Walt Mueller pointed to the MTV Yearbook site in his blog, Learning my lines… on Friday. He picked his favorite two years and his favorite video. I thought… hey, I can do that! Guess what… I can’t. My favorite would be somewhere in the eighties probably, since that’s where I spent my teen years, where I was most closely plugged in to the current popular music, but as I went through the years online, I realized that I still don’t know at least half the songs in almost every year.

I’ve known this about myself for years, but when it comes to popular music, I was usually at least 6 months behind everyone else… and that was when I was paying attention. As I moved up through the years in the yearbook to the present, I realized I was recognizing fewer and fewer songs per year as I approached the present.

Not quite sure what to make of that. I’m hoping it’s because the MTV selections started skewing away from my tastes after VH-1 was created. (Hmmm… wonder if they have a yearbook…)

Anyway… of the ones I recognized, there were some that I loved, many I didn’t, some I related to, and some that made me nostalgic. My trip down this particular memory lane led me in a few unexpected directions.

As I browsed through, I clicked on about 10 songs. Of all of them, the two I considered the best songs were “Change the World” by Eric Clapton (one of my all time favorites)

and “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman (couldn’t find the actual video on YouTube – and for some reason the MTV embeds aren’t working right for any of these).

There were some others that caught my interest (Talking Heads, Billy Joel, Mike + The Mechanics, Phil Collins, and Johnny Cash to name a few), but the one that sent me off on a fun side trail was “Birdhouse in your Soul” by They Might Be Giants. These are some of the oddest guys out there, but they do quality stuff, and sometimes it turns out to be catchy, too.

And that led me to….

…which reminded me of Strong Sad and The Cheat’s video for TMBG’s “Experimental Film” – which I believe is the only time an online cartoon made the official video for a successful music group. And I gotta say, I think they nailed TMGB’s sensibility.

And that reminded me of Strong Bad, and made me go back and watch my favorite Strong Bad Emails, including “Everybody to the Limit”

…and “How to Make a Website” (I strongly encourage you to visit the site…. lots of hilarious stuff there – with easter eggs).

So… where will MTV Yearbook lead you? Take a trip and let me know where you ended up.