, but I want to at least have the #1 picked out...I'd feel like a failure if we miss that one. We cheat because we probably end up with 12 or 13 guesses.

Wrong guesses include "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia and "Still the One" by Shania Twain, but I was pretty sure we were jumping the gun on those because I don't recall those until a few months later in '98. "Bittersweet Symphony" by the Verve was another wrong choice, but I was fairly certain that wasn't that big (or at least lasting) of a U.S. hit. The other wrong guesses were pretty desperate and not worth mentioning.

Before we get to the top 10, I call that there was a Lisa Loeb song out at the time called "I Do" but didn't think it was top 10 material. It was #11, so I feel good about our guesses headed into the top 10.

Here's how we did:

10. "Kiss the Rain" by Billie Myers, 0 for 1 - We both remember this song from this time period, but never knew the artist, and aren't mad at ourselves for missing this one.

9. "Together Again" by Janet Jackson, 0 for 2 - We definitely heard this song before, but wouldn't have known if it was from 1988 or 2008, so we're not upset for missing it but are starting to get frustrated we have no correct answers yet.

8. "You Make Me Wanna" by Usher, 1 for 3 - Finally, we're on the board! This was in fact, one of my confidence picks. I remembered being so annoyed by the song freshman year and just knew it had to be here. And yes, that means like me, you've been not enjoying Usher songs on the radio for 11 years now.

7. "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba, 2 for 4 - Mindy's contribution to the list which definitively illustrates the lag factor to the Top 40 charts. Her selection of this inspires a later correct guess of mine. And surprisingly, even though you haven't just heard this song 5x/day for 5 months, this song feels as overplayed now in 2009 as it did 1997-8.

6. "Show Me Love" by Robyn, 2 for 5 - OK, it stinks being under 50% for the 10 through 6. Fun fact: we learn Robyn is from Sweden and is the same age as us.

5. "Walking on the Sun" by Smash Mouth, 3 for 6 - Back to .500...this was my choice inspired by Mindy's Chumbawumba call. I'd have thought these songs were dead by February of freshman year, but the pop charts are a funny thing.

4. "3 a.m." by Matchbox Twenty, 4 for 7 - Last second choice just as the top 10 started, and really, what was 1998 without drunk college kids from the suburbs singing Matchbox Twenty songs? I start to question how I was able to keep my sanity during this time period with all this going on around me.

3. "As Long As You Love Me" by The Backstreet Boys, 5 for 8 - Another lock of mine...how did I remember this? No comment.

2. "Truly, Madly, Deeply" by Savage Garden, 5 for 9 - Ouch, how'd we miss this? Remember this song being everywhere freshman year? Check. Hated this song being everywhere freshman year? Check.

1. "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, 6 for 10 - The 3rd of my 3 locks, and it's great to get the #1 song right. However, I started to doubt myself when they kept mentioning we have a new #1 this week. I figured this would've been #1 from back in December when Titanic was first out, but whatever.

So we finish at 60%, not bad.

Bonus...we switch over top the '80s channel after our countdown ends in time to here the #1 song from this week in 1980: "Do That To Me One More Time" by Captain and Tennille.