All else are castles built in the air

I've been listening to this playlist because 1984 is, of course, the Best Year. These spins ease into 1985, too, but I don't mind that. After all, the early months of year was a continuation of '84 musically--Purple Rain, Born in the USA, and Wham! are represented--and in that we were still wearing natural fabrics and Madonna-inspired flounce and flash (and rubber bracelets), with the neon, knit, and cut-outs of the latter months not having taken hold.

Where was I?

This song.



I like this song because of its similarity in tempo and atmosphere to her bigger, and, of course, Best Year hit . It doesn't quite fit the movie, but it fits Tina's ca 1984-85 zeitgeist.

And, duh, the same dudes wrote it.

Someday I'll figure out why those 18-24 months hit so hard, then and now.

I need some sentimental hygiene

Warren of 32 years ago, when he was 40, gets me now.

And do my job, whatever.



Every day I get up in the morning and go to work
And do my job whatever
I need some
Sentimental hygiene

Everybody's at war these days
Let's have a mini-surrender
I need some
Sentimental hygiene

Everybody's had to hurt about it
No one wants to go without it
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene

Every night I come home exhausted
From trying to get along
I need some
Sentimental hygiene

Everybody's joining up to fight
For the right to be wrong
I need some
Sentimental hygiene

Some nights I drive my car
Up and down the boulevard
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene

It comes and it goes

The soft rock radio hit by Clapton that gets me the most isn't "Tears in Heaven" (though it's a eye-weller when you think about it) but this movie theme song.

And not because I loved the movie (or the song) that much, but because I think it was a first or second date.

Once again, music x time = that moment again.

As the sun has its place up in the sky, I love you so dearly

This is a repeat. But I don't care.

Straight from too-bright backyards in summer 1983, the sound of big fluffy clouds momentarily darkening the grass or the pool. The *scronch* of an inner tube as you shift on it, the trees swaying. How could I have ever known I would caress all those little snippets and bits, but I must have known, somehow, that the song would be the bridge between then and now, rethreading it onto older skies, newer clouds, decades of generations of leaves and branches.

But the sun is still in the sky and shining above you

Nope, didn't learn about this from Three Billboards, but rather from my Grandad's copy of Voulez-Vous that he gave to me probably not long after it came out. Maybe he didn't care for it, maybe he expected it to line up more with the less disco-y Arrival. What I do know for sure is that I was, even at 10 or 11, pretty floored that he even bought himself an ABBA album.

Strength and solidarity. Or a message you can send to/hear from yourself.

Making the life that I had seem suddenly shiny and new

We all want someone or something to appear in life and make every path forward and back clear to us.

Living in the gap between past and future

Well, if it's so deep you don't think that you can speak about it
Just remember to reach out and touch the past and the future
Well, if it's so deep you don't think you can speak about it
Don't ever think that you can't change the past and the future

You might not, not think so now
But just you wait and see, someone will come to help you

 

I drift back in time and I find my feet down on mainstreet

I know this is a creepy song about a dude obsessed or worse with an exotic dancer, but I was listening to it while reading and seeing a few photos about the old days and it's really just about nostalgia when you transpose the relationships in the scenario. In my case, it's me and the neighborhood. It's where I belonged, even if it was hard. All things were still possible.

I play to win.

Applicable every day, to everything.

Still, every day, I play to win.

Well, everybody better move over, that's all

I got my back to the wall.

Or at least some semi-permanent bitch face.

I miss the mountains...except those were crowded, too.