31. Dammit - Blink 182

The Blink 182 “Dammit” song is short, brash, obnoxious, pointless and loud.

God, I love it.

It makes me think of high school, of the various versions I’ve heard over the years, over the enthusiasm I shared with friends for this silly, bumpy song.

But it makes me think of one friend in particular.

One of my friends from school always had much better taste in music than I did.

Maybe it was her older sister, maybe it was having a more open mind, who knows.

But she introduced me – formerly deeply wedded to hip-hop and rap – to other types of music.

And to Triple J.

I think it’s a rite of passage for people now to say that “when we were kids, Triple J was way better.”

Which is weird, because in my case it was way better…!

Or, more accurately, the songs they were playing when my ears started opening up have stuck with me, embedding them with more meaning and weight than otherwise would have been the case.

I assume this phenomenon is true for every year of listeners.

One of the songs the public broadcaster really pumped was this pop punk classic by Blink 182.

I was familiar with the song, but very new to what-was-then-called ‘alternative’ music.

I think my friend had tried to open my ears a little, but I reckon I gave her short shrift – and probably a fair bit of stick at the time.

I knew best.

Until I didn’t.

One of my more embarrassing musical memories is talking to this friend about some song I’d heard on Triple J the night before, trying to see if she knew it so she could tell me the name.

Her engagement was rightfully contemptuous, in hindsight:

“It’s a great song, really catchy.”

“No, didn’t hear it.”

“Damn, I can’t think of the name. It’s really fast, kinda like ‘Dammit’.”

“…ok?”

“But with an Australian accent?”

“Nope.”

“Aaarrrgghh.”

(It was Exerciser by Rhubarb…yep, just like Dammit, that one…)

That my only real reference point for any sort of music not being pumped on commercial radio was Dammit speaks volumes of my actual musical knowledge at the time.

The CD I knew Dammit off (triple J’s Hottest 100 1997 - I suggest that link, there were some cracking songs that year! Though it is very dude-heavy…) was on high rotation through those years of school.

I had a copy I’d ‘borrowed’ or ‘pinched’ off somebody at some stage, that got played.

A lot.

To the point where it was all scratched up and became unplayable (ah, CDs), the front cover snapped off the spine and sat there held by gravity alone.

The booklet became frayed – I’m pretty sure they still had the lyrics in the liner notes then – and the back jewel cover became so cloudy with micro-scratches that you couldn’t read the track listing.  

Regardless, I played that album every chance I could.

I remember one time my friend – she of the then-superior musical knowledge – had us all over for a swim in their pool.

In my memory it was one of those perfect summer days when you’re a teenager – hot, sunny, nothing to do and nowhere to be.

Where the biggest issue was who said what to whom, and when.

Or which movie you were going to see before school went back, or arranging a lift to your friends house or navigating the different parental regimes that dictated who would be at which thing.

This CD was playing on the stereo – in my memory at least – and we all flitted between swimming, playing pool, eating sandwiches and drinking glass after glass of cold soft drink.

I remember shaking those little numbers people with pool tables have, to choose ‘your’ number in a game I’d call ‘killer’ now, because I can’t remember the actual name.

I remember the cooling floor tiles, the fans and the poster on the wall with the Native American quotes.

I remember the conversations with friends outside of school, about things that mattered, or were at least important to us.

Conversations I didn’t have the emotional scope to handle properly, so I leant heavily into sarcasm and mockery.

I remember the friends that put up with that sort of immature chicanery too.

And always, always I remember the music playing.

But not accurately, because Dammit cannot have always been playing.  

That’s a trick of my mind.

Has to be.

Never mind.

Because that song will always remind me of my friend; my patient, combative, clever friend.

And those long summers you have as a kid where all you have to worry about is…