Writing about my "Eye in the Sky" first slow dance experience has put me in the mindset needed to write about the next song on the countdown--"How Much I Feel" by Ambrosia. This song belongs to a particular oxymoronic genre of we-broke-up-but-I-still-love-you songs. The lyrics in these songs have many lines--and especially the chorus--that express how the singer will always have a place in their heart for a former girlfriend/boyfriend even though the two just couldn't seem to muster enough love and commitment to figure out how to stay together in the first place.
Don't get me wrong. Even though these songs don't make logical sense, I think it's a great genre, and I really like a lot of them, including:
"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" by Billy Joel (which happens to be Billy's favorite Billy Joel song)
"Send Her My Love" by Journey
"Happy Anniversary Baby" by Little River Band
"The Flame" by Cheap Trick
You've already seen a few songs like this on this Top 200 list (Quiche Lorraine?), and you'll see many more before its finished. In fact, the closer we get to number #1, the more likely you'll see a song of this genre.
I did NOT include "How Much I Feel" on my list because when I heard it the first time it reminded me of a girl that I broke up with but still loved. It was 1978 when this song started playing on the radio. I wasn't even a teenager then. I hadn't yet lived long enough yet to meet any girls that would like me enough to get to the point where anything resembling a break-up was even possible.
This song is on my list because it is the one with the most Ambrosia sound that produces a potent time-travel effect that I can't help but enjoy in my adulthood. If I lay on my bed and close my eyes while I listen to this song, I am transported back in time to 1978. It feels so real that sometimes, when I open my eyes during the song, I see bell-bottoms and perms.
Other late 70s songs with this time-travel power include, but are not limited to:
Leo Sayer -- How Much Love
Alan O'Day -- Undercover Angel
Pablo Cruise -- Whatcha Gonna Do
Mmmmmm! So good! These songs even bring back the smell the chlorine from all the swim team meets I went to in the summer of 77. With Pablo Cruise, I also smell Solarcaine.
But even though I like sentimental old-lover-I-still-love songs, I have to admit that there is something about these soft rock songs that I find disturbing and, in some cases, physically discomforting. If I'm lying on the bed with my eyes closed with visions of old girlfriends in flared jeans and crocheted halter-tops running through my head, and if my wife decides to join me and snuggles up to me while she listens, there's this moment of hesitation where I have to wonder if I should snuggle back. That's because the music sounds romantic on the surface, but the singer's professing love for an old flame, and it's kind of weird to snuggle back when the lyrics make me think about old girlfriends and not my wife. Then that thought begins to make me wonder if she might be thinking about old boyfriends while she's snuggling up to me. And like most people I know, I really don't want to snuggle back if someone's using me as a snuggle proxy for an old flame. Consequently, these songs are basically snuggle kryptonite to me. And if the playlist isn't quickly changed to another genre of soft-rock songs about people that actually love their current lover, there's a real danger of experiencing severe snuggle-interruptus. And it takes at least two cans of Solarcaine to take away that red-hot pain!
So caution is in order as you continue on with this Top 200 list. Whenever a song like "How Much I Feel" comes up, it's probably best not to listen to it while you're resting in bed with your current lover and/or spouse. If you do, you'd better have a first-aid kit handy, and it better be well-stocked with salves, lotions, ointments, oils, petroleum jellies and/or sprays with prescription-strength benzocaine! Otherwise, you'll find out just how much you feel. And it will feel something like this--
No comments:
Post a Comment