Songs About School/ Childhood

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I'm trying to compile a mix-CD themed arounf (English) schooldays as a birthday present for a friend. So far it includes songs by Sudden Sway, Mark Wirtz, Plone, The Clangers, Saint Etienne, but, unless I think of some more some time soon, will also have to have Tommy/ Pink Floyd etc. Quick - save me!

― Tom August, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 08:53 (twenty years ago)

Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 08:59 (twenty years ago)

Gilbert O'Sullivan - We Will

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 08:59 (twenty years ago)

Kinks - Do You Remember Walter

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:00 (twenty years ago)

The Smiths - "Headmaster Ritual" ?

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:03 (twenty years ago)

Lemonheads - Rockin' Stroll (about being a baby in a buggy)
Husker Du - Flexible flyer (the best song about sledging, evah)
Undertones - Teenage Kicks (!)

― bg (creamolafoam), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:06 (twenty years ago)

I believe the original poster specified "English."

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:08 (twenty years ago)

which admittedly might rule out Our Gilbert, but would also exclude "Little Boy in Corduroy" by Donovan, which clearly we cannot.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:09 (twenty years ago)

Remember a Day - Pink Floyd
Celebrate Summer - T.Rex

― pinky, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:11 (twenty years ago)

pink floyd - matilda mother

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:11 (twenty years ago)

There is also that one I can't bring myself to nominate wherein the children's chorus insists that they are not in need of education.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:12 (twenty years ago)

"Celebrate Summer" was Bolan's final single - "Summer is heaven in '77!"

Oh yes - "School Love" by Barry Blue.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:13 (twenty years ago)

Black Box Recorder "The School Song"

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:16 (twenty years ago)

Oh, We Will is a lovely, lovely choice. Thanks. I suppose there's Cat Stevens's Remember The Days Of The Old School Yard which I've always had a soft spot for. Others: Duncan Browne's Alfred Bell - very sad, Eleanor Rigby-esque song about a schoolteacher getting old; and loosely - John Cameron's soundtrack to Kes.
Pure speculation but now that everybody seems to grows up so quickly, and so many companies are trying to sell commodity-adulthood to young people, and teachers are forced to tailor their syllabi to vocational/ National-Curriculum ends, is it getting harder for musicians to invest the school pop song with the kind of reverie/ prelapsarian bliss that I most crave?

― Tom August, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:17 (twenty years ago)

I think Saint Etienne have done a pretty good job of that on their children's songs album, but then they are a special case.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:19 (twenty years ago)

I agree. I like Barnyard Brouhaha - very Raymond Scott. And Bedfordshire is lovely. Another - sort of: Cornelius Cardew, We Sing For The Future

― Tom August, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:21 (twenty years ago)

These also appear to be about English childhood to varying degrees, no?

Madness - "Baggy Trousers"
Dream Academy - "Life In A Northern Town"
Denim - "It Fell Off the Back Of A Lorry"

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:22 (twenty years ago)

Am listening to Life In a northern Town on my computer right now; you're right!

― Tom August, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:26 (twenty years ago)

I'll tell you a good one - "Song Of Spring" by Mike Westbrook off his Glad Day album of Blake settings. Lovely use of the children's choir and four electric guitars sounding like one very subdued guitar.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:32 (twenty years ago)

Also, "You're A Lady" by Peter Skellern, which strictly speaking is about a tongue-tied would-be suitor, but with the brass band and the "You're the teacher/I've come to school" refrain it manages to be evocative of more innocent times.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:33 (twenty years ago)

Mike Westbrook? I don't know his work at all, I'm afraid. Just looked on Amazon - they don't have that album, but they do have one called Metropolis which sounds very interesting: would you recommend that too?

― Tom August, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:37 (twenty years ago)

I guess most BBC Radiophonic Workshop material would be apt too.

― Tom August, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:40 (twenty years ago)

Metropolis is unhinged and great, but I fear not very pastoral or childlike.

Essentially it is two bands - one free improv, the other jazz/funk/rock - playing at the same time and trying to drown each other out. Bit like Sun Ra vs Mike Flowers Pops, although there are also some gorgeous ballad sequences.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:43 (twenty years ago)

Actually, Westbrook's Love Songs has lately been reissued on CD (about bloody time!) and there's a fantastic bit of pastoral psychedelic jazz on there called "Magic Garden" which I think would work v. well in your mix.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:44 (twenty years ago)

"Bit like Sun Ra vs Mike Flowers Pops": gosh - very intriguing. Will get that - and Love Songs - today.

― Tom August, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 09:46 (twenty years ago)

Radiohead - Bishop's Robes

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 10:00 (twenty years ago)

Wombles - Wellington Goes To Waterloo (charming little Saint Etienne-ish proto-indie number, and obv Waterloo is the train station not the battlefield)

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 10:03 (twenty years ago)

Lots of Television Personalities songs seem to be build around distinctly English childhood themes: "Bright Sunny Smiles," "Arthur the Gardener," "Games For Boys," "Mummy Your Not Watching Me," etc. Lots of shuddersome undertones though...

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 10:04 (twenty years ago)

Yes, especially the And Don't The Kids Just Love It album, I guess.
A side question: does dance music 'do' childhood?

― Tom August, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 10:11 (twenty years ago)

"Sesame's Treet" by the Smart E's?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

white stripes- We're Going To Be Friends

― t0dd swiss (immobilisme), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

Ghostface Killah, "Child's Play"

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 14:11 (twenty years ago)

Lulu - To Sir With Love
Monochrome Set - Straits of Malacca (albeit a bit, erm, sordid)

― Jez (Jez), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

The Police - Dont Stand So Close To Me

― white boi, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)

Keith West - ...Teenage Opera (substitute that for the Monochrome Set)

The Seekers - Georgy Girl (don't know why, but it seems to fit the bill)

― Jez (Jez), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Itchycoo Park

― Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

The Who - I'm a Boy
Jacky - White Horses (well, it always reminds me of being a kid)

― Jez (Jez), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 14:29 (twenty years ago)

Beat Happening - That Girl, Our Secret, TV Girl, etc

― Boring Satanic Space Jazz (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 14:45 (twenty years ago)

Saturday Girl - Billy Bragg

― wtin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

Hanoi Rocks - 11th Street Kids

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 15:43 (twenty years ago)

Hefner - Peppermint Taste
there's a bunch more there but that's my favorite

― caspar (caspar), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 15:58 (twenty years ago)

Belle and Sebastian: Stars of Track and Field (Scots yeh)
Billy Bragg: Lover's Town (I only have this as a peel session, I am not sure if it exists in another form)
The Fall: The Classical

― fakenose, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 18:17 (twenty years ago)

I thought The Classical was about an advertising agency

― Boring Satanic Space Jazz (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

The Darkness - Friday Night

― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

Billy Bragg song is The Saturday Boy not Saturday Girl. Soz.

― wtin, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

Auteurs - The Rubettes
Auteurs - How I Learbed to Love the Bootboys
Auteurs - Your Gang, Our Gang
Auteurs - School
Black Box Recorder - Child Psychology
Black Box Recorder - Andrew Ridgeley
Black Box Recorder - The Facts of Life
Brazil - School Daze
Eric Burdon - When I Was Young
Buzzcocks - Noise Annoys
The Clash - 1-2-Crush on You
The Clash - Stay Free
Stiff Little Fingers - At the Edge

― Ben Dot (1977), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 21:39 (twenty years ago)

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - "Merched Ya Neod Gwalt Eu Gilydd" & "Spanish Dance Troupe"

Super Furry Animals - "The Teacher"

― Steve Gertz (sgertz), Thursday, 28 July 2005 00:43 (twenty years ago)

the entirety of the kinks' schoolboys in disgrace. with a special nod to "jack the idiot dunce."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 28 July 2005 02:55 (twenty years ago)

pet shop boys - hey headmaster.
new order - true faith.

― retroman, Thursday, 28 July 2005 03:04 (twenty years ago)

Billy Bragg: Lover's Town (I only have this as a peel session, I am not sure if it exists in another form)

...only if you count Lovers Town Revisited, which you shouldnae, because it is Nowhere Near As Good.

But from that same artist: The Saturday Boy, To Have And To Have Not, and maybe Scholarship Is The Enemy Of Romance and Qualifications.

Plus there's an obvious Alice Cooper cashcow.

― A.C.M.E. (A.C.M.E.), Friday, 29 July 2005 01:17 (twenty years ago)

deep red bells by neko case "looks a lot like engine oil and tastes like being poor and small and popsicles... in summer..."

― gem (trisk), Friday, 29 July 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

Not ENGLISH, though, is it?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 29 July 2005 05:24 (twenty years ago)

no it isn't i beg your pardon. clearly i read the selection criteria in a bit of a slapdash fashion. my apologies.

― gem (trisk), Friday, 29 July 2005 05:28 (twenty years ago)

Back in school we used-to-dream-a-bout-this-ev-ry-dayeeeee
Could it really happen? Or do dreams just fade awayeeee yeah?
Then we started to si-gin-a-blayz anytime scoob (???)
And we started a group and here we are, kickin it just for YOOOUUUU OH!

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 29 July 2005 05:29 (twenty years ago)

sixteen years pass...

I came up with these.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 14 October 2021 00:55 (four years ago)

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