Q101: 1998

How did we get here?


1998 (Or, the year I looked forward to hearing Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” on the school bus radio just a little bit more than I’d really like to admit right now)

5. “Iris” – The Goo Goo Dolls

And I don't want the world to see me / 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand / When everything's meant to be broken / I just want you to know who I am

Alright, Dan, you win.  I DO like “Iris” despite my refusal to acknowledge that fact in your presence.  I have a tendency to inflate a song’s value if I also enjoy its corresponding music video.  However, there are rare exceptions when the video hurts the song.  I hate hate hate the video to “Iris.”  I don’t really have a strong reason why.  I guess the sight of Johnny Rzeznik rolling around in a chair inside a tower and peering out various telescopes like some creepy Peeping Tom stirs up some negative feelings inside me.  As such, I held this song down for a while.  I suppose the video makes a lot of sense when you consider the lyrics, and I can certainly sympathize with those lyrics.  I write this blog; I reveal things.  And yet, there’s still part of me that doesn’t want the world to see me.

4. “I Will Buy You A New Life” – Everclear

They might make you think you're happy / Yeah maybe for a minute or two / They can't make you laugh / No they can't make you feel the way that I do

That pretty much sums up my plea to women.  Forget those guys with the chiseled good looks or fat wallets; I will make you laugh (sometimes not even at me) and that’s what will make you the most happy.  So Much for the Afterglow was always near the front of my album rotation in high school, so this song’s inclusion is well earned.  The album accompanied me during many bus rides and pre-game warm-ups for soccer.  Despite the claims of my portable CD player, anti-skip protection didn’t seem to be something it was capable of providing. 

3. “Closing Time” – Semisonic

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Now this is a cool music video.  I always had this dream of becoming a major league closer and using this as my intro music.  Sure, “Enter Sandman” or “Hell’s Bells” would do much a better job at providing the adrenaline rush these closers live by.  But I’m a mellow guy and the suggestion that ‘I’m coming into the game to shut it down so you best get ready to go home’ always appealed to me.  With all the changes happening in my life, this song is a good reminder that one beginning must end for another to begin.  And yet, I can’t help but be reminded how some beginnings never end.  Just last night, I was at an after-work gathering enjoying some frosty beverages.  One by one, the group dwindled down to me and another guy I barely know.  Everyone else had left with someone or to go to someone.  So, I’ve become the guy who represents the last man standing.  I guess somebody’s has to do it and I’m just the guy for the job.

2. “My Hero” – Foo Fighters

Too alarming now to talk about / Take your pictures down and shake it out / Truth or consequence, say it aloud / Use that evidence, race it around

Back to back top 5’s for Foo Fighters, which isn’t surprising given the strength of The Colour and the Shape.  Mandie and I almost had the same top song for 1998.  This song will forever be linked with the climatic final game in Varsity Blues.  Back in high school, my pal Josh (he of the hundreds of albums) did me a nice favor.  He took a stack of post-it notes and wrote a new song on each one.  He told me to think of it as a “Song of the Day” kind of thing.  Each day, I’d tear away the previous note and see what new exciting song awaited me.  My goal was to familiarize myself with the song and, ideally, add it to my music collection.  That story isn’t unique to this song but I’m sure “My Hero” was one of the presents I got to open.

1. “Shimmer” - Fuel

She calls me from the cold / Just when I was low, feeling short of stable / And all that she intends / And all she keeps inside isn't on the label

This song was an instant favorite from the moment I heard and it has remained that way ever since.  I remember getting it onto a custom mix CD and listening to it on bus trips to compete in Scholastic Bowl.  When you’re riding down to Clifton, you need something to get you through.  I just love everything about this song – the lyrics, the way it builds slowly and shifts its pace to something more up-tempo, even the cello that you can distinctly hear in parts of it.  I think we can all understand the struggle of letting someone back into your life even though you know it might cause you pain again.  What exactly are their intentions this time?  You vow to move on and you may even believe that you have.  Boom!  They reach out to you again and suck you back in.  It almost doesn’t seem fair.