Breakup Songs

Nick Hornby started this with his character’s endless list making in High Fidelity. That’s right people! Nick Hornby, a writer. Not John Cusak. Who is an actor.

So here is the soundtrack of my love-life lows.

High School, Early College, Wayne the Busboy, Stan 1, Randy 1

• Tainted Love – Soft Cell
• Desperate but not Serious – Adam Ant
• Don’t You Want Me – Human League
• Kiss Me Deadly – Generation X

Butters, my Gay Boyfriend

• Queen – Killer Queen

The College Years – Uh, a bunch of random dudes I went out with in college. Oh, yeah Stan 1

• Gone, Daddy Gone – Violent Femmes
• Shaking Through – R.E.M
• So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry) – R.E.M

The Early Twenties – Randy 2, Shawn, Kyle

• Black Coffee in Bed – Squeeze

Craig, Act One

• Atlantic City – Bruce Springsteen (I don’t know if this song had come out when I broke up with him, but it’s how I felt when I did)
• Heroes – David Bowie

Deadhead I met at the Cricket on the Hill
Some Grateful Dead song he was playing when I went over to his house to get my books back. He was sitting in his living room with the lights off, the curtains drawn, wearing Ray Bans and hitting a big ol’ bong with a skeleton and a rose painted on it. Eric? Derek? Does it make me a bad person that I can’t remember his name?

Adios, Alberto

• Baby Blue – George Straight

Craig, Act Two

• Crying but My Tears Are Far Away – The Knitters (Gad. He put this on a mix tape when I broke up with him, and then this time he broke up with me! It’s like he knew what he was going to do! The bastard!)
• Almost Blue – Elvis Costello (Because I always imagine how wistfully he looked back on being in love with me while he was trapped with the stupid new girlfriend he left me for.)

A Summary of the Disastrous Thirties – Kenny, Cartmans 1-9, Still Pining for Kyle

• Joey – Concrete Blonde
• Achin to Be – the Replacements
• Jockey Full of Bourbon – Tom Waits (really all of Rain Dogs)
• Sisters of Mercy – Leonard Cohen
• Amarillo by Morning – George Strait
• That song that’s playing in Ken Burns’ Civil War when they read that letter from the guy who died to his wife Sarah
• Baby’s Gotten Good at Goodbye – George Strait (nothing like country music for wallowing in your own crapulence)

A rather dark time in the romantic history of Delphinia.

Stan 2

• Straight Tequila Night – John Anderson

Haggis

• It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) – R.E.M.

Special Bonus Theme Break Up Songs! What to listen to in every situation!

• Quiche Lorraine, B52s – Your dog has broken up with you
• Poor Little Critter in the Road, the Knitters – Your self respect has left the building
• Stop Your Sobbin’, The Pretenders – You’re Chrissy Hynde and you need to break up with Ray Davies
• The KKK Took My Baby Away, The Ramones – The woman you love just married Johnny Ramone
• Too Drunk to Fuck, Dead Kennedy’s – Possible explanation for why you were broken up with