Ye Olde Hit Parade: Song for the Dumped

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

1997: Ben Folds Five - Song for the Dumped

Just like life itself, these wrap-ups go by quick. In the first one, I was 10 going on 11. In this one, it was 1997 and I was 29 going on 30. And a whole lot happened that year, most of it good, at least from my vantage point.

It was a big year for news: Princess Diana died in a fiery car crash, both the Notorious B.I.G. and fashion designer Gianni Versace were murdered, South Park made its debut  and Seinfeld began its final season.

I started the year living in Salem, but I quickly grew tired of it. I liked having my own place, but it was a depressing basement apartment with tiny windows and I soon realized it was good to have someone to split the bills with. So when my lease was up in May, I moved in with a couple of buddies of mine in Beverly. It was a great situation: We were renting half a house in a nice neighborhood, I had a lot more room and it was way cheaper. This was also the year I started dating my future wife; we had met the year before at the gym, but didn't go on a date until early August. Things progressed slowly, but by the end of the year, we could both see a future together.

Work was going better and I got a good promotion halfway through the year. And then in the fall, I turned 30. I wasn't really dreading it and I decided the best way to celebrate was to throw a big party at my house. It was a rip-roarer and not the last one, since our softball team regularly ended up there after games...and we regularly had to deal with noise complaints from our neighbors. I feel bad now because I'm old and shit, but at the time, we were just idiots living in a neighborhood full of families. Now when there's noise in our neighborhood, I remember what a jackass I was 20+ years ago...and then I complain anyway (to myself).

The music scene was changing. Boy bands were popping up left and right, and female singer-songwriters were definitely having a resurgence. I started getting into funk and R&B a bit, listening to a lot of old James Brown, P-Funk, and '70s funk comps. But I still liked the rock. The indie scene was getting quirkier as grunge became a thing of the distant past. Among the shows I attended: Wilco, Matthew Sweet, Sebadoh, Soul Coughing, Rollins Band, The Muffs/Chixdiggit, Sloan and Gus Gus/Cornershop. Their first two albums didn't really click with me, but Radiohead's OK Computer really grabbed me in '97. I also got into new releases by Pavement, Foo Fighters, Guided By Voices, Chris Whitley, Morphine, Matthew Sweet, Rollins Band, Cheap Trick, Portishead and Cornershop.



But I'd say the song of the year for me was Ben Folds Five's "Song for the Dumped," which is kinda funny since it was the opposite of my relationship situation at the time. A few years earlier, hell yes. But this song was fun not just because of the lyrics, but musically, it was a fresh combination of banging piano, fuzz bass and drums. Just catchy as hell and a blast to listen to...especially if you weren't one of the dumped.

Honorable mentions: Radiohead - "Paranoid Android"; Radiohead - "Karma Police"; Ben Folds Five - "Battle of Who Could Care Less"; Pavement - "Stereo"; Pavement - "Old to Begin"; Foo Fighters - "Monkeywrench"; Foo Fighters - "Hey, Johnny Park!"; Guided By Voices - "Bulldog Skin"; Guided By Voices - "I am a Tree"; Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"; Morphine - "Early to Bed"; Rollins Band - "Starve"; Cornershop - "Brimful of Asha"; White Town - "Your Woman"; The Cardigans - "Lovefool"; Papas Fritas - "Hey Hey You Say"; Luscious Jackson - "Naked Eye"; Pigeonhed - "Battle Flag"; James Brown - "Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine"; James Brown - "Give It Up or Turn It a Loose"; Ohio Players - "Fire"; Parliament - "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)"; Parliament - "Bop Gun (Endangered Species)"