The Friday Playlist: Back to school

Here’s a playlist of songs vaguely connected with school, because it’s that time of year, and there just aren’t enough songs about Papal visits, except “Papal Visit” by The Fall, and that’s almost unlistenable, and it’s probably got nothing to do with Papal visits in any case.

Click here to listen to the playlist on Spotify (free, painless and not-at-all spammy registration required)

Here’s the tracklist.

Steely Dan – My Old School
Notable for being the only song in the popular music canon to feature the word “oleanders”.

Minutemen – History Lesson
I never liked History at school. I remember being sent out of the class for laughing when the teacher said “cock fighting”. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re laughing about,” she said, as I left the classroom, laughing.

Everything Everything – Schoolin’
My favourite record of the moment. Enough bits in it to make another three songs and still have enough left over for pudding.

Slim Gaillard – School Kids’ Hop (01-?-46)
All of Gaillard’s songs sound exactly the same, but I’m only putting one song in the playlist, so that makes it OK, I think.

Elvis Costello – Secondary Modern
“This must be the place / second place in the human race / down in the basement / now I know what he meant”. I don’t know what Elvis meant.

The Cure – Primary
Very little to do with primary schools, this song was one I played incessantly while at secondary school. Life’s full of such non-coincidences.

Joni Mitchell – Lesson In Survival
I’d have preferred to put something off “Court And Spark” on here, really, but you can’t shoehorn “Free Man In Paris” into a playlist about schools.

Eek-A-Mouse – Schoolboy
“Biddle-a-dong-deng biddle-ding-ding ding-dong-deng bong-deng-diddle-a-hoy” sums up the attitude of many children who are reluctantly returning to school after the summer break.

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – Ink Mathematics
Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, was famous for never having gone to school, instead sculpting in his room while his parents pushed food under the door. This, I feel, is often reflected in his work.

Phoenix – School’s Rules
A fading out instrumental to conclude proceedings. Think of it like the bell ringing for hometime.

(Photo: Circa 1935: A row of cornet players from the Licensed Victuallers School, Slough. Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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