Songs From Your College Years
Tonic, Ben Harper, Caedmon's Call, and reminding an artist of his own lyrics
It's something unpredictable
But in the end, it's right
I hope you had the time of your life
—Good Riddance, Green Day
It’s graduation season, and that has us reminiscing about the soundtrack of our college years. There’s something about music—it has a superpower to transport us back to specific moments in time. This week, both our Bonus Track guest and curated song selections explore the theme of the music that shaped our college days.
We hope it reminds you of the music that shaped yours. Respond and tell us about your college days soundtrack. We love hearing from you!
Jonathan’s Pick: “If You Could Only See” by Tonic.
There were several bands that came through Central Mississippi quite often during my college years. Bands that didn’t have major tours but did have decent followings in the late ‘90s/early ’00s. During those years, I caught some major shows—like the Stones—but the ones that really stuck with me were groups like Better Than Ezra, Everclear, and Tonic. They were cheap shows in smaller venues where we were all packed in and loving it.
My pick today represents that time period. I’ve not heard much from Tonic in a couple of decades, but I might even get a chance to see them this summer and relive old times.
Ben’s Pick: “When She Believes” by Ben Harper
This album released during my college years. I remember a conversation with my brother about this song that still means a lot to me today. Ben Harper creates beauty, and the core message seems undeniable to me. I love phrases like wisest of widow and 100 violins crying. It was one of the first times I thought hard about the direct relationship between form and content, lyric and instrumentation.
Kody’s Pick: “Shifting Sand” by Caedmon’s Call
After reading the Bonus Track, I’ve been nostalgic all week, thinking back to my college days when I’d visit Derek Webb’s website, which had a theology web board where I’d visit to learn theology and get answers to life’s ultimate questions.
I discovered Derek first, and then found the band he was a part of before his solo career, named Caedmon’s Call.
Their song “Shifting Sand” was a close companion as I wrestled with several doubts during my sophomore year of college.
My faith is like shifting sand
Changed by every wave
My faith is like shifting sand
So I stand on grace
Bonus Track: Lyrics on a Stool—Reminding an Artist of His Own Words by Blake Spann
The year was 2001.
Caedmon's Call had released Long Line of Leavers, and the writing was on the wall that lead singer Derek Webb would soon depart for a solo career.
I was introduced to Caedmon's by Music Swaps' very own Ben Dockery, and we had broken down the lyrics to many tunes on the previous 40 Acres album (Table for Two, anyone? Can I get an amen?).
I met Christ through Young Life in my senior year of high school in the fall of 1999. Doc and his friends, Ray Pettigrew and Ben Bredow, introduced me to other artists like Bebo Norman, Waterdeep, and Andrew Petersson, to name a few. Coming from a completely secular music background, I learned quickly that my previous view of 'Christian' music was limited to my also limited view of the faith. And sometime during my freshman year of college, Caedmon's released Long Line of Leavers. For the first time in my friendship with these guys who were years ahead of me in the faith, we were listening to the same tracks in real time. I couldn't get enough of it. Derek was smitten with his newfound love Sandra McCracken, and I, well, I was a freshman in college, and his lyric mixture of faith and love was speaking my language:
'Cause love is different than you think
It's never in a song or on a TV screen
And love is harder than a word
Said at the right time and everything's alright
I said love is different than you think
Some of y'all are with me. And then Derek was writing letters to Sandra, and they're reading the Bible and making out (different song but you get the gist)...
Towards the end of that album, there was a song entitled Dance. And it wasn't about Sandra. It had its own story. For the background of the song, check out Derek Webb's The House Show (2004). And if it's been a while, spin the whole album. The conversation between songs has always been worth my time.
Let's be honest. Derek was always a bull in a China shop with 'Christian Music,' and some might argue that he's still trying to bully around in Christianity. That's an article for another day.
Let's Dance.
Derek wrote “Dance” for his grandmother, who was living in Memphis! And that is where I write to you from now.
Back to college, it was the fall of 2001, and I was then a sophomore at Middle Tennessee State University (Any Blue Raiders out there? No? Surprising.) Derek Webb was on a solo tour, coming to the metropolis of Murfreesboro, TN, to play at the Red Rose Cafe, a tiny cyber cafe near downtown Murfreesboro. It was Derek and about 35 of us packed into the small coffee shop. With a crowd that size, he asked the crowd if we had any requests. And since Dance hadn't been played, I worked up the courage to request it. He declined to play it, saying he didn't remember all the lyrics. Thankfully, we were in a cyber cafe with dial-up internet. My friend Landon Sessoms and I logged on to the interwebs and transcribed the lyrics onto notebook paper with a No. 2 pencil. In between the next song, Derek switched guitars, and while he was turned around, I snuck the lyrics onto his stool. When he turned around and saw the lyrics, he could only laugh and subsequently oblige our request. And the rest is history...
My name is Mary and I'm from Greenville, Mississippi
But this is where I live, here in this old folks' dormitory
Every Sunday night, Sarah comes to see us
And she plays that old upright
But Sarah always seems to leave us
When she plays, something comes over me
Goes from my head all the way to my feet
And I want to dance
I wanna snap my fingers all night long and Dance
I wanna move around the room just like a woman in a trance
All night, I wanna dance.
Keep it up, Music Swap! Keep writing down lyrics and being Sarah!
Blake Spann lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and works as the Director of Young Life College. He’s been married to Leslie for almost 20 years, and they have four kids. He recently published his first novel, EZRA AS A BOY.
Great story, Blake! Let us hear about the soundtrack of your college days. We always respond.
May all your favorite bands (including the ones from college) stay together!
-TheMusicSwap
BAM