The Prettiest Thing I'd Ever Seen

Back to school for most people on Tuesday, if they haven't gone back already. Which means that for some guys--and this is more of a guy thing than a girl thing--it will be necessary on various occasions over the next several months to crank up a favorite song in order to get oneself in the frame of mind to do something or be something one couldn't necessarily do or be as well without the music's help. Danny Alexander at Take Em as They Come wrote about that, and related subjects, on Friday, narrating a personal history that might seem familiar, if you're of the same approximate vintage as Danny (and me).

I’d met this girl at a high school football game where her friends were talking to my friends. Kristi Hall was wearing a pink satin jacket and chewing gum, and she was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. A few weeks later in school, a mutual friend told me that Kristi liked me and gave me her phone number.

The night that everything changed, I sat staring at her number with the phone in my hand, and I kept trying to think of what to say. I put on my favorite record, and the urgency of the opening song said “Wait a second there, bud.” “I got a head on collision smashing in my guts man,” Bruce sang, and I knew the feeling. The entirety of the song that followed--particularly that bridge that said “it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive”--told me that I had to go back in that room, pick up that phone and dial that number.

And I did, and rock and roll never again meant to me the same things that it had before.

Other worthwhile reading and listening around the music blogs this weekend:

Through the magic of TiVo, Chaka at Timedoor watched the first 24 hours of MTV, as broadcast on August 1, 1981, and repeated a few weeks back on VH-1 Classic. He's helpfully transcribed a list of all the songs featured, some of which will leave you scratching your head: Lee Ritenour? Cliff Richard's "A Little in Love?" Michael Johnson's "Bluer Than Blue" and an Iron Maiden song in the same quarter hour? Once, this was hip.

Also: Earlier this week, I tagged Kevin at Got the Fever to complete the favorite songs meme, which he did. He's also posted about the mighty Tower of Power.

And finally: More cowbell!