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Hey Life Kit listeners, I'm Robin Hilton, host of NPR Music's All Songs Considered.
It is graduation season, so we decided we'd do something fun for it this year.
We asked listeners to tell us about the songs that remind them of their final days of high school.
Then it turns out those songs unlocked a whole lot of memories and stories and also some great advice that we wanted to share with the Life Kit audience.
So enjoy this episode and then maybe share it with the graduate in your life.
And as always you can listen to new episodes of All Songs Considered every Tuesday, wherever you get podcasts.
Here's the show.
Steven Thompson, I heard a rumor about you.
What would that be Robin?
It's a rumor that I just cannot believe is true.
So I have to ask.
Anything you have heard about me is a dirty, dirty lie.
Well what I heard was that you were actually a very, very good student.
Well keep in mind that half the curriculum in those days was just cave maintenance.
How to keep your cave clean.
I was a terrible student.
I truly was terrible.
I never really took to school, I guess you could say.
And you know I could not wait to get out of there.
Somehow I did manage to graduate, which was around this time of year, I'm a number of years ago.
And graduation.
It was a couple of years ago.
Some time ago.
And graduation season is here again.
So we did a call out to listeners asking them to tell us about a song that takes them back to this time.
You know when they ended what was certainly by then the biggest chapter in their lives, you know said goodbye to friends and family and left home.
So we're going to share some of the song picks and memories of this time that we got from listeners, we got a bunch of emails and voice memos.
We also have a couple of our own picks that we're going to share.
But let's start with one from a listener.
Yeah, this is a track that was picked by a lot of people.
But this one came to us from Ruth Ann in Ohio.
I'm quoting now.
This song was actually released two years after I left high school, but it still wrecks me.
It is everything I try to remember about getting older.
I sometimes still cry when I hear it.
It reminds me that there is nothing new under the sun.
Everything that is happening has happened before and a very serious reminder.
I think you're going to know where this is.
We're going with this.
To where sunscreen?
Ladies and gentlemen of the Class of 99.
Where sunscreen?
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
A long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists.
Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.
I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.
Never mind.
You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now.
How much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future.
Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your word mind.
The kind that blinds eyes you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts.
Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy.
Sometimes you're ahead.
Sometimes you're behind.
The race is long.
In the end.
I'd been out of high school for quite a while by the time the song came out.
This is Baz Lerman by the way.
Didn't mention his name in the intro.
Yeah, everybody's free to wear sunscreen came out in 99.
I remember hearing this for the first time.
And you know, much like Ruth Ann, I don't know.
It made me cry and it still makes me cry when I hear it.
I think maybe because at the root of this song and all these little bits of advice,
you know, is one idea and it's the idea that, you know what, life is pretty beautiful.
Life is pretty beautiful and don't let all the bad things in the world distract you from that factor
and make you think otherwise.
It's a reminder that there are many universal threads that tie together generations throughout history.
And a lot of it just boils down to being young and a lot of the advice that you need to hear
when you're young is a combination of anxiety management and life skills.
And that's what this song really comes through at one point when he just says,
floss.
I'm like, oh my god, if there's one lesson that I want my kids to take from the song,
it's that dental hygiene is important so because if you fall short and listen people,
if you're out there, get an electric toothbrush.
The amount of money that an electric toothbrush, a simple electric toothbrush,
would have saved me in periodontal surgery?
It's mind blowing.
I really didn't think that this is the direction the conversation was going to go,
but sure, it's important.
So it's all the other advice in this song and in fact, you know, it was overplayed,
you know, became a cliche to a lot of people.
I still think everything that is said in this song should be printed in a little manual
and handed out to everyone at graduation because it's just one brilliant truth after another.
Boslermann, the filmmaker, he produced it.
But the words are from an essay written by columnist Mary Schmitch.
It wasn't an actual commencement speech that she gave.
It was one that she said she would give if she were asked and it ran in the Chicago Tribune in 1997,
became the song in 1999 and people still finding it today.
She's still collecting some right in real time.
I hope so.
I certainly hope so.
It's brilliant.
Let's go to another listener pick.
This one is from Sarah in Queens.
And she picked the song, I feel it all by Fist.
And Sarah says, it came out right before I graduated in June 2007.
It was just getting warm.
My friends would blast it from their car stereos while driving around with the windows down.
We all rented a house in Southampton for our after-prong and this album was played all weekend.
Whenever I hear it, I think about the amazing feeling of freedom from school, from our parents.
It was our first time renting a house together with no supervision and the nauseating thrill of moving away for college.
It was so good to have everything ahead of us and we knew it.
I feel it all, I feel it all.
The wings are white, the wings are white.
My car inside, my car inside.
Ooh, I'll be the one who break my heart, I'll be the one to hope that I'm not no more than I'm new before.
I know more than I'm new before.
I didn't arrest, I didn't stop.
Did we fight, did we talk?
Ooh, I'll be the one who break my heart, I'll be the one to hope that I'm not no more.
Sarah and Queen picked the song because it came out at the time, it was playing at the time, they all loved it, but it is so perfect too.
It speaks to that feeling of the world laying out before you.
And this song remains just 10 out of 10 no notes.
I love the idea, no notes, I love the idea of you see everything all at the same time and you feel everything all at the same time.
Yeah, great pick, I was really surprised to see it.
Yeah, and very happy too because it reminded me how much I love this album because gosh I haven't listened to this album in ages, but I had it on constant repeal.
Oh, me too, it is phenomenal.
As we went through all of the emails and voice mails we got from listeners, there were so many songs that came up over and over and over again.
The sunscreensong is certainly one of them, closing time by some some isonic was another one.
Yes, I know it's about closing a bar or something, but I think you know, sure.
It's an ending.
It's an ending, it's transition.
The others included Alice Cooper's schools out, I knew that would be there. Paul Simon's Codochrome was an interesting one that came up several times.
But what do you think was these things and I totally predicted this myself, but what do you think is these single most mentioned song like no contest?
So the problem Rob is I've seen the run of this show.
No, if I had not seen the run of this show, I would say that the answer is Goodridden's parentheses time of your life by Green Day.
100% the most mentioned song like you know people submitted a form and I just was scrolling through the results of the form is just good riddance, good riddance, good riddance, good riddance.
It reminds me of my leaving my high school because it was back in the early 2000s right before 2001 right before 9-11 right before a lot of things that have happened in the past 24 years and one of my best friends named Danny dedicated time of your life on the radio to me and I went and I recorded it on cassette and I thought, oh yeah, this is the start.
I'm going to record the time of my life and it's funny because I haven't listened to that song in a really, really long time.
Thank you for bringing back the memories.
I'm going to record the time of my life and it's funny because I haven't listened to that song in a really long time.
I'm going to record the time of my life and it's funny because I haven't listened to that song in a really long time.
I'm going to record the time of my life and it's funny because I haven't listened to that song in a really long time.
So take the photographs and still friends in your mind hanging on a shelf in good, health and good time.
That's just a memories and that's getting on trial for what it's worth. It was worth all the while. It's something unpredictable but in the end is right.
I hope you have the time of your life.
One of the things I loved about Rebecca's memories is just these little details she had in her reflections that captured the time when you could call a radio station, have a song dedicated to someone and then you would record it on a cassette as it's broadcasting.
Just the cordure moment of fame.
The innocence of that moment is just so wonderful and she invokes that this was pre-9-11 and it's also interesting to me when I think about when this song came out I was so much younger back then and time when your younger moves, it's just so much slower than it moves.
If you'd asked me between the time this song came out and just before 9-11 I would have thought I don't know a decade, it was like three years.
It was just like no time at all. This song was not that old one.
It's such a multi-purpose song. It really just boils down to events have transpired. I hope you liked them.
I'm so impressed listening back to that song and I've listened back to that song a few times in the last year or so.
We did a whole show about Green Day and the strings are doing so much heavy lifting in that song.
They really managed to sweep in and guide your emotions through and it's not an excessively sappy or sentimental song.
Really when you break it down it's just basically saying like this time is over.
Yeah. But it's also I think much like the sunscreen song that it has been so overplayed and parodied over the years.
But really, undeniably, a brilliant song and it's just a great melody.
Everything about it, it just comes together perfectly.
Yeah. We got to take a quick break but we will have more memories of graduation leaving home and the music that takes us back right after this.
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I'll do my pick, I guess here. You know, I thought of a lot of songs from that time that I could play Peter Gabriel's Don't Give Up.
The song, this must be the place by the talking heads. I listened to a ton of Kate Bush back then and pretty much anything by her.
But I'm gonna go with one by Ricky Lee Jones. This is from her album, Pirates. It's a song called We Belong Together.
I say this was no game of chicken, but we're aiming at best friend. That's where I got sweets playing on a tin running net.
I think you picked this up with Mexico for me, Danny. And daddy only was his rental, yeah, he was new.
Now it's a deal on the doorway with one more way you can play me a single time.
So you drag around every drag, it's forbidden for a love and a ton of the staying time in your kiss tonight. But that's not where you were seeking.
I'm gonna tell you what that can sound. I'm to a scene so close to the tunnel, not a push on the same plane.
So my favorite part in this song is this comes a little bit later, so I'm gonna actually scoot your head here to it.
This is just before Steve Gad, the drummer, comes in.
But the sailors just take some broth down to the dock and to the fair to turn into the tattoo. And I whisper in the back and tell these black.
And I'm not in the king walks these streets without her in the rain.
And I'm gonna fall in the jacket and I'm gonna gather all the name forever. And I'm promised we'll be known together.
Man, I'm in my beater of a VW bus by 1969 VW Beetle. I'm speeding down the highway, saying, see ya!
Off my off on my way to college. Never looking back. You'll never see me set foot in Iowa with sconsome again.
I turned up and I was gone so many more times. Same. I think this isn't a song that screams graduation.
And maybe it's nothing more for me than the fact that I was just listening to this album a lot back then.
So I had this song unrepeat. But there is a sadness in this song and a sense of loss, I think.
On the one hand, it's a broken hearted love song about, like, well, we should be together.
But it's also a sense of moving on and letting go even if you don't want to.
I don't know. More of a feeling maybe than anything. But the song, I actually listened to the song recently and got all weepy listening to it just because it made me think of, you know, all those years ago, I think.
Yeah, I get that completely. And I appreciate it. It's a very Robin Hilton song. I appreciate it that you have scooted ahead so we could hear the,
I'm air drumming in here. Which is such a Robin Hilton move. I think of you as Mr. Drumphill.
If you want to really experience this song, by the way, find someone who has like a $25,000 stereo system, which I did one time.
I went to a friend of mine worked at Martin Logan, which is a speaker manufacturer.
And they make, you know, electrostatic, amazing speakers. And they put the song on for me once on this amazing, it was like a $25,000 pair of speakers.
And it revealed that this is the most exquisitely reported album ever. It is just incredible. We belong together.
Love it. By the way, I went to the record store recently to get it on vinyl because back in the early 1990s, I made a terrible mistake and I got rid of all of my physical records. I got rid of all my vinyl.
Yeah, because I'm like, I'm moving the CD's, baby. Nobody's ever going to want vinyl again.
I went to the record store just this past weekend. I said, hey, do you have pirates? I'm looking through, you know, I can't even find any record these jobs.
And he's like, ah, you're going to look in the dollar bin. That's a dollar record. And I said, that is not a dollar record. What is wrong with you?
He's like, hey, man, I'm not passing judgment on the, you know, like the sonic, the wall, the music is worth it. He's like, nobody wants to buy that record. It's in the dollar bin. And I was like, Blash for me, how dare you?
And I stomped out of there, but not before about a few other records.
All right, Stephen, how about you? What do you got your own pick?
Well, you know, I thought about picking something from, you know, my own childhood, but I don't think I was listening to good music. I don't think the music I was listening to was as good as the music you're listening to.
I have a vague recollection of black Sabbath and their song changes playing at my high school graduation.
And I certainly found that song very moving. But I, for my pick, I decided to kind of shift gears and think about graduation more from the perspective of a parent.
And, and I mean, that's certainly something you're kind of getting a little bit with like the best lyrmen, people who are approaching these milestones from a grown perspective.
But the song I picked is by a band called Cloud Cult. And if you know the history of Cloud Cult, you know, they're kind of an experimental indie band. They made a ton of records.
And at the center of Cloud Cult was a husband and wife. And they had gone through terrible loss. They had lost a child. And, you know, written a record about that. And then over time, you know, they went on and had another child.
And so in 2010, they released an album called Light Chasers. And there is a track on this record. It basically makes me feel all the positive feelings about being a parent.
At the same time, it is an almost overwhelming emotional experience listening to this song. And to me, this is a perfect graduation song that I don't think has necessarily gotten played at a lot of graduations.
And so I'd like to submit this song to the graduation canon as an incredible song about sending somebody out into the world.
The song is called You'll Be Bright, parentheses, invocation part one.
Every crisis, every heart breaking, every act of kindness.
They're calling.
Travel safely.
They're calling.
Travel safely.
Every empire.
Every monument.
Every masterpiece.
Every invention.
They're calling.
Travel safely.
All the things you'll love.
All the things that may hurt you.
All the things you should and to.
All the things you want to.
They're calling.
Travel safely.
They're calling.
Travel safely.
I found the stars on the tip of your soul.
You speak towards your gaze to someone.
Someone.
Someone.
Someone.
Someone.
Someone.
Someone.
Someone.
Someone.
Yeah, this is a song that you could camp out.
It could stay just that sweet little lovely song in the beginning and it'd be totally effective.
But this song builds and builds.
And so Robin, I'm going to ask you to scoop this song a little bit forward.
Okay.
Okay.
And get into some of the meat of how hard this song goes.
So bring the earth down to the light.
Change your blood to the wine.
I hope that you have waited for this life to live.
And you'll be right.
Yeah.
I mean, because that's what life is, right?
It is this build and it's this triumph.
And I can tell the song's really moving you.
I love this song so much.
And like part of it is it's like just this emotional bloodletting.
All my feelings are happening on top of one another when I listen to this song.
And if you are a parent and you're having big feelings about your kids and what you want for your kids, this is the song for you.
Yeah, no, I've got a long, long, long way to go before I send my kids out into the world.
One is about to finish third grade.
But this is exactly what I would play for them.
It has everything that I would say to them except for maybe, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
When you're 18 or out the door, see it.
But no, it's so many great lines.
There's one moment when he says turn your blood to wine which invokes I think all kinds of themes of an imagery around the idea of your life being full of mirrors.
And you're being full of miracles and wondrous things.
And also you yourself doing amazing things with your life.
You know, I got so many songs and stories that we got from listeners that we could keep on sharing.
But let's go out on another song that was mentioned, a bajillion times.
And at least I think maybe everyone from a certain generation, that being our generation.
Yeah, you say that, but man, songs never go away now.
That's true.
I still hear this song on the radio all the time.
We're talking about Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Mines from 1985.
It was on the Breakfast Club soundtrack.
Dory in California wrote in about Don't You Forget About Me.
This song and the film The Breakfast Club came out in the middle of my senior year of high school
and captured all the complicated, angsty teen feelings I had then.
I had to switch schools between my junior and senior years of high school,
which in retrospect was not all that big a deal, but at the time felt like a major upheaval.
I went from a very small school with a close circle of friends
to attending a much larger high school part time so that I could enroll in college classes at the local university.
Even before graduation, I felt like I had already left.
When I attended my old school's graduation as a guest,
I felt like an outsider when I should have been a participant.
And because my parents insisted, I attended my actual graduation during which I sat with nobody I knew.
The lyrics which describe maintaining fragile connections.
The lyrics about being remembered and recognized by others, spoke to the disconnect I felt at the time.
So we'll go out on this.
Thanks so much, Stephen, for taking a walk down memory lane and sharing all these stories.
It was great.
Robin, I hope you had the time of your life.
I see what you did there, but I'm not playing.
And for in-peer music, I'm Robin Hilton.
It's also considered.
I'm not playing.
I'm not playing.
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