My cousin just left. She stopped by, made a run wearing my MP3 player and bounced. I tried to set the thing on radio before she left with it. My taste is eclectic as hell and I'm used to people really feeling one song I'm playing only to skeeve on the next one. But she came back feeling my mix, which was a pretty random dump of instrumental jazz, new age with some War and Kool and the Gang sprinkled on top. She was particularly feeling Storms in Africa by Enya.
She asked me to burn a CD of the tracks she'd just listened to, and I'm like cool, and since you like this I'll put together another mix disk too. And I started flipping through the MP3 collection (which I have not re-ripped yet so the genres and such are still only half useful).
I saw the first MP3 I ever downloaded, one of like ten I've gotten from Kazaa without buying the disk it came from. "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles. I got friends that would disown me over that.
I had to play…no, I had to study…"The Same One" by Brook Benton. Never heard of him, you young whippersnapper, have you? Brook Benton was a crooner, and a great one, in the 40s or 50s. I met him through my parent's collection of 45s. He was Nat King Cole's peer in my opinion, and my pop told me his style influenced a number of other artists of his day.
Brook was a pre-Little Richard pop artist, so his musical accompaniment was typical of the day in sounding almost western. I keep mentally inserting the clip-clop of his horse's hooves when I listen to his stuff. And he is SOOOOOOOO p-whipped…
You played a game with
The same one
Who gave his all
That same one
Is waiting
Completely at your beck and call
The only artist whose words evidence equally bad taste in mates is Tracy Chapman.
Say your family's cursed with bad blood
I think you're cute and misunderstood
I wouldn't change you if I could
Let 'em talk you down and call you names
My mind's made up it ain't gonna change
But I study Brook's stuff. See, once I took a sister to one of the "Jazz Cruise" floating concerts WQCD runs every summer. The performer was Vinx (yes it was a long time ago and yes I am old. fuck you, it's my story). One album wonder discovered by Sting, did "The Captain's Song." And "The Captain's Song," it wasn't our song or anything, I just used to mess with her by telling her one part was about her reaction to me when we met:
You say "No,"
Your heart beats "YES" and your feet say "Go."
Seems like
The thing to do
Before you know
The love thang is happening to you
Her going with me was something of an acknowledgement of the truth in my tease.
So we're right up front and the concert is cool but Vinx was a crooner and guys can listen but women are his target market. And I'm listening, all the guys are listening, ordering beer, checking the band's performance and Vinx does something with his voice that made every woman in the place…
Let me be clear. This is no exaggeration. Each and every woman in the place reacted.
…I say, every woman in the place whooped, stood and clapped, leaned back and said "Damn!" out loud, something like that. And every man in the place looked around like, "whattheFUCK just happened?" Every man except the band and Vinx…who was wearing this evil grin. The woman wouldn't explain to me what that was under the premise that I'd use the information for evil.
Segue several years and I'm talking to a friend about Brook Benton. I tell her I like his vocal stylings and the way he modulates his voice. She'd never heard him before so, being one of the two days in nine I can sing, I hit her with my favorite, "It's Just A Matter of Time," and she went "oooh!"
It was the reaction Vinx got. And I blew past it so fast I didn't recognize what had brought it on. Fortunately, she actually asked me to sing the section again.
I didn't use the knowledge for evil…sister really was just a friend (as Nietzsche said, a man and woman can probably be friends but to that end a bit of physical disinterest probably helps).
I think I need to cut this off. I have a million memories and connections to my old music and I could go one all night.
Posted by P6 at January 21, 2004 04:17 PM
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Comments
I actually had a chick here at work come by to ask me whether she should get an MP3 player or an iPod. I handed her my iPod, and she took the hint. I let her play with it for a while, and she hit my randomized playlist. Here is what she went through when I got it back:
- All is Full of Love - Bjork (first in the list, random after that)
- Milk - Garbage
- A Fake Bentley Commercial
- Frat Boys - The great Luke Ski
- Hidden Place - Bjork
- Kenny was a Kid from South Park - Luke Ski
- Suck My Kiss - Richard Cheese
- My Name is Fred - Luke Ski
Given that the last 4 of the last 5 songs were all parody (and all of Bjork's songs are freaky), I'm not surprised that she looked at me funny when she handed it back.
Posted by Phelps at January 21, 2004 07:37 PM