Songs that take me back...

At a garage sale a month or so ago, before Brad moved out, he found a Violent Femmes cd and bought it. Blister in the Sun. Man, does that take me back to high school, to Speech Team. And that takes me back to Eric, who, with his pink (or was it orange) hair and outlandish clothes, told me once that I was "on the right track, but you still need to be more different." Wait, Eric. How are you any different than the popular crowd, whom you despise, when you are dressing and styling yourself just to be as different from "them" as you can be?

In "Walden II" the guy in charge of the Utopia is trying to make a point about free will to a couple of observers. He says to one, who is holding a cup, "I can make you keep holding that cup." Immediately, the man puts the cup down with a smug look on his face. And the leader says "Ah, but I just now MADE you put it down. Would you have put it down except to prove me wrong?" And the man is stuck, not knowing what to do, without giving control to the Untopian leader.

Which brings me to another person and another song. The person is John K. He was on speech team , also. And from the earliest I can remember, John was never influenced by what the popular crowd was doing, or what the unpopular crowd was not doing in order to be as different from the popular crowd as possible. He didn't give a damn about who they were or wanted him to be when it came to who he knew himself to be. In fact, he gave so little a damn that he wouldn't have wasted the breath to say he didn't give a damn. (Although....I am keeping the "Miami Vice" school picture in case I can blackmail him one day. Teal t-shirt, sparkling white blazer, oh yeah...) He was/is the truest person I know. And one of the songs that remind me of him is "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes. I'm not sure why; I kinda think it might have been playing when we "danced" (that awkward sway thing) at a jr. high dance.

Kirsten, "The Way You Do the Things You Do" makes me think of you, prancing in the dorm hallway singing that song. If I can say this without sounding like a lesbian, you're one of the most adorable people I know!

How about you three or four out there? :) Comment, comment, comment! What songs bring you back?