What if No One's Watching?

We don't always get to pick the soundtrack when we're having a haunting adolescent moment, but if you could choose the soundtrack to your life, what would be playing?

There are two solid approaches to this. First, you could list the songs that were actually playing during big moments of your life--your first slow dance with your high school crush, the song you played with your college roommates when you were getting ready to hit the town. You could tell us about the first record or CD you bought with your own money, or mention the albums that you wore out from constant play.

Or perhaps a combination of the two...

Scene 1: I am born and am a baby.
Song: "Started Out Fine," Holly Near (off the impossible to find 1975 Redwood Records "A Live Album," my mother's copy of which is completely worn out)

Scene 2: I am a small child.
Song: "Elvira," The Oak Ridge Boys (which I loved to sing, particularly the "Oompapa" part)

Scene 3: I am shuttled between my mom and my dad on weekends, on long car trips with my stepmother and stepsister.
Song: "Can't Fight This Feeling," REO Speedwagon (one of many songs I remember clearly from the car radio in those days)

Scene 4: I go to school.
Song: "I Think We're Alone Now," Tiffany (which was often song on the playground by group of roving girls--I kid you not)

Scene 5: I attend my first middle school dance.
Song: "Wind of Change," Scorpions (mixing the romantic with the political since 1991!)

Scene 6: I become a sulky adolescent and have an even sulkier burgeoning sexuality.
Song: "Something I Can Never Have," Nine Inch Nails (this is the funniest part to me now, honestly, but at the time it. was. not. funny.)

Scene 7: I "fall in love" for the first time.
Song: "The Sunmaid," Soul Asylum (ok, this is getting embarrassing...)

Scene 8: I am crushed by the death of Kurt Cobain and continue feeling angsty.
Song: "The Man Who Sold The World," Nirvana (bad poetry should be written and subsequently burned during this scene)

Scene 9: I drive around with Scand and feel free.
Song: "You Oughta Know," Alanis Morissette (one of the happiest memories ever)

Scene 10: I graduate from high school.
Song: "Joy to the World," Three Dog Night (yes, I really walked out to this at my graduation)

Scene 11: I start college.
Song: "Little Plastic Castle," Ani DiFranco (over and over and over again...)

Scene 12: I fall in love for the first time for real.
Song: "Insane in the Brain," Cypress Hill (odd choice, I know, but you're just going to have to trust me--it's this or ICP)

Scene 13: I hang out with my college group.
Song: "Mao Tse Tung Said," A3 (oh! so big with the radical politics AND the new musical genre! I have to mention that this was BEFORE A3 was made famous by The Sopranos)

Scene 14: I fall out of love and into it again, and find levels of angst at 20 that my teenage self would not have believed.
Song: "Protection," Massive Attack (this is one of my Top 5 favorite songs ever, still)

Scene 15: I graduate from college and start to freak out about being an adult.
Song: "New Tricks," Mary Prankster (nobody does this life stage better than Mary Prankster)

Scene 16: Mark and I move to Texas.
Song: "The Last Cowboy Song," Highwaymen (worth watching the video just for Willie's mullet)

I guess that just about gets me up to date...