Can't Stand Losing You - "I guess you'd call it suicide, but I'm too full to swallow my pride". It became shockingly routine, a normal state of affairs. I'd arrive for my first class and the chatter would start, passing unfailingly from one small group to the next. God knows there were plenty of those groups - part of the problem, perhaps. You'd think, "Please, not again." Some days the news trucks would beat us there, with their satellites, holding a cameraman/reporter team or two. On those days, you knew for sure. You were left only to ask, "Who?"
Over a period of just a few months in 1983, 9 teens in Plano, Texas killed themselves. Nine teens. Eight times we had to hear about kids our age, sometimes kids we knew, and suicide. Eight times because two of them, a couple, had died together "Romeo & Juliet" or "Don't Fear the Reaper" style, by running a car in the garage of a house under construction. I knew her - Bridget Jacobs. We had a tight-knit group of German students at Plano Senior High - 6 of us in German III, including Bridget. Given the small number of students, we shared our teacher (a wonderful teacher, Frau Stewart) and classroom with the German II students. Even then, there were less than 20 kids in the room, an unusual situation when you've got over 1200 kids in your graduating class.
One of those kids was Bill Ramsey. His death early in 1983 started our season of dread. He was the flag-man in a drag race. His best friend, Bruce Carrio, one of the racers, lost control of his vehicle, struck Bill and killed him. Distraught with the guilt, Bruce killed himself 4 days later. You can rationalize that. Put yourself in Bruce's shoes and maybe you could see how that would be the result.
Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. The news stories that followed, and it made national news, all seemed to focus on the spoiled rich kids. Plano was, and is, an affluent Dallas suburb. There were plenty of rich kids there - spoiled and otherwise. That wasn't the case with Bridget, Bill, or Bruce. They were just high school kids. Like me. Like most everyone I knew. I guess for an outsider that was an obvious point to make, or at least a way to make sense of it. We certainly couldn't make sense of it.
The attention seemed to cause the trend to gain momentum. Suicide is a terrible way to attract attention. Maybe it's the only way some of those kids could get it. I don't know. 25 years later, I still don't understand. I know those all-too-familiar feelings of dread left some indelible marks on many of us - 25 years hasn't dulled that. It was a horrible thing to live through - but at least I can say I lived through it. Ten (counting Bill) didn't.
Caroline - My wife, Linda, and I love this song. We were going to name our youngest daughter Caroline. It would have given us a mathematical progression in our family's first names - 4 letters, 5, 6, 7, and 8. I suppose that would have been cool. Like those families where everyone's name starts with the same letter. Unless, of course, you think that's silly. When Lauren was born on Christmas day, we decided having Carol in her name would be too cutesy. The other day, Lauren told Linda she would have liked for us to name her Caroline. Oh well. We probably over-thought it. I've certainly been accused of that before.
- A Cabin in the Woods - Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers
- Cajun Song - Gin Blossoms
- California Girls - The Beach Boys
- Call On Me - Chicago
- Calling - Taproot
- Camera - R.E.M.
- The Camera Eye - Rush : From what I gather, many Rush fans consider this to be the weakest of their extended-length songs. I've always really liked it. It's a bit mellower than the others.
- Can't Believe - Staind
- Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles
- Can't Get There From Here - R.E.M. : I think this song sounds less like an R.E.M. song than any other they've done. If that makes any sense.
- Can't Grow Tired of Your Love - Dave Barnes
- Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley : A wonderful love song. It was in the movie "Blue Hawaii". As a kid, I loved all the Elvis movies. I haven't watched one in years. I suspect they don't stand the test of time too well.
- Can't Stand Losing You - The Police
- Can't Stop - Maroon 5
- Can Do - Journey
- Can I Play With Madness - Iron Maiden
- Can I Steal a Little Love - Frank Sinatra
- Canary In a Coalmine - The Police
- Car Crash - Matt Nathanson
- Caroline - Concrete Blonde
- Carry On the Flame - Triumph
- Carry That Weight - The Beatles
- Cars - Gary Numan : Remember this on Saturday Night Live? So freaky & cool.
- Carve Away the Stone - Rush
- Casual Affair - Tonic "It's a casual affair, when everybody loves you" : About the fleeting and shallow nature of celebrity.
- Catapult - Counting Crows
- Catapult - R.E.M.
- Catch My Disease (That's the Way I Like It) - Ben Lee : Sounds sleazy, but I don't think it's intended that way.
- Catch My Fall - Billy Idol
- Cathy's Clown - The Everly Brothers
- Caught Somewhere In Time - Iron Maiden
- Cecilia - Simon & Garfunkel
- Cedars of Lebanon - U2
- Celtic Aggression - Tonic : "So we came across the water/From the shores of the isle of green/Speaking separate tongues in the death of culture" - They include some Gaelic (I think) lyrics "Bhi machree, ohin trasna na farraige", which translates as "A long time ago, my heart came from across the sea".
- Century - Live "This puke stinks like beer and everybody's here/Come on, come on, come on/Let's lay waste to this century". Kinda gross. I guess it was Live's tribute to the 1900s.
- Cerilene - Sister Hazel
- The Chain - Fleetwood Mac : One of my all-time favorite songs. I can listen to it over and over.
- Chance (Dub) - R.E.M.
- Change - Staind
- Chariot - Gavin DeGraw
- Charlie, The Methadone Man - Fastball
- Charlotte the Harlot - Iron Maiden : The tale of a London prostitute, continued in a couple more songs on later releases.
- Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol : This song was ubiquitous, causing some backlash against it and the band a bit. I think that's unwarranted. This CD, "Eyes Open" is one of my favorite of the past few years. Sure, this song is kind of a schmaltzy ballad, but don't let that keep you from checking out the CD.
- Chattanooga Choo Choo - Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
Kicked off the C's.
Listened to 44 songs, skipped 1 (live version of R.E.M.'s "Catapult")
7 Can't, but 3 Can
6 with people's names in the title, all but one are female names (kind of what you'd expect)
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Now playing: The Police - Can't Stand Losing You
via FoxyTunes
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