Thursday, December 4, 2025
Time: 7:59 AM
Song: Baba O’Riley
Artist: The Who
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on the way to work.
If you look back in this blog, you’ll see that back on November 18, I started going through my MP3s alphabetically on the way to Springfield for a concert.
Today, listening to MP3s this way mostly on my trips back-and-forth to work, I finally moved into songs with titles that begin with the letter “B.” That first being “Baba O’Riley.”
This is another song that makes me think of bus rides to high school as freshman and sophomore. I had this song on a mixtape, which I believe was a combination of the Who’s Greatest Hits and maybe some Tom Petty.
I had a weird theory that listening to The Who would supplement any studying I did and help me perform better on tests that day. I can’t remember if the results bore out to prove this theory, my general memory being that I liked to wing a lot my school tests, relying on a good memory from listening in class more than reading the material out of the textbooks.
That was true with biology. In eighth grade, I had performed surprisingly well on my placement tests for science and the biology teacher – a wonderful teacher named Mrs. Christensen – went to bat for me mostly based on the relationship she had with my older brother and sister – to be placed in the advanced science classes, including her freshman biology course.
I’d like to say I repaid her by being a star pupil who excelled in her class most of all. Sadly, I bet more on The Who helping me than studying harder, and I struggled through her course.
My science skills – meek as they proved to be – were better served in chemistry than biology or physics. Even then, I was far from gifted in any science.
Weirdly, it’s reading and writing where my talents lie, rather
than math and science like my siblings. Even weirder, we all ended up working
for engineering firms anyways.
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