You know how it's widely and commonly acknowledged that people who can be seen singing in their cars are weird? There's always a slight tinge of embarrassment that comes over me when I see some man singing "Pour some sugah on meeeeeeeey" while drumming on his steering wheel.
The other day I felt embarrassed for myself. There I was swaying on my steering wheel like it was some bent up pole wailing, "Somebody WHOOOO somebody WHOOOO somebody who LOOOOOVES meeeee yeah, somebody WHOOOO somebody WHOOO who'll hold me IN his arms ..."
I wanted to dance with somebody. It was totally one of those moments where you're driving along not really thinking about much of anything, scanning stations and then you hear this one song and you turn that volume up and just start singing like you sang in the old days when you came across a stranded hairbrush just begging for its shot as a mic.
I was hittin' those notes, too. I surprised myself.
And then out of the corner of my eye I saw this window going up and down, up and down and I thought, "Yo. What is wrong with your window yo?"
I looked and there was a dude smiling like he'd just been offered a lifetime of free kegs.
He rolled his window down and hollered, "I'll dance with you, girl! Yeah!"
(Please note that his "Yeah!" was the same one Jack Black uses.)
I have got to get my windows tinted.
Anyway, yesterday as I toyed with my playlist for myspace (yes, I know, I totally caved, but it's been really lovely so far -- apart from the near-tragic "she's gotta have it"-like cravings I have to keep signing on and all), I was trying to think of what songs I could add. What songs did I really love? Did I just want them to represent me or did I want to play you a good time?
I couldn't find a version of "Islands In the Stream" that worked and, at that moment, I wasn't really feeling like I needed to put "Night Fever" up on there, but there was an itchin' in my ear for a song not even the Brothers Gibb themselves could scratch.
"If You Leave Me Now"
Check.
"Under my um-ber-ella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh."
Duh. Check.
"Shower the People."
Gotta have that JT. Check.
I toyed with "Dancing Queen," but again, I wasn't feeling it, and then I heard it drifting over from the cubicle next to mine via the radio waves ...
"Lovers forever/face to face/my city your mountain/stay with me, stay ... give to me your leather/take from me my lace..."
Slapped that mug right on my playlist I did. It immediately conjured the following images:
There I am, me, in a saloon style bar with hardwood floors (just like the one Frank Farmer took Rachel, the queen of the night, to in The Bodyguard). At a booth in the back corner a pitcher of ice cold beer sits atop a table where some peanut shells are scattered and littered across the floor. In the center of the dance floor there's me and a man with some skrong shoulders with whom I am dancing ... in that unique, free-spirited sway that one can only accomplish when you're tipsy...
"My city your mountain/stay with me stay."
I just love how she sings that.
A few other guilty musical pleasures of mine?
"Soul Bossa Nova" (aka The Austin Powers theme) -- Quincy Jones know he put it down. I love that I will put this song on blast, too, windows down and everything. You know you love it.
"If You Leave Me Now" -- It makes my sister laugh whenever I put that song on during a car ride. Of course, she's mostly laughing at the mental sight of Peter Cetera ooooh-ooohing with his no-lip self, but she still shakes her head at my choices.
"Sanford and Son" theme -- Again. The Q has got some incredible skillz. Admit it, you are hard-pressed to find another little ditty that makes you dance like you've got ants in your pants; and it's just perfectly appropriate for the "I'm comin' 'lizabeth two-step," too!
"There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)" -- Billy Ocean. Yes, love songs often doooo...
"Living In America" -- Rock my soul, James Brown. Rock my soul.
"I Love the Night Life" -- Alicia Bridges. Nobody says "Action" like Alicia -- "uh-AK-shun." Totally gives you Lucile Ball's "uh-ew"/Elvis Presley lips.
What are your guilty musical pleasures?