Monday, 9/16

I just realized that only once in my life have I turned up the radio when a song came on.

This thought came about Friday after singer who's been around for a while passed away. Because of what I do for a living I’ve heard (& played) so much different music that I've become kind of immune to it all. I have access to almost every popular song of the past 45 years at my fingertips, I can listen to whatever I want whenever I want.

I think because of that I 'm no longer be surprised or amazed or delighted when I hear a song I haven’t heard in a long time, because there don’t seem to be any songs I haven’t heard for a long time. Maybe it's an occupational hazard of working in radio. It's one I hadn't considered before, but maybe it is.

That, however, is neither here nor there.

Now, onto the one time I can remember cranking my car radio up in a blast of joyous surprise. It was quite a while ago; the late 90s or early 00’s, if I remember correctly. I was downstate and listening to a rock radio station when all of a sudden a song came on, a song that had somehow escaped my attention over the years of my working in radio and having access to any song I wanted. I recognized the first few notes, realized that I hadn’t heard the song in ages, and cranked it up LOUD. I also dug up the CD that contained the song, and have listened to it many times since. It’s in my iPod, and while I’m no longer surprised and delighted when it comes on, I still recall now it blasted its way back into my brain.

The song? Eddie Money’s “Two Tickets To Paradise”. No, I don’t know how it had escaped my attention over all the years, and no, I don’t know why that particular song made me crank the car radio up. It just did, and it just gave me the chance to be a music listener for once, and not just someone who's exposed to music on a daily basis. So it's weird, in a way, the things that pop into your brain when you hear someone has passed away.

Thanks, Eddie Money. You did something to me that no other musical artist seems to have done.

                            ******

You know how there's the old superstition about celebrities dying in threes?  Now that both Eddie Money and Ric Ocasek have passed away, I'm sure your thoughts are turning to who will be the third, right?  Well, let me give you this thought to chew on--both Eddie Money and The Cars made multiple concert appearances in Marquette.  So, following that logic (if, indeed, you can call that logic), the third person could be someone else who played in Marquette multiple times.

If I were a member of REO Speedwagon or Kiss, I might be a little worried today.

(jim@wmqt.com), who has a sick, sick, a sick, sick mind...