You're all that's left to hold on to

When I purchased a cassette of The Joshua Tree in November 1987 and for years--decades--of listening thereafter, I barely paid attention to side two of the album. It wasn't until a drive across West Virginia and Virginia (possibly with my sister) in the mid- to late 2000s that JT was put on and, somehow, the sounds of side two--"One Tree Hill," "In God's Country," and especially this one--merged with the ribbon of highway unspooling through the Applachian Hills. 

No wonder it sounds like a landscape: the album was inspired by their views of America, good, bad, ugly. Apparently, though, this track was such a disappointment for the band that they remixed 30 years later with some restored horn-y-sounding synths and re-recorded vocals by an older Bono.

Oh, no. This sounds flat, shiny--and with treated vocals?! Come on! Oh, I'm going to pretend I never heard this. Bono, guys, you didn't need to go back to fix something that was real, human, not tech-manipulated, but more importantly, the choices of your younger selves. 

Maybe that's why I tear up when I hear it--inexplicably, since the source material is really pretty far removed from life today. Maybe it's how I felt about Bono back then, having a poster (not this one, but like it) on my dorm room wall freshman year, my Bono For President campaign of one, how distinctly I remember the start of the Joshua Tree tour stop at Rupp Arena (23rd October 34 years ago) when I could see him emerge in the dimness from the side of the stage during the long wind-up of "Where the Streets Have No Name." I can go see him and him alone now, on a smaller stage, for a small fortune.

But, I don't want to see my hero now. I want to hear him then.

Some day we will both look back and have to laugh

I can't believe I haven't written about this one yet, but BJ's not really been in my daily orbit for a long time. Also not considered in a long time: my junior prom, for which this was the theme (song). "This Is the Time" was the theme song because it was not the students' choice by vote, "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." Never forget: though my high school was close to the center of the horsey-preppy universe (the actual center being Sayre), we were (mostly) pretty damn cool kids. Not saying that we were Shermer High-caliber or teenage Beastie Boys- hanging-at-Danceteria cool, but this is more than I'd expect based on the high school experiences of friends who grew up in bigger, hipper places than Lexington, Kentucky.

The voting results were scuttled and the school leadership or whichever faculty worked with the prom committee provided this alternative: a mid-chart-peaking hit (that hit some five months before prom) from a guy closer to our parents' age that was destined to emanate from office desk radios tuned to lite-FM stations for years to come. 

I remember snippets of prom day/night, from the picking-up-photo-session that in the background featured my dad in a tie with his Saturday lawn-mowing clothes, dinner at the restaurant owned by my great-uncle, so everyone in my family was up in the business of this, sheer exhaustion at the end of the night (I was allowed to stay out until 1:00? Probably 1:00, surely not 2:00). The event itself, eh, proceeded like the usual dances at my high school--in fancy clothes. 

What's clearest (aside from my awesome black lace-and-taffeta, sweetheart neckline, tea-length dress custom made by my mother) is the moment worthy of the biggest screech of the needle across the jukebox record in human history: when the band playing prom, Velvet Elvis (major score to host a true indie rock band mere months before they got a label deal), stopped playing whatever song they were playing so that Billy's mellow synth chords and meditation on middle-aged love could blare over the crinolined and tux'ed crowd. 

But, damn it all, this was the right song choice. 

I know it now, because, this is, perpetually, the time.

Wouldn't it be good if we could live without a care?

This one never got its due. It didn't break the Top 40, and was not included in the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, instead covered by Danny Hutton Hitters--a lame-ass move as inexplicable as the changed ending. Roughly ten years earlier, Hutton crooned "Black and White" when he was in Three Dog Night. It's a long way from consciousness-raising cowbell to synth squiggles. 

Obviously, the original is the superior version, and Nik got to perform it at Live Aid . I distinctly remember seeing this part of the concert. How goddamn incredible that was, to watch all of my heroes ally day long. Including, hero though he wasn't at that time, Phil Collins on two continents!

It has such an angular and "aggressive"--and, yes, alien--sound for a longing and introspective song.

Whatever the form, it's just right for now, for figuring out where to go now that there feels like there's spaciousness, and the here where you have been is turning into someplace else. 

Evolution time

New talisman from a 30 year-old experience. I never really did hear all of the lyrics clearly, and I didn't pay attention when I sent off to Grand Royal for a lyric sheet. 

That's okay, "I don't see things quite the same as I used to..." And I can paste them here for posterity. 

Stand Together

I don't see things quite the same as I used to
As I live my life, I've got just me to be true to
When I find that I don't know about just what to do
I turn and look within to see what I should do
Now I'm not sure what it takes to be hip
A lot of people making music that to be ain't shit
So I ask creation for rhymes for this jam
Gimme lickle solo and I'll take the mic stand

Love vibe, love vibe, love vibe, love vibe
Love vibe, love vibe, love vibe, love vibe

Yeah, as the earth spins into a brand new day
I see the light on the horizon's not fading away
Gonna shine from within, like a bright white sun
No need to hide and no place to run
Got the vibrations of the music bringing light to your mind
So you can move and groove, and feel the beat of the time
Sense the power in the air as it starts to move
You get a real good feeling that you just can't lose

Love vibe
Contemplation time
Love vibe
Intuition time
Love vibe
Evolution time
Love vibe
Resolution time

Free your mind, it's time for good times
And let yourself move, it's a time to shine
Spread your wings in the sky, feelin' good inside
Breaking fool with no need to hide
I got the music cuttin' through me
Takin' control of my soul
I can't hold back, I've got to let go

Stand together (people come together now)
It's about time (we've got to get together now)
Stand together (people come together now)
I said it's about time (we've got to get together now), come on
Stand together (people come together now)
I said it's about time (we've got to get together, y'all) 

I think we should stand together

Oh, when the cool night brings back memories of a good life

I need to write something so I can feel something. I need to pick something to write to feel about. Climbing up the wagon wheels is daunting. Oh, wait. I am mixing metaphors. I'm climbing back onto a horse, I have not fallen off of a wagon. Or, I'm climbing onto the horse that was once pulling the wagon that I was upon? Did I want to be on this wagon? 

No. No. This should, at least, be easier than clambering to sit astride a horse, but it's not when you feel like your mind is a jumble and the chutes that take you away from the jumble are ultimately unbeneficial and lead to things like watching The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour into the night, laboring over work emails, and, in fact, writing everything in the style of a work email (I hope you are well!).

Heart: Well, write something already. Pick a song!

Head: But I want to google Paul Davis AND Andrew Gold, compile a comparative synthesis of their lives/styles/origins. And paint my nails. Toes and fingers. 

Heart: *headdesk*

Head: Fine. Fine! All the best, Head.

Well, this one has been around a lot lately. You'd think SiriusXM's programming well would be infinite, but--at least in the soft/yacht/mellow rock areas--there's a lot repeated. That's okay, since hashtag-Soft-Rock-Saved-Me. Paul's gentle plea is cumulatively effective this way. Plus, my flowers are outside literally dying right now because it's the coolest Cool Night we've had since April (or May).

You don't have to take a stand, he says. Lay out any plans. Just come on over. Just be. Just do.

Hear that, Head?