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Eleven Angry, Sad, and Angsty Songs that Sum Up My Teen Years
The “good old days” weren’t always good, but the music was
This year marks the 40th anniversary of my graduation from high school, and I will not be attending the reunion, for reasons stated here. Skipping that nostalgia train wreck, however, has proven far easier than avoiding the reminders that I have been AARP-eligible for nearly a decade. Every day, I am bombarded with stories about events that occurred exactly 40 years ago, including the release of Ghostbusters, Ronald Reagan winning every state’s electoral votes except for Minnesota’s, the release of Apple’s Macintosh personal computer, and the glorious arrival of Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. album (I’m fine with that last one).
While I do my best not to start every conversation with the phrase “back in my day,” I have found myself thinking back to those days when I was still too young to drink legally and every option in the world still seemed open to me. What I’ve realized is something that my former classmates will never admit when they gather later this year.
Being a teenager sucked, even in the awesome 1980s.
Fortunately, there was a veritable cornucopia of music to help us survive high school, the only time besides prison when you can be legally compelled to…
