A Presidential Playlist: Ian Baucom Shares His Musical Influences on Midd’s WRMC
President Ian Baucom recently joined WRMC, Middlebury’s campus radio station, for a music-inspired conversation with student DJs Henry Chambers ’27 and Margaux Joly ’27. Baucom shared song selections from his upbringing and college years and Henry and Margaux shared selections that they felt represent the Middlebury student body.
Henry Chambers and Margaux Joly interview President Baucom on WRMC
First concert?
Prince on the Purple Rain Tour in Greensboro, NC
What music are you listening to at the moment?
“I tend to be a little obsessive about music. A band will kind of get in my head, and that’s all I listen to for like a week or so. I just kind of like zero in on it, so I’ve been doing a lot of R.E.M. of late.”
President Baucom’s song selections:
- 🎶 Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2
- 🎶 Red Red Wine by UB40
- 🎶 London Calling by The Clash
“I went to London in 1986 for a semester abroad, and it was interesting in terms of a music pivot period. I think punk was still there, but it was sort of the end of punk. So you could see that there was still punk culture. You could still sort of hear punk music. But other things were starting to emerge as well.”
- 🎶 Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by The Police
- 🎶 Shosholoza by Lalela Cape Town Choir
“The words mean kind of push forward, push forward on this train through the mountains, push forward. And it has just become this incredibly powerful thing. People sing it at sporting events. They sing it at cultural events. And it’s just this symbol of post-apartheid South Africa.”
Henry and Margaux’s song selections:
- 🎶 Wristwatch by MJ Lenderman
- 🎶 Certainty by Big Thief
- 🎶 Like A Prayer by Madonna (Henry and Margaux’s selection that’s the, “epitome of the Middlebury party song.”)
- 🎶 Cobra by Geese
- 🎶 Piazza, New York Catcher by Belle and Sebastian
“Every year in the spring, we do the top 91 songs that are played on our station because we’re 91.1 and one of last year’s songs was Piazza, New York Catcher by Bell and Sebastian.”
- 🎶 Golden Brown by The Stranglers