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| Music, media, libraries and my tortuous ascent into the middle class. |
In the late 70s, in response to the question of what the Beatles would sound like if they were still together, John Lennon suggested listening to ELO.
It's a funny response, but it does hold some truth. I've been totally grooving on Mr. Blue Sky. I think it should be obvious to anyone who listens to it: it is a total ripoff of the middle part to the Beatles Day in the LIfe. The beat is the same; the opening notes of the melody is similar. There is a breathing part that mimics someone out of breath from running on a street. Jeff Lynne of ELO has always said that he creatd ELO as an homage to The Beatles.
Anyway, I still love the song. I blogged about it long ago, and I even recommended getting the album from the library. But I never even followed my own advice. Then the other day, I saw it at another library branch and checked it out. As I drove home, I cranked it up. I started having flashbacks of riding in my uncle's El Camino when I was like 6 years old with the 8-track jamming.
I missed my exit during Sweet Talking Woman.
Like many double-disc "Best of" compilations, I find that the best songs are toward the end of the first disc and the beginning of the second disc. I'm glad the extra songs are there, but I just skip the songs I don't need.
What I did this week is set my CD player in my car to begin with Mr. Blue Sky everytime I went to work in the morning. It was a perfect way to beat the summer heat.
Posted by Mike Waugh at July 30, 2005 11:06 PMI started having flashbacks of riding in my uncle's El Camino when I was like 6 years old with the 8-track jamming.
When you say jamming, do you mean you were jamming to the music, or was the 8-track tape forcibly wedged in the El Camino's stereo system? I need you to clarify this because I have a separate robot brain located in my buttocks and it handles all my grammar checks. I'm not allowed to use my real brain to figure out your intent.
Also, you shouldn't have flashbacks while you're driving your car. You'll mistake your cd player for an 8-track and will end up breaking it with the library CD still inside.
Then you'll need to buy a new copy of Strange Magic for the library, and a hip, young employee who works in the library's media center will make a slick remark about your music choice, like, "So this is what a Youth and Children's Services Librarian listens to these days." Then you'll have no choice but plot that employee's downfall (or look weak in front of the other librarians, and they can smell weakness like a pack of hungry hyenas.)
But in your moment of triumph, as that person is fired, a tender moment will pass between you two when you are thanked for introducing that person to the beauty of E.L.O.'s music. You'll realize what a good person you've brought to ruin. Then you'll feel it necessary to confess everything you did to your branch head: yes, it was you who dressed up as a mobile snack technician and restocked the snack dispenser with those items, and you who sent the employee a pink slip written with disappearing ink and a type of evaporating paper that your friend, "Smart" Dan, has been developing at his workplace.
At that point, the branch head could fire you, but fortunately you will only face a temporary demotion. You obviously would make a powerful enemy, and such people are best kept close... or so your branch head will think.
But yes, you are secretly plotting to take the branch head's position, and because of this kindness, when you do usurp power, you only exile the current branch head to the Youth and Children's Services Department, rather than send the deposed branch head to the guillotine.
And that will be your undoing since the exiled branch head will hire someone to rig your car to explode when you switch on the ignition. The last thing you will hear will be the opening notes of ELO's Sweet Talking Woman and a strange click, like someone switching the track on an old 8-track.
Remember, kindness festers like an infected paper cut you forgot to treat with an antibiotic solution, and it is not for the cutthroat environment of the modern library system.
Posted by: Robert, the Younger Waugh at August 1, 2005 06:42 PMSo that's what happen to my ELO 8 track...and I believe I know what happen to the my model glue, or someone's brains are frying from the heat.
Posted by: Cooked Mother Waugh at August 1, 2005 06:56 PM