Soundtrack to my (Jive) Life Part 1

Welcome back to Sherman on Sports. A long time ago I said I would throw in the occasional Frisbee piece. Well with the nostalgia sinking in as I slowly come to grips with the fact I spend my life digging in the dirt making more money per check than half a semester in the caf- (wait why do I need to come to grips with that? I’m a real life Indiana Jones! Lets gooooooo!) I felt a reflective post looking back on four years of being a Jive Turkey might actually be worthwhile.  So I pulled inspiration from the mixed cd I made for High Tide- Jive history in song, Musical memories over four years with the Jive fucking Turkeys.  So I came up with an extended song list/ potential cd- 20 songs with one bonus track, running in (mostly) chronological order, all with specific meaning to my Jive experience.  Sorry if your favorites didn’t make it, but I think I got a pretty good grasp of Jive in song. 

Honorable Mentions:   Live your Life by T.I. (something I couldn’t justify, too specific) Any number of great dance mixes from the Tavern (I simply don’t remember the names-were all too similar), Any number of Bangers from Witwer/Poon Palace (could have made a whole cd out of that alone), You Belong with Me (maybe I just think that), more ke$ha (never enough), Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO, Spaghetti cat (I couldn’t bring myself to do it), any Cudi or Chiddy (for the swagbotinfinity), NCIS:LA theme song, Step Up 3 soundtrack (really only for me and moonshine. Ok Posey too) and probably several others.  Tweet noticeable omissions if you want.

PART I

Opening Track: Baba O’Riley, The Who

If there was one song that encompassed my entire first semester Jive experience, it was this one.  To me, nothing beat being at the chateau at 2 am in September/October with a just barely-there state of mind, while horrendously playing an air guitar/keyboard.  To be honest, it might not have happened more than twice.  Either way it’s the first song for me where I woke up groggy on a Saturday morning, trying to remember what that song I had heard the night before, and quick getting it on my iTunes.  It affected me so much, I put it forward as my only submission to the “CUFF pump up list” put together by one Andy Schacter.  Speaking of CUFF….

2: “On Top of the World, T.I. ft Ludacris

Somehow this became the song of Cuff.  My first serious tournament as a freshman, and I had a ton of great memories.  With this song I just remember straight after winning the tier 2 bracket someone started blasting this song from the van (because of a hail storm we weren’t given the chance to even play in for tier 1, so we simply won every game that weekend).  Specifically I can picture Ducky singing in his distinct style (arms waving and all) trying to conduct the team in an octals-like manner. Something tells me he failed.  We had played/sang this song the whole weekend, and it still brings back memories to me.

(quick list: Windsor Canadian; Chappers getting his shoes tied together; winning CUFF- even though it was only tier 2; the hailstorm; “Whoever drank is not playing tomorrow”- followed by the realization that all but about 4 people had drank; and “Yes I did suck a dick last night” written on Christian’s arm by Nate Grefe)

3: I’m on a Boat, Lonely Island ft. T-Pain

All freshman year high tide this song got played every hour. Probably multiple times.  Everyone knew every word, and probably still does.  Just a great song that brings back great memories from second semester freshman year.  Who doesn’t like getting to yell the f-bomb every 3 words while singing with an entire house of fellow turks?  When this song made it on my mixed CD for High Tide ’12, Terri and Jake gave credit to Suze and Timbo for it sticking in their minds.

4: Closing Time, Semisonic

This ones almost too generic for Jive, but there was a time when every dance party ended (or tried to end) to this song.  As a junior and senior I became all too familiar with trying and failing to end a party multiple times, and whenever I tried, I went back to a song I remembered to my wee Freshman days.  Everyone knows enough words to get by, and you might even get a couple or two out the door.  Unless that couple involved Posey.

5: Cooking by the Book, Lil Wayne and Crazy Town

I don’t even remember the first time I heard this song, but I actually found it annoying as hell.  Eventually I came around. Its a great tribute to the necessary youtube video at the end of a Jive email, and referenced in Chapper’s 2009 upcoming year predictions.  Those interested just scroll back on the group until November/December 2008. Yes I actually somehow remember that, and yes I did go check to see if its still there. Did I mention I have a lot of free time?

6. American Boy, Estelle

Pong will always have a place on the Jive Turkeys (ping-pong Mom, duh), and has for as long as I have been on the team.  In four years I’ve seen it be debated more fiercely than any political topic, become a necessary part of the party, and then become reduced to what it was when I joined the team once again (pregame tool that gets tossed aside for a sweaty dance party).  While I may play better to other songs, Jake once listed this on a “top ten pong playlist” song or something like that. I couldn’t agree more, not that I knew much about pong anyway at the time.  Even if it has literally no meaning to anyone else, I  needed a pong song or two on this list anyway. Oh well.

7. Can’t Start Partying, Weezer and Lil Wayne

Great song. You might say a legendary song.  The Lil Wayne part at the end being everyones favorite (and if it’s not it should be).  I don’t know how many times I heard this in the palace or Morgan basement that year. Probably not enough.  It even led Posey and Wheel to attempt a mediocre(ly awesome) dub that had to do with partying and showering. Ask them to perform it for you sometime. I just can’t do it justice.

8. Party in the USA, Miley Cyrus

I hated this song. Annoyed the shit out of me, but it just got in your head and stayed there. I also make no claims to understanding anything about music pre-Junior year of college.  It didn’t help quite a few people on the team picked it up.  And then it didn’t help when Braeden got back from Germany for spring break ’10 having never heard it before, then insisted hearing it at every opportunity, leading for it to be played constantly all over again.  Shout out to specifically Err on this one, and probably a few others who I can’t remember.   Whatever way you look at it, it needs to be on this list.

9. Yes, LMFAO

I needed to put LMFAO on this list, mostly because I pushed it so much at the start of my senior year, especially Party Rock Anthem.  But Yes needs to be the song on this list for a few reasons, it got played by Jive in three different reasons, for some reason it reminds me of Simon Peeman’s last day of High Tide 2011 (which makes it applicable in any case), and it was one of many pregame songs in Morgan basement.  It doesn’t really fit in any certain year, so I’m using it to round out the first part of this CD, representing Freshman and Sophmore year.

10. We R Who We R, Ke$ha

Few artists have ever captured Jive’s attention like k-e-dollar sign-ha, leading to a Godfeather team named after her, an appearance in Godfeather’s videos (by her music not the actual artist. Although someday….). I chose this song because its vintage ke$ha, poorly/awesomely written lyrics, great philosophical meaning, and something any Turkey can (pretend to, in my case) dance to. Again, like LMFAO, this artist and song have no specific year, mostly fitting somewhere within Sophmore and Junior year.

That’s it for part 1. Give me a week and I’ll try to get out part 2.  See you all at wildwood.