Soundtracked

Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter

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This week's theme: Guilty Pleasures

I guess this is another category of music (and life in general) I no longer feel guilty about...but it may come as a surprise to those who don't know me well, so I no longer feel like I'm "hiding" anything. I mentioned at some point last week during the One Hit Wonders reveals that I was a big fan of music from the sixties...and I'm fascinated by the early days of what was known as the British Invasion. Sure, everyone knows the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, but they also opened the doors for so many other groups.

So I love jangly ol' Britpop. There. I said it.

The second laptop I ever owned was also the first one I set my own personal iTunes account up with (when I had my first iPod, I used my parents' desktop...which made for some confusing moments between myself and my youngest brother: "Dude, I accidentally just synced my iPod up with all your music. " I clearly remember him telling me. And then he discovered that maybe that wasn't so bad. ). After I loaded all my cds up, I started looking at the iTunes store...it was like going to a sterile, plain white-walled record shop (unlike the lived-in, local indie places I loved to frequent) that had absolutely everything imaginable with a less-than-five-minute wait time to get it all. I hated it and loved it at the same time.

And it seems shocking, but Herman's Hermits' Retrospective  , out of all the gol' dang albums in the free world, was the first one I remember buying from iTunes. It may or may not actually have been, but it's the first one I remember inputting a bank card's info for. I could probably go into my purchase history and make certain, but I don't have that kind of patience (and I really don't wanna see how much money I've spent alone on merely replacing cds I no longer own ).

"Girls as sharp as her are something rare...
but it's sad. She doesn't love me now."
Lyrics.  

There are three absolutely crazy things happening here in this two minute, 44 second slice of the past. One is how plain and stoic the performance is...like, there is no movement other than what is absolutely necessary to sing or play an instrument. It's almost like what iTunes is now compared to all the indie record stores that it closed down in its wake...a stark contrast to what you see bands doing on stage when they play late-nite talk shows and whatnot in this day and age.

The second thing is how upbeat and happy a song about heartbreak can sound. I know it happens so much more often now, but listen to how bouncy this is for some poor kid who's carryin' on about how it's no good to pine for the girl who stepped on his heart. He's clearly been affected by this person, yet he's keeping great time about it. I'd be all like "Fuck this, fuck her, and fuck her mom" while downing all the Crown Royal my liver could handle before the cops come because I'm sitting half-naked and shitfaced outside her neighbor's bedroom window since I'm not totally familiar with the neighborhood and all the houses look the same at 2:47am.

And the third thing? Look at how polite and friendly he is, and how acceptable his behavior was back in the day. Like, he really felt he could talk to this chick's ma after she dumped him...like he felt he needed to get his feelings off his chest, and he knew the mom would listen (even though it seems like there's little she could do about the whole situation). You can't get away with that kind of behavior now...not with stalker laws and restraining orders and "Stand Your Ground" principles. You catch the wrong gun control patriot on your way to your ex's mother and your ass is gettin' shot at for bein' someplace you're not supposed to be!

Hell, these days you can't even compliment someone on Facebook without them gettin' all paranoid that you ooooohh might be in love with them ooooohh...innocent remarks get overblown and stretched out and hung up on a line in the public's backyard like a wet sweater that stretches down into the mud. God forbid I tell anyone they've got a lovely anything (daughter, house, t-shirt, smile, ass, etc.)...everyone assumes there's an ulterior motive, even when it's just a god damn nice thing to say to someone to maybe brighten up their day. And you can't even say you're just saying it because you're a nice guy, because then they want to accuse of being insincere! You can't fucking win with people!

That's why I'm generally a miserable prick who prefers to keep to himself...so I don't have to put myself through the hassle of whether or not my authenticity should be at question. Life's a lot easier that way ...no coincidence about this guilty/not guilty pleasure.

Relationship Goals...Level: Elite.