Friday, February 18, 2011

la, la, la - what were the words to that song?

The next astonishing occurrence was that I couldn't remember the name of a song.  Yes, despite what you may think, this is blog worthy because you will soon see that it is imperative that I put this information on the internet somewhere.  This sort of thing has happened to me before.  Last March (in France) we heard a song on the radio that I couldn't get out of my head and it took me three long and grueling months to find the artist, (it was Dimie Cat -- and if I ever sang professionally, I would love to have a similar sound) fortunately this latest mind bender only lasted one night.  We were watching LCD Soundsystem on the Colbert show and they sang "I Can Change."  I had listened to their music before, Matthew and the kids had seen them perform at Pitchfork in the summer, so it wasn't completely new, but for some reason when he sang the chorus I thought, "This is exactly like a song from the 80's!"  I could vaguely hear it in my head, but I couldn't quite grasp it.  I asked Matthew if he knew what I was thinking of, and he said he could only hear the song we were actually listening to.  What?  Thinking of only one thing at a time sounds like pure craziness.  So afterward I started searching the internet because surely someone else had heard what I did!  I spent an hour and I kept yelling to Matthew to help me, but I couldn't think of any words and he claimed that he had no idea what was going on in my head -- right, I've heard that before.  I knew that it was best to forget about it, but my mind kept going back to this fragment of melody all night like a dog with a bone, chewing on it for awhile, walking around it in circles, then settling back down to gnaw on it some more -- through helping with homework, putting kids to bed, an episode of Mad Men (a guilty pleasure), hours of infernal heartburn torture, Phin crawling into our bed and scratching my legs with his toenails (they need a trim), and then finally at 5:00 a.m. when my nice husband went to wake up the kids for seminary, I was blessed with a few more lines of the song -- still no words -- and I tried to stay in that half awake state to see it through.  It was so fragile, like trying to remember a dream or contain a handful of smoke, but I had more of the rhythm and then -- hallelujah -- some words and I had it!  I sang it to Matthew and he totally knew, but neither of us could think of the band and surmised that it must have been a one-hit wonder.  I obviously couldn't go back to sleep so I ran downstairs to find out and it was When in Rome.  What a relief!  Most people probably didn't listen to that song in high school, but we had a great radio station, KJQ out of Orem, Utah that played all sorts of cool stuff -- probably to counteract all of the horrible music coming out at the same time (Bon Jovi).  I saw that the song was featured in Napoleon Dynamite and Matthew said that figured, because for some reason that unique brand of alternative music really resonated with Mormons and is now being sent out into the world through film.  So I am going to say it here now so that no one else will have to endure the suffering that I have: when someone googles "LCD soundsystem I can change sounds like" it will come here to my blog to tell them that it is very similar to When in Rome, The Promise -- not Echo and the Bunnymen, not New Order, not Eurythmics -- three claims that others had made.  I don't know if I would've ever figured out who the band was without the internet.  How did humans survive so long without google?
Another funny thing, while I was suffering through my headache yesterday and forgetting important rendezvous, I tried to find some episodes of "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" (because what would be better for someone who actually has a baby that needs to come out of her body than watching people screaming in childbirth agony) and came across a movie called Birth of a Golem starring none other than Annie Lennox and then not 12 hours later being guided to the video of Love is a Stranger.  Two completely random Annie Lennox incidents in one day when I have had no reason to think of her for over 20 years -- what a remarkable universe.  I am quite, quite certain you are shaking your head in awe and wonder.

6 comments:

corn fed girl said...

All I got out of that post was "IN FRANCE." When will it end Mary, when?!!! Why do you mock us so?!

Normal Mom said...

I love the song The Promise and I love you even though you mock my Bon Jovi.
I hope you remembered to go to R.S. last night...

HARA said...

Yes, I to noticed the "IN FRANCE" thrown in there sort of coyly - (is coyly a word.) Now, while I am glad you can find places to still throw in the while we were in the south of France....you read my post and as I find myself in the dark days of Utah winter and I take delight in knowing it's colder where you are!!! Insert maniacal laughter here.
Ok, done with all the rambling.
So, is it the la la la means I love you? Or is that a completely different song. Regardless, that will be in my head all day.

Jen said...

I used to love KJQ. My stepsister worshipped them, so when I went to my mom's for the weekends I would get my fix. My hometown in S. Utah had banned MTV, so we had to take what we could get.

I have no idea how anyone survived before google.

AndieF said...

I loved KJQ too and I loved that song back in the day. I was all about alternative in the 80s - early 90s. The Smithereens, Echo and the Bunnymen, OMD, etc. It still freaks me out a bit when they play Blind Melon on Magic 100.7 now though.

Oh, I do like Bon Jovi too! Sorry!

Stacey said...

All I got out of the post was that you don't like Bon Jovi!!!!!! How can that be....REALLY!??????

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