I turned 40 today. I’m ambivalent about getting older. It’s certainly better than the alternative. Plus, each year of my life has exposed me to more great music. As a birthday gift to myself, I created a playlist with 41 songs, one for each year I’ve been alive. You can listen here.
1981: “Fire on the Mountain,” Grateful Dead (Dead Set)
I used to sing this song as a toddler.
1982: “Johnny 99,” Bruce Springsteen (Nebraska)
I once made the mistake of mixing Tanqueray and wine. Thanks Bruce.
1983: “Blister in the Sun,” Violent Femmes (Violent Femmes)
My cousin Otis introduced me to this band when I was maybe 8 or 9. We called them “the weird guys.”
1984: “Purple Rain,” Prince (Purple Rain)
I didn’t like Prince as a kid. I was wrong.
1985: “Blind Love,” Tom Waits (Rain Dogs)
Some say that Tom Waits is an acquired taste. But they also say that about whiskey and spice. Somewhere between four and forty I acquired.
1986: “Graceland,” Paul Simon (Graceland)
This was on a mixtape that I listened to with Spencer, Seth, Gracie, Kate, and Olivia while riding trains around France in the summer of 1996.
1987: “Night Train,” Guns n Roses (Appetite for Destruction)
My brother listened to a lot of GNR when we were kids. At one point, I thought this album was “Appetite for Hunger.”
1988: “Devil’s Right Hand,” Steve Earle (Copperhead Road)
An anti-gun song from a gateway album that turned me on to country music.
1989: “Love Song,” The Cure (Disintegration)
We play this one with the band.
1990: “Jealous Again,” The Black Crows (Shake Your Money Maker)
The Black Crows rock, especially when they play Zeppelin songs with Jimmy Page.
1991: “Ultra Violet (Light My Way),” U2 (Achtung Baby)
My favorite album as a ten year old.
1992: “Scarlet Begonias,” Sublime (40 Oz to Freedom)
I enjoyed the Dead’s version with my Dad’s friends, and this version with my friends. Both are Sublime, although only the latter is performed by them.
1993: “A Murder of One,” Counting Crows (August and Everything After)
The Counting Crows were my Nirvana. My 11-year-old ears preferred Adam Duritz’s sincere and gentle arrangements to Cobain’s distortion and irony.
1994: “Lover You Should Have Come Over,” Jeff Buckley (Grace)
Nick introduced me to Jeff Buckley during our first week in college.
1995: “Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart,” Whiskeytown
Ryan Adams: terrific songwriter, terrible person.
1996: “Where It’s At,” Beck (Odelay)
If the radio in the late 90s played more Beck and less Limp Biskit, I might have kept listening to it.
1997: “Paranoid Android,” Radiohead (OK Computer)
In college I conducted a survey in which I asked other students to nominate the “best album of our generation.” Ok Computer won.
1998: “Spottieottiedopalicious,” Outkast (Aquemeni)
Outkast was everywhere when I lived in Atlanta in the early 2000s. They turned me onto hip hop.
1999: “The Woman in You,” Ben Harper & The Innocent Crimals (Burn to Shine)
This album was the soundtrack of my senior year in high school.
2000: “Pandy Fackler,” Ween (White Pepper)
I used to drive my poor sister to middle school while blasting a Ween cassette tape in a rust-blue 1983 Volvo station wagon.
2001: “Hotel Yorba,” White Stripes (White Blood Cells)
Who needs a bass guitar?
2002: “Do You Realize” Flaming Lips (Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots)
I read that this is the official rock song of Oklahoma. Well done sooner state.
2003: “Marry Me,” Drive-by Truckers (Decoration Day)
Not how I proposed, but a damn fine song.
2004: “The Good Times Are Killing Me,” Modest Mouse (Good News for People Who Love Bad News)
Senior year in college. I’m glad the good times didn’t kill me.
2005: “Your Little Hoodrat Friend,” The Hold Steady (Separation Sunday)
I’ve never been dusted in the dark in Penetration Park, nor have I slept with your little hoodrat friend, but the Hold Steady made me feel like part of the scene where this sort of thing happened.
2006: “You Know I’m No Good,” Amy Winehouse (Back to Black)
Amy, you left us too soon.
2007: “Electric Feel,” MGMT (Oracular Spectacular)
I hated MGMT when I first heard them. It didn’t last.
2008: “Heads Roll Off,” Frightened Rabbit (The Midnight Organ Fight)
I played an open mic at Glasgow after a dude who sang nothing but Frightened Rabbit songs.
2009: “Old White Lincoln,” The Gaslight Anthem (The ‘59 Sound)
The Gaslight Anthem sound like Bruce Springsteen with a punk band. Alongside the Heartless Bastards, they played one of the best shows I saw before I left Colorado.
2010: “Everlasting Light,” The Black Keys (Brothers)
I remember listening to this song running on the beach while visiting my grandparents in Florida.
2011: “I Don’t Want Love,” The Antlers (Burst Apart)
This one reminds me of walking the Navigli on a foggy winter night.
2012: “Runaways,” The Killers (Battle Born)
The Killers are best when they try to sound like Springsteen, and they never tried harder than on this tune.
2013: “You’re Not Good Enough,” Blood Orange (Cupid Deluxe)
I use to listen to this song on the way to first-Fridays in Bryan, the one night a month that Brazos County, Texas felt Bohemian.
2014: “Good Intentions,” Robert Ellis (The Lights From the Chemical Plant)
Robert Ellis is one of two artists who Nooshin is excited to see perform (the other is Jason Isbell).
2015: “Dunes,” Alabama Shakes (Sound & Color)
I remember listening to this album on a trip to San Diego just after I signed my contract to come to the University of Arizona.
2016: “Wildfire,” Mandolin Orange (Blindfaller)
My siblings love this song (as do I). This pick’s for Nate and Hannah.
2017: “Pure Desire,” Sheer Mag (Need to Feel Your Love)
I remember listening to this song while biking the Urban Assault trail.
2018: “Love It If We Made It,” The 1975 (A Brief History Into Online Relationships)
One of the few new(ish) songs we play with the band.
2019: “Venice Bitch,” Lana Del Rey (Norman Fucking Rockwell!)
NFR! was when I realized that Lana is not a guilty pleasure but a national treasure.
2020: “The Steps,” Haim (Women in Music Pt. III)
I spent a good chunk of Covid summer listening to Haim while floating in the pool with Lily, four barbies, and a naughty pilgrim.
2021: “I Don’t Live Here Anymore,” The War on Drugs (I Don’t Live Here Anymore)
A fitting song for reminiscing about my first forty years. Here’s to 40 more!
Addendum:
2022: “All the Good Times,” Angel Olsen (Big Time)
This song helped me get through a difficult year: “so long farewell, this is the end. I’ll always remember you just as a friend.”