Thursday, February 13, 2014

Earworm

Todd Rundgren's Can We Still Be Friends. Don't ask me why a song that has nothing to do with me makes me want to cry. Want to, but not actually do it, because the song is also strangely uplifting.
This song came out in 1978 but I never heard it until the early 80s, courtesy of my freshman roommate, the marvelous Amy N. Maybe the song reminds me of her (LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA!), since I wish we were still friends. Her parents were very practical, and she left our liberal arts college to study nursing elsewhere. When she began considering becoming a midwife I got all over her to do it because it impressed me as the coolest job ever. I always felt like I kind of pushed her, but by all accounts she is very happy being a midwife. I, on the other hand, had impractical parents and never had much of a notion what exactly I wanted to do. I just figured it would all work out. Which I guess it did. Einigermassen. (Sort of).
Anyway, although my son wonders why anyone buys music "since you can listen to it for free on YouTube," I spent 99 cents on Can We Still Be Friends on Monday, and have since listened to it about 28-32 times - on the train, in the elevator, trudging through the wet grass to work. If a look around reveals no one nearby, I sing it out loud. So I consider it 99 cents well spent.
Like Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Carol King, Todd Rundgren doesn't immediately strike you as a great vocalist, but in the end it doesn't matter.

2 comments:

Kathleen said...

Thank you for this and for "einigermassen," a good word to know. Music does that to me, too. Also, I bought some music (with my credit card points) and got a lot of free music thrown into my Amazon Cloud as a result. Einigermassen.

Anonymous said...

I owe you big for "Einigermassen."

My current earworm (lead singer an old teeneaged buddy, Al Anderson) Riding In My car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRK2o3EkOUw&feature=share

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