6) Harajuku, “I Dreamed A Dream” – Vanderbilt vs Mississippi State, Memorial Gym, February 1996.<\/p>\n
This tape (yes, a Japanese DJ’s techno mixes of Broadway songs. I’m 100% straight) was in my Walkman on Senior Night for basketball. \u00a0I was up in one of the high balconies at Memorial watching warmups, and the Vandy team was running off the court just as the last line finished. “Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.” \u00a0That was the other moment at which I had the overwhelming premonition that I was never going to make it at Vanderbilt (the first, of course, being the “I’m never going to see what’s on the other side of that hill” moment on the first day I arrived). \u00a0So\u2026yeah.<\/p>\n
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5) Sean Kingston, “Fire Burning” – Vanderbilt at St Mary’s, Moraga CA, November 2009<\/p>\n
“Somebody call 9-1-1, shorty fire burnin’ on the dance floor\u2026” Another bit of Top 40 pap to play pre-game in the bandbox gym up at St Mary’s, where the Vanderbilt faithful of the Bay Area had assembled to watch the Dores in the stopover game on their way to the Maui Classic for Thanksgiving. \u00a0John Jenkins gave a good account of himself in his freshman campaign, and AJ Ogilvy went all-out against a Gaels team chock-full of his fellow Aussies, but the night belonged to three players: Andre Walker, the consumate glue-guy and point-forward, Jermaine “Dolla” Beal, the swagger-ific point\/lead guard, and Jeffery Taylor, who was the deadliest 44 in the Bay Area since Dirty Harry hung up his Magnum. \u00a0You can still find the highlight reel of all Taylor’s dunks that night on YouTube. \u00a0And for all that, we still barely escaped with a 2-point win.<\/p>\n
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4) Led Zepplin, “Good Times Bad Times” – Vanderbilt vs DePaul, December 2007<\/p>\n
Just back from abroad, thoroughly depressed by being back in-country and back to my horrific job situation – but “Mothership,” the new Led Zep collection, was out on iTunes. \u00a0And I was playing it while watching Vandy-DePaul\u2026and we came back from down twelve at halftime, down eighteen 4 minutes into the second half, and down eight in the last two minutes to force overtime. And won by six. \u00a0And of course, I was playing one song on a loop – which became the theme the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
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3) Dexy’s Midnight Runners, “Jackie Wilson Said” – Vanderbilt vs South Carolina, Vanderbilt Stadium, September 2008<\/p>\n
Thursday night game on ESPN. \u00a0Home opener, with the Vandy freshmen all charging out of the inflatable helmet on the open side of the stadium to run down and across the field to the new student section at the other end. \u00a0Very nearly a perfect game – penalties and turnovers almost non-existent, Captain Munnerlyn held in check for the Gamecocks, and Justin Hawkins as the Vanilla Hammer of Thor, banging out the tough yards on the ground to run out the clock. \u00a0Sure it was a win, but it was the second straight victory over South Carolina – which meant that Vanderbilt now had back-to-back scoreboard on Steve Spurrier, who famously spent so many years badmouthing the Commodores when he had Florida to play with. \u00a0The first win of what would ultimately be a season for the ages.<\/p>\n
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2) M.I.A., “Paper Planes” – Vanderbilt Football, September-December 2008<\/p>\n
This came up when somebody at Vandy posted a public Facebook event for the opening weekend of school called “NO ONE ON THE CORNER HAS SWAGGER LIKE US – Should Be A Shitshow Actually.” \u00a0For some reason this tickled my funnybone, and I had some vague sense that the lyric was from that song that sampled the Clash’s “Straight To Hell,” so I got it. \u00a0And it stuck. \u00a0The chorus with those four gunshots, the hammer cocking for the fifth, and then the cash register sound – well, that was the six wins, right? \u00a0The four we usually got, the fifth to get ready, and the sixth for paydirt and bowl eligibility. \u00a0I banged that song day in and day out for three months, until we finally knocked off Kentucky – in Lexington! – behind DJ Moore’s two touchdown catches on offense and two picks on defense. \u00a0And you can still find the lyrics in my post from the Music City Bowl…<\/p>\n
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1) Primal Scream, “Country Girl” – Vanderbilt vs Tennessee, Pete’s Tavern, San Francisco CA, February 2008<\/p>\n
Tennessee was ranked #1 in the county – had just reached #1 the day before – and the great and the good of Team Commodore in San Francisco were all at Pete’s for the big matchup. \u00a0I started off on Maker’s Mark, and the team was going great guns. \u00a0Then I switched to Guinness, to save my liver and retain some function\u2026and we swooned. \u00a0My duty was clear. \u00a0Straight whiskey the rest of the night. \u00a0I was to’ up from the flo’ up, make no mistake\u2026but we won. \u00a0We took down our archrival and ruined their #1 ranking. \u00a0And for some reason, I played “Country Girl” on a loop about fifteen times all the way home. \u00a0Da Wife is surpassing<\/em> tolerant.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I’d really like to have another song in this post in a couple days…<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 6) Harajuku, “I Dreamed A Dream” – Vanderbilt vs Mississippi State, Memorial Gym, February 1996. This tape (yes, a Japanese DJ’s techno mixes of Broadway songs. I’m 100% straight) was in my Walkman on Senior Night for basketball. \u00a0I was up in one of the high balconies at Memorial watching warmups, and the Vandy team … <\/p>\n