We have some weird thoughts from time to time during Happy Hour. Our latest weird thought is we should title our blog-posts in this particular vein "Songs for Our Beloved" rather than "Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack," coz that's mostly what they are. With exceptions, of course. But the fact remains that our former relationship consumed 23 years of our life... arguably the best 23 years. Arguably. There were good times preceding the time we spent with that woman and there have been good times since she walked away... but the good times since she walked have been few and far between. That's just fact.
I suppose the point is that it's hard to NOT associate any given song released in that time period... which would be between 1975 and 1998... with our love/lust object. That's human nature, innit? Still and even, I hesitate to name these posts "Songs for Our Beloved," mainly coz I don't want you to think I'm mean-spirited, Gentle Reader. Let's just let it lay that I would be mean-spirited most of the time... in a tongue in cheek sorta way... but sometimes that wouldn't be the case. And how would you tell the difference? More to the point, why would you even give a shit?
I'm still debating the point with myself. That said... we were listening to The Cars this afternoon and this song popped up in the rotation:
The tune brings to mind road trips that my beloved and I made during the three years we spent in Ol' Blighty... road trips both short and long. That first Cars album lived in (ahem) the car and was always played several times, whether we were on our way from High Wycombe to Upper Heyford... a shortie of a trip... or to other points on that Sceptered Isle. The album was just what I (we) needed... and this post is straight-up. We'll save the sarcastic bits for later... IF we decide to go down that road. The Deity At Hand knows there are thousands of candidate songs in THAT space.
Update, 1830 hrs: An explanation is in order, of sorts. I received an offline from a friend, asking...
My "beloved"? Are you nuts?Well, no. No, I'm not. I've used the term... sarcastically... for a long time when I refer to the woman in discussions with (certain) friends and fam'bly. I shouldn't assume everyone knows these things. I didn't mean to be taken literally.
The Cars were among some of my favorite cruising music when I was a teenager.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed at your ability to be so mean-spirited and still give such tribute to a past love, even if the tribute is in a kinda mean-spirited, sarcastic sorta way. What exactly is the point? You seem kinda confused...
ReplyDeleteBR: And good cruisin' music it is!
ReplyDeleteAnon: re: "You seem kinda confused..." So do you. "cut you out of my life forever" apparently doesn't include reading EIP, does it? But, what the Hell. We're all confused once in a while. Except for you, of course. You're perfectly lucid and ALWAYS correct.
Found it interesting to read that you have been mean-spirited on purpose all along...not that I shouldn't have understood that from long ago.
ReplyDeleteYou must have missed the "tongue in cheek" bit, eh?
ReplyDeleteGo to neutral corners, please. Gloves on.
ReplyDeleteDing!
I loved The Cars...
ReplyDeleteshe says hopefully, to maybe kinda sorta get the post back to its roots a bit.
Didn't know who they were when they were around, but heard them later and said, Hey, not bad!
ReplyDeleteNice to find groups later and really listen to them -- maybe for the first time!
Go to neutral corners, please.
ReplyDeleteHeh. No... more like LOL! ;-)
Kris: I STILL love 'em. The Cars.
Kath: That still happens to me, i.e., finding new groups or someone who's been around a while but is new to me. And like you say: it's cool when it happens.
The Cars were my first concert. Tingley Colisseum (sp?) in Albuquerque, NM. They openned for Styx in '79 for whom I'd actually bought the ticket (Styx is not my first concert-- the openning act is). 31 years ago. Wow. Both acts were awesome. Ten bucks general admission, Beaver Productions-- Lileksian: I still have the stub. I'd scan it and post it if I had a blog. Frisbees, funny smells, beach balls in the air, just weeks before the tragedy in Cincinnati. Not much general admission after that.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to know "Anon." Funny how these innernets work. I wouldn't know what to say if an old [person]-friend, say one with whom I parted on a bad note, e-mailed me.
Bob: Yeah, general admission USED to be the deal... I went to quite a few concerts myself under those conditions.
ReplyDeleteI DO know Anon. Quite well, actually, the biblical sense included. ;-)
We played a few Cars tunes back in the day... Most people probably don't know the Cars tunes are almost always 3 minutes long... I didn't listen to this version, but the LP versions are within a few seconds of being 3 minutes in length. The chord progressions are little weird too.
ReplyDeleteMy mind is FULL of meaningless information!