10 Songs To Listen To At Your Graduation

May. 24, 2011

By Ryan O'Connell info

I write and edit Thought Catalog. I'm a brat. Send me fun things at ryan@thoughtcatalog.com

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6. “Nights Of The Living Dead” by Tilly and the Wall

My friends and I saw Tilly and the Wall in concert the night we graduated high school. The whole show was sort of bizarre. I witnesed George Clinton stumble out of the V.I.P. room in a reefer haze, and I asked Jason Schwartzman what his favorite ice cream flavor was. The real highlight, however, was seeing the band perform “Nights Of The Living Dead”, which was the ultimate ode to living in a teenage wasteland. I still get chills when I hear lyrics like, “The high school kids are all fucked up, touching each other oh my god” and then I get sad because I can’t relate to any of it anymore.

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  • http://twitter.com/pillowfort Jonah Matthews

    less pages next time please

  • dorothytortoise

    so.. what is Jason Schwartzman's favy ice cream flavour?

  • SD

    less awful songs next time please

  • CC

    These are all so perfect and yes, Third Eye Blind's debut album is completely brilliant.

  • Joffré Leroux

    You might want to check the “Best before” date on that list of songs there.

  • Matt Dekneef

    Brought a tear to my 3EB eye. Also, for your consideration: Smashing Pumpkins “1979″.

  • ghostboy2112

    Ooh, you totally forgot 'Chasing Cars' by Imogen Heap. From The OC's EPIC Graduation! #tearz #marissaaaaa

  • Billy Joe

    The idea of Green Day's “Good Riddance” being used as a graduation song is so preposterous. My graduating class walked out to it and it was ridiculous. The song is not intended the way you described, but merely as a jab at their dissenting fans.

    Green day was going through a change, a musical development and were becoming a bit softer. Their lyrics and music were becoming more refined. That song is basically a big “F U” to the die hard  Green Day fans that were giving them flak about becoming soft.

    • Allison

      hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    • pulpblood

      wait what?

    • Lux

      Bullshit. Billie Joe wrote it about a girl who was moving away from him…I can't remember the name and I'm too lazy to google it but I think she was moving to Carolina or somewhere. They already had a lot of softer songs before Good Riddance, and in fact they hadn't become 'softer' just more polished because they had an actual record deal. Sux2bu.

  • Rivera Diana 04

    i heard number 8 in my sophmore yr english class….i cried…i still get teary eyed. i love that song =]

  • Poob Smoad Attorney at Law

    Not that I want to discourage free expression, but I think at my own college graduation I'd be prone to avoiding songs I'd already been forced to listen to at my high school graduation.

  • http://twitter.com/no_cazador hunter ray

    Here's to the Night was my fucking graduation song -_-

    • DARKSTAR

      Mine too…

  • Amy

    The Tilly & The Wall song still gives me chills.

  • Stevie nix

    my graduation song (I graduated high school june 2010) was In My Life by The Beatles.
    All other graduation songs are invalid.

    • ~guest~

      2010, you don't count as a real human

  • Nigerian_prince

    Bullshit article.

  • Mish

    Wait… Ryan! What about sarah mclachlan's “I Will Remember You”?

  • Tiny

    LOVE this — but as an FYI, the Baz Luhrman “Wear Sunscreen” bit is actually originally from this:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/…

  • Kristy

    Omg stop!!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/sophiakiona Sophia Anderson

    I was going to comment with the ridiculous song that my classmates chose as our graduation song, but I actually can't remember the title or the band, just that it was awful. Some guy's band played a ska cover of it during the ceremony. It was all pretty embarassing.

  • http://twitter.com/melvinismad Melvin Alvarez

    Weird but after my graduation last Saturday, they suddenly played Party Rock Anthem! :D

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steven-Timberman/922794 Steven Timberman

    That Tilly song feels like a perfect soundtrack to a life I didn't know I had lived.

    If that makes any sense.

  • http://twitter.com/benhRjr ben Raifsnider, jr.

    our class (of 2000) had a list of 4 songs to vote on. i nominated The Dance by Garth Brooks because i had a huge crush on GB, but it only got 1 vote (mine). also on the list was California Love by Tupac (still not sure why) there was another rap song i don't remember, but the winner was Count On Me from Waiting To Exhale. yeah, i went to that high school.

  • zoe

    graduating from high school tomorrow night EEK BIG WIDE WORLD

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