Isn’t it Ironic?
After work tonight, I headed to Perkin’s with Steve for a bite to eat and a bit of pretty great conversation. Steve is a couple of years younger than I am, but we both went to high school and graduated in the late 90’s. Tonight’s conversation, and many of the ones we have, was about music. It all spawned from the Musak at Perkin’s playing the song, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.
…And I said "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"
She said, "I think I remember the film,
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it."
And I said, "Well, that’s the one thing we've got…"
The conversation went on and on about the classic songs of our high school years and how a specific genre for the music was hard to define. It wasn’t rock, pop, grunge, or true alternative. It was a cheesy combination of all of the above and we started rattling off the songs we remembered the most, the memories tied to each, and what albums we had.
During these years, the boy bands scene exploded. Britney Spears was just getting big and the Spice Girls were still the rave. Hanson had the hit, “Um-Bop,” plaguing the airways and yes, even the Macarena was a #1. Livin’ La Vida Loca was a craze and even I was a closet N’Sync fan.
One of the albums we started talking about was, “Jagged Little Pill” by Alanis Morrisette. I remember this album coming out during my Junior year of high school and it was all the craze. Steve has memories of the song, “Head Over Feet” (which I still like a bit) and an ex-girlfriend. We joked about how un-ironic the song, “Ironic” truly is.
We kept chatting about songs. We talked about “Tubthumping,” “Wannabe,” “The Freshmen,” “Foolish Games,” “I Want it that Way,” “Baby One More Time,” “Come and Ride It,” and “Never There.” Albums like “Sixteen Stone,” and “Sublime” were brought up.
Right as we were getting ready to leave, I heard the beginning of a song on Musak and I had to stop and smile. I looked at Steve, waiting for the moment of recognition to hit his face. Then the line, in that soft voice, “An old man turned ninety-eight,” and Steve broke into the smile. We got quite a good chuckle out of it as we walked out of the restaurant. As we walked to our cars, we could be found quoting the lyrics back and forth to each other, as if it were a real conversation.
When I got home, I created a late 90’s playlist on my computer. Itunes will do smart playlists and I just plugged in a series of dates for it to look for songs. I leave you with a sampling of song titles and the lyrics to “Ironic,” which never truly defined irony.
High School Playlist (alphabetized by artist first name, if artist is not listed, it is the prior artist):
The Sign – Ace of Base
You Oughta Know – Alanis Morrisette
Hand in My Pocket
You Learn
Head Over Feet
Ironic
I Want it That Way – Backstreet Boys
Everything Zen – Bush
Comedown
Testosterone
Glycerine
Never There – Cake
Believe – Cher
(1,2,3,4) Sumpin’ New – Coolio
Gangsta’s Paradise
Jenny Says – Cowboy Mouth
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Deep Blue Something
Counting Blue Cars – Dishwalla
I Love You Always Forever – Donna Lewis
Barely Breathing – Duncan Shiek
I Will Buy You a New Life – Everclear
Iris – Goo Goo Dolls
Who Will Save Your Soul – Jewel
Foolish Games
One of Us – Joan Osborne
One Sweet Day – Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men
3 A.M. – Matchbox Twenty
Push
The Impression that I Get – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
You Get What You Give – New Radicals
Spiderwebs – No Doubt
Livin’ La Vida Loca – Ricky Martin
I Want You – Savage Garden
Closing Time – Semisonic
Wannabe – Spice Girls
Santeria – Sublime
Nobody Knows – Tony Rich Project
The Freshmen – The Verve Pipe
Your Woman – White Town
Ironic
Alanis Morrisette
An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic ... don't you think
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought ... it figures
Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
'Well isn't this nice...'
And isn't it ironic ... don't you think
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought ... it figures
Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face
It's a traffic jam when you're already late
It's a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn't it ironic... don't you think
A little too ironic... and yeah I really do think...
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought ... it figures
Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out
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