Mix Tape and the Senior Class Song

The senior year class holds a survey to pick a song as “the class song.” The yearbook club puts it in the yearbook for future memories. 

Mix knew loads of songs and figured he could make the case for the right song. Some girls thought “Wind Beneath My Wings” would be a perfect song to remember forever. Mix lived in New Jersey so there were votes for Bon Jovi’s “I’ll be there for You.” Some recommended “My Perogative” by Bobby Brown. As if the school board would allow a song about taking a stance. 

Mix wanted David Lee Roth’s “Damn Good.” The lyrics were all nostalgia and reminiscing. Maybe Roth missed Van Halen. Maybe Roth missed his high school. The wild man David Lee Roth sang this ballad that featured guitar and an occasional drum hit. The lyrics fit the purposes of a school class song. He laughs about pictures and good times. What happens to the friends in the pictures? 

The song could be found on Roth’s “Skyscraper” album which came out the year before.  It had been a single release that wasn’t a success on pop sales charts. Everyone had time to find the song through the album. Hard Rock stations played the song.  

A minute after Mix recommended the song, a teacher told him, “we can’t have a song with THAT word in it.” 

“That word.” They wouldn’t even consider it based on a mild expletive.

The song wouldn’t be used. Years later Mix played the song while working. It made him stop and think back on the time at Schuyler High. Those people that wouldn’t even listen to a song because of a word. What would they think of all the songs with explicit warnings nowadays?