From Song O The Day

Alright, Touch of Gray……How many of you read the title and winced? Show of hands. Or maybe the Grateful Dead makes you wince. Or maybe it’s the Eagles (Hotel California?). I know someone here loves Hotel California.

This website is comprised of a group of serious music fans (probably serious art fans in general) and what irks the serious music fan more than a song that takes a great not hugely mainstream band into the mainstream? What drives “serious” music fans crazier than hearing a band they’ve loyally followed for years blasting from the radio of some Kookabear’s Audi convertible at a stop light on Van Ness? Nothing, right? Maybe I should speak for myself. That shit drives me nuts.

And it’s not only music, sometimes its fashion, or literature or the use of slang, or a brand of smokes, a particular cocktail and on and on. Let’s stick with music for now though.

Back in the first couple of years of High School, when drawing all over my binder was a cool and acceptable thing to do, I had THE DOORS scrawled all over my shit. I was in a serious Jim Morrison stage……doesn’t everyone go through a Doors stage, you know, right when you start getting high and just have to be different. That’s when the Doors can really latch on. Actually I think that Jim Morrison just got stuck in that phase and that kind of summarizes Jim Morrison…………I’m digressing some, back to my diatribe on my personal artistic elitism (now do you see where this is going)……..Back in the notebook scribbling stage I remember one specific conversation I had that was replayed in some form or fashion, with different bands/songs, countless times over the years. It went something like this:

Random cute 14 year old girl in Algebra class: “Oh, you like The Doors, me too. I love that song Light Your Fire. That movie was pretty cool, I watched it at midnight last weekend when my parents were drinking wine with the neighbors.”

What a great conversation starter. A girl I only kind of know reads my binder and comments on a potential mutual interest. Not only has she taken an interest in me and what I like but she’s now highlighted that a) she does things here parents wouldn’t approve of and b) she’s down with movies primarily about drugs and lots of random sex. All in one short and innocent, ice breaking statement.

How should a 14 year old E Tuck respond? Be stoked, be nice, suggest re-watching the movie together the next time her parents are getting wasted with the neighbors and maybe, just maybe, get a little titty. Stupid hindsight.

Instead, how does young E Tuck respond:

“Light MY Fire is like the worst song the Doors sing. You probably only have the greatest hits album. You obviously don’t REALLY listen to the Doors” Spoken with contempt as I return to inartistic doodling……What an Asshole.

You see, I couldn’t help it, the Doors were MY band, this girl couldn’t understand. Remember White Men Can't Jump? “You can’t hear Jimmy.”

And it went on like that for years. At the end of High School it was Punk Rock, then Hip Hop, then throwback 80’s jams.

“Oh you listen to punk? Whose your favorite band? Oh Blink 182, Green Day? Right, you’re an idiot.”

“Your into Outkast? You really like that song Mrs. Jackson. Right, you’re an idiot.”

When I moved to the East Coast in Summer of 1997 hearing the Sublime/Sublime album blasting out of dorm rooms on campus made me so angry I didn’t listen to the album again until 2005….at least in public.

My snobbery applied to greatest hits albums, popular radio songs, bands that became exceptionally popular (Green Day was ruined for me….and still pretty much is), popular books (I hated the Kite Runner, refused to read the Davinci Code). I wouldn't go to this bar, eat at that restaurant, where gear of that brand.

At the end of the day it has always been about my ego. How else am I going to keep my edge, to clearly differentiate myself from the people around me, to ensure everyone knows how well read, musically versed, in touch with street style I am?

Over the last couple of years I’ve been making an effort to take the ego out of it, to figure out what I like and what I don’t like regardless of the image I would like to portray. It's getting better I think. You probably still are not going to see me reading the new Michael Lewis novel on a bus or wearing a striped shirt out at night but I think it's getting better. And really, what do I know, Opera’s Book club is reading Joyce’s Dubliners this month.

Back to Touch of Grey. Go on, give it a listen. Admit it. It’s a pretty good track.

From The Doon-Dog Wedding

I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg

I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it's special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say, Remember when you told me something special
And both of us remember

When I think something is important
you think it's important too
We have good ideas
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I'm funny and you think I'm funny too
Hah-hah!
I like you because you know where I'm ticklish
And you don't tickle me there except just a little tiny bit sometimes
But if you do, then I know where to tickle you too
You know how to be silly
That's why I like you
Boy are you ever silly
I never met anybody sillier than me till I met you
I like you because you know when it's time to stop being silly
Maybe day after tomorrow
Maybe never
Too late, it's a quarter past silly
Sometimes we don't say a word
We snurkle under fences
We spy secret places
If I am a goofus on the roofus hollering my head off
You are one too
If I pretend I am drowning, you pretend you are saving me
If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag,
then you are getting ready to jump
HOORAY

That's because you really like me
You really like me, don't you
And I really like you back
And you like me back and I like you back
And that's the way we keep on going every day

If you go away, then I go away too
or if I stay home, you send me a postcard
You don't just say Well see you around sometime, bye
I like you a lot because of that
If I go away, I send you a postcard too
And I like you because if we go away together
And if we are in Grand Central Station
And if I get lost
Then you are the one that is yelling for me

And I like you because when I am feeling sad
You don't always cheer me up right away
Sometimes it is better to be sad
You can't stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute
You want to think about things
It takes time

I like you because if I am mad at you
Then you are mad at me too
It's awful when the other person isn't
They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose

I like you because if I think I am going to throw up
then you are really sorry
You don't just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that
You say, maybe it was something you ate
You say, the same thing happened to me one time
And the same thing did

If you find two four-leaf clovers, you give me one
If I find four, I give you two
If we only find three, we keep on looking
Sometimes we have good luck, and sometimes we don't

If I break my arm, and if you break your arm too
Then it's fun to have a broken arm
I tell you about mine, you tell me about yours
We are both sorry
We write our names and draw pictures
We show everybody and they wish they had a broken arm too

I like you because I don't know why but
Everything that happens is nicer with you
I can't remember when I didn't like you
It must have been lonesome then

I like you because because because
I forget why I like you but I do
So many reasons
On the 4th of July I like you because it's the 4th of July
On the fifth of July, I like you too
If you and I had some drums and some horns and some horses
If we had some hats and some flags and some fire engines
We could be a HOLIDAY
We could be a CELEBRATION
We could be a WHOLE PARADE
See what I mean?

Even if it was the 999th of July
Even if it was August
Even if it was way down at the bottom of November
Even if it was no place particular in January
I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again
That's how it would happen every time
I don't know why
I guess I don't know why I really like you
Why do I like you
I guess I just like you
I guess I just like you because I like you.