Govs Reunion 2012

Music

Kobi and I are supposed to put together a musical act for our 25th reunion at The Governor's Academy (formerly Governor Dummer Academy). Here's a list of possible tunes we'll perform:

Music from our time at high school

(alphabetical by artist)

Depeche Mode, People Are People

"Why should it be you and I should get along so awfully?"

Depeche Mode, Sometimes

Downtime song.

Echo and the Bunnymen, Lips Like Sugar

Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

If WBCN wasn't rocking this on my alarm radio in Perkins freshman year, I don't know whether I'd make it through breakfast.

Hall and Oates, One on One

Drum machine carries the beat.

Kate Bush, Running Up That Hill

Everybody else has covered it, why can't we?

Madonna

Queen of our pop

Michael Jackson

King of our pop

New Order, Blue Monday

Official dance club hit of our generation.

New Order, Every Little Counts

Essence of irony. Lonesome Tonight is another slow jam from NO.

Peter Gabriel, Don't Give Up

Denny Hannon '88 performed both sides of this duo; we won't make that mistake. Anything from So would go over well.

Sinéad O'Connor, Just Like U Said It Would B

Tears for Fears, Everybody Wants to Rule The World

Tears for Fears, Mad World

Tears for Fears, Pale Shelter

The Cure, In Between Days

Cheery, bet a lot of day-schoolers woke up to this on the way to Byfield.

The Cure, Just Like Heaven

Big hit at our college dance parties.

The Police, Every Breath You Take

What better breeding ground for casual stalkers than a boarding school? jk—not!

The Police, King of Pain

The Pretenders, Don't Get Me Wrong

Crossover between alternative types and mainstream listeners.

The Psychedelic Furs, Heartbreak Beat

The Smiths, Ask

"Shyness can stop you from performing the songs you'd like to."

The Smiths, How Soon Is Now?

Alt Anthem.

The Smiths, anything from The Queen Is Dead

U2, Pride (In the Name of Love)

U2, With or Without You

Mr. Robb performed this with a student band. Just one incident from a long list of embarrassing fraternization with the enemy.

Violent Femmes, Kiss Off

Drowned in teen angst all over the place, pretty easy to play. "They'll hurt me bad, but they do it all the time." "I hope you know that this will go down on your permanent record."

Violent Femmes, Please Please Please Don't Go

Other music

More bands with TGA/GDA sensitivity I would like covering include

• Aimee Mann
• Cocteau Twins
• The B52s
• Bob Marley
• Cake
• Coldplay
• The Flaming Lips
• Fleetwood Mac
• Garbage
• Joy Division
• Morrissey
• Natalie Merchant
• Neil Young
• No Doubt
• Pink Floyd
• Sade
• Siouxsie and the Banshees
• Smashing Pumpkins
• Weird Al Yankovic

Bands that don't fit that sensitivity—but who cares?—include

• Alicia Keys
• Aretha Franklin
• Björk
• Dinosaur Jr.
• Erasure
• James Brown
• Joni Mitchell
• King Missile
• Kraftwerk
• Lush
• The Muppets
• Prince
• Radiohead
• Stevie Wonder
• Tom Waits

kobi

• Acoustic guitar

Actually, I play bass. And I will sing, naturally, cause I don't think you do??? Don't remember.

So. I thought up the following list, there are a few overlaps with your list, Cure, Depeche Mode, Prince, but also some pop music, cause it is so recognizable and hysterical. I have tried to pick songs that were do-able on a synth with drum capacity because if I am singing, I could do without playing anything at all, and besides that's what the 80s was all about. Let me know what you think. I'd be happy to do just a couple. After all, it's not like they HIRED us or anything... I put an asterisk by ones I really like.

Peter Gabriel • Sledgehammer • Red Rain • Shock the Monkey*/ Depeche Mode • Everything Counts • Flies on the Windscreen*/ Till Tuesday - Voices Carry/ Human League - Don’t You Want Me*/ Violent Femmes • Please Please Please Don't Go • Gone Daddy Gone/ Hall & Oates • Kiss on my List • Rich Girl* • One on One/ Sade • Sweedish Baboon • Smooth Operator*/ Eurythmics • Sweet Dreams • Love is a stranger*/ Cure • Love Cats* • Head on the Door/ Police - Wrapped around your finger*/ Eddie Grant - Electric Avenue/ Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now/ U2 - MLK*/ Tears for Fears - Shout/ Cars - Drive/ Lionel Ritchie - Hello/ Billy Idol - Dancing With mYself/ Simple Minds - Don’t you Forget About me*/ The Fixx • One thing leads to another • Saved by zero*/ Prince • When U Were Mine • When Doves Cry*/ Aha – Take on Me/ Maybe even that silly Red Red Wine song...

sreeves

I wouldn't be ashamed to rock a 505, the Gov's 707 probably not still available. Here's what I can bring if necessary:

• V-Drums
• Electric bass + amp
• Electric guitar
• PA + 2 mics
• Prophet 2000 sampling keyboard
• Ensoniq synth