I've got a playlist that helps me while I write. Currently 50 songs, give or take, most of which take me back to the late eighties and early nineties. Not because they were necessarily written then, or were even very popular at the time, but because they’re songs that were part of my college years. Some I've called out in the narrative because they are so visceral, so intrinsically tied to my experience in 1990. Others I'll write about here.
In no particular order, this first song to share -- Patti Smith's Piss Factory -- came from a compilation album, Just Say Yesterday: Volume VI of Just Say Yes. It’s one of several similar Sire Records compilations I'd borrowed from Aaron when we were roommates together at Carleton, during both of my senior years.
Just absolutely love this song. And thanks to YouTube, I never knew that this was the "B" side to her cover of Hey Joe (which is another song on my playlist, the Jimi Hendrix original, for a couple of different reasons).
