Semi-Charmed Life

SEMI-CHARMED LIFE, THIRD EYE BLIND

(September 1997)

Freshman year at SI: the funny thing about becoming a disciple of Z95.7 is that it completely changed the way I listened to music. When I started to listen to the radio and watching MTV on my own, I was heavily into R&B - TLC, Boyz II Men, Brandy, the works. Gone was strictly listening to the Old School and Latin music my parents listened to. But then, when Z95.7 was introduced, and with my overwhelming need to fit into a high school where I already felt intensely uncomfortable, I became a fan of whatever pop music was deemed cool, and I devoured all of it, even stuff that I didn't initially like. But what did I totally fall in love with? Third Eye Blind. I mean, my favorite song of theirs, "Never Let You Go," wouldn't come out for another three years, but until then, "Semi-Charmed Life" was good enough for me.

Third Eye Blind was the personification of the late-90s in San Francisco for me. I mean, it's probably because of the video, with Stephen Jenkins running around the Mission, that I think that if my high school life were ever to be shown in a montage, that song would play over it. It wasn't my favorite song as a teenager by far, nor the most meaningful, but because it was the first song I heard in that late-90s rock-pop style that would become the dominant musical trend of my high school career (along with teen pop, but more on that in another entry) that I feel that it encapsulates high school for me in a weird way. It would have nothing to do with the lyrics - despite what you might think, I was not a crystal meth addict as a fourteen-year-old - but the "feel" of it, for lack of a better word.

Because it's theoretically coming up next year, I keep thinking about my high school reunion, but aside from the fact that I'm sure I'll be completely awkward and will need to get completely sloshed beforehand in order to maintain some semblance of social behavior, I keep wondering what kind of music will be playing. I will be really upset if this song isn't played (though really, why wouldn't it be? Though if it's all 'NSync and P.Diddy (or Sean "Puffy" Combs, as he was known then), I will be really pissed and make a drunken fool of myself), but then again, I'm not in charge of the music. Though I'd like to think that if I were, it would be hella awesome.