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Springsteen, service and a sloe gin fizz

Traveling Grinnellians generate spring break listening lists of best toe-tapping tunes

Gina Tarullo '06 reminisces

1. "Thunder Road" - Bruce Springsteen

2. "Andrea" - Fabrizio d'Andre

3. "What Would Woody Do?" - Dana and Susan Robinson

4. "For Guy's Eyes Only" - Hockey Night

5. "Aspera" - Erin McKeown

1. Bruce Springsteen's the boss. Any song that includes the line "you ain't a beauty, but hey, you're alright" is music in my book. It reminds me of the time I saw the Bruce Springsteen cover band Bruce in the USA and pumped my fist with a room full of 40 year old men.?

2. My sister played this song for me over break. She wanted me to listen to it because it reminded her of a mutual friend of ours, Andrea, who we met in Italy.? He passed away earlier this semester and the song is really great to listen to because it sounds like it could have been written about him even though there's no way it was. It made me really sad and then it made me really happy.? It also made me really confused because it's in Italian.? It sounds like something you would hear on the street in Italy.? And he'll sing a line and then whisper the line, which is a creepy thing to do.

3. I heard this song at an open mike night near Harvard University.? It was written the couple that performed bluegrass songs together in the bar.? It was potentially the worst song I've heard in my entire life because it was about Woody Guthrie, who's really cool, but it was a really horrible song.? A totally uncool song.? Basically, I'll be making fun of that song for the rest of my life.?

4. I really like the song because of this one part where they count to nine in the middle of the song. It sounds like the counting they did on Sesame Street.? I saw the band over break in Chicago.? They played at Grinnell a couple of weeks before break.? After the show, I went up to one of the band members and said "I go to Grinnell" and he said "Oh really? We just played there a couple of weeks ago."? And I said, "Yea.? I know.? That's why I just told you that."? It was awkward.

- interview by Dale Mackey

Jeff Raderstrong '09 celebrates the South

1. "When the Levi Breaks" - Led Zeppelin

2. "All Shook Up" - The Jeff Beck Group

3. "Me and Bobby McGee" - Janice Joplin

4. "This Land is Your Land" - Woody Guthrie

5. "Born on the Bayou" - CCR

The New Orleans flavor of this track list is no coincidence. Spending a week of spring break gutting out houses in the flooded remnants of the Big Easy, Jeff Raderstrong '09 was bombarded with thoughts of these musical representations of New Orleans, America's South and American camaraderie. Led Zeppelin's tune particularly struck Raderstrong.

"In New Orleans, there's the Upper and Lower Ninth, so driving over the lower ninth you could see where the levy broke and I would just be listening to that song in my head. Raderstrong said, "You know, it's a really haunting song. It was kind of like a really good backdrop to what I was doing."

The remaining songs also played into Raderstrong's altruistic spring break endeavors, representing his revelries in the nation's Deep South.

"I always have a song playing in my head," He said. "It's the soundtrack of my life."

- Katie McMullen

Jake DeBower ?06 drinks to German sexbombs

1. "Sexbomb" - Tom Jones

2. "Coin-Operated Boy" - Dresden Dolls

3. "Steh auf, wenn du am Boden bist" - die Toten Hosen

4. "Travelin' Thru" - Dolly Parton

5. "Sorry" - Madonna.

By the looks of his spring break music, Jake DeBower aspires to be a German sexbomb. The Dresden Dolls include a Deutschestadt in their name, the Dead Pants are German, and even Madonna joined in the fun, whispering "Ich bin traurig," at the beginning of "Sorry." Debower's break, like his music, was eclectic, yet reasonable. DeBower took a two-week break from his teaching German Lab and weaving wild tales for fiction seminar to drink sloe gin fizzes with his sister. Inevitably though, he listened to songs that were incredibly catchy, by artists with catchy personalities. Though he spent some time during the break reflecting on feeling low, even the saddest songs he listened to were uplifting. He's headed back refreshed by sloe gin and long drives, ready to travel through graduation and to the real world.

- Emilia Garvey

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