Oh! The talent
I have a fun job. Not necessarily because of what I do at my desk, which is IM and write blog posts, but because of what goes on around me as I sit there. The other day I was walking the five miles between my office and the bathroom when I found myself in the midst of a concert going on in the reception area. It was a young scantily-clad girl group and the path to the bathroom was directly behind them. The lights were dimmed but I think I wasn’t the backdrop to the show that they had anticipated. I thought the same thing you would have thought as you saw all my transfixed co-workers: why wasn’t I invited to this? Of course, when A&R does send out these e-mails asking you to see a band in the conference room or the receptionist area or the president’s office, I usually just stay at my desk so I can continue to IM and write blog posts.
But no matter. When I had to make my return, I decided to take the long way back and avoid the “atrocious concert to which I was not invited.” But then I saw that the president of my company’s dog was wandering around the opposite hallway (there are glass doors).
If you know me even a little bit, you will know exactly which path I took. Yep, right back to the girl concert. I paused just inside the doorway to watch for a few minutes. They finished their generic pop hit and introduced their next number with this sincere line, “If anyone knows the Beatles, this is our version of ‘Oh! Darling.” Um…..yeah. We’re all record company people twice your age and yet we have no idea who The Beatles are. Yes. And then I had to move on before I started snortling right behind them. Safe inside my section of the floor I heard the news I knew couldn’t be avoided: we have signed them!
Did I say they suck? I meant they will change your life. Please buy their CD as soon as possible. Especially if you know The Beatles.
Beatles – Oh! Darling not available for download.
I already have this on a couple of CD’s. You want me to give Paul more money?
You have aroused my curiosity.
Is there a band/artist out there that is awful enough that you would walk down the hallway with the dog rather than walk through their concert?
The Beatles? Who they?
I remember the feeling of mortification when, in a brilliant display of ignorance way back in my yoof, I learned that The Carpenters were not the first to record Ticket to Ride.
My oldest son, who is now into both classic rock and new crappy rock, continues to come at me with questions like “hey Mom, was Stevie Nicks ever in a group?” and “what kind of stuff did Bob Dylan sing before he played with Tom Petty in the Traveling Wilburys?”.
I do shudder when I look at the All American Rejects playlist on our iTunes, so I guess anything he asks about the classics is all good.
P.S. If you haven’t listened to the iPod song of the week, or if you are not familiar with Squeeze, please, please listen to it and download any or all of their songs right now! (Singles 45s and Under is their Greatest Hits CD if you are looking for a good sampling) They are one of my favorite groups of all time. I saw them with the Smithereens way back when and it still stands as one of the highlights of my life. My favorite Squeeze song is Another Nail in My Heart, but i also adore Annie Get Your Gun and i could probably list 10 more easy. Yet another reason i love Becca and another reason why we should go skipping off holding hands into the sunset.
Silly RN, you don’t have to buy it, you just have to listen!
Jane, that is an intriguing question. I’ll have to get back to you on that, as it deserves great thought.
Kay, you mean Paul McCartney had a band before Wings?
KP is right! Squeeze rules! Check out the iPod song of the week or KP will come to your house and kill you.
Jane, I decided. No.
You would like my dog. My dog is different.
If I had a dime for everyone who told me that, I’d need a new storage space for all my dimes.
Becca, you’re gonna have big problems if God ever sends you a dog. It can happen, you know.
Ooo…Becca! Using the dimes to tie the dog thing in with the storage space thing–that was elegant!
If God loves me (or dogs), and I’m hoping He does, He’ll reroute that dog package elsewhere.
And thanks! I was pretty satisfied with it myself.
Squeeze…a band I will forever associate with the Cute Guy with the British accent in my freshman entryway. Argy Bargy is the only album familiar to me. But I was just thinking about it while scrubbing potatoes the other day…I don’t remember the name of the song (but it might be “Separate Beds”) with the line “Her mother didn’t like me/she thought I was on drugs/My mother didn’t like her/she’d never do the spuds.”
The human memory is a remarkable thing…that I would think of my freshman dorm whenever I scrub potatoes…how odd.
I was horrified to learn that Tiffany didn’t write “I Saw Him Standing There.” All she did was change Her to Him. How sad.
And, when I was 12, I told my dad that New Kids on the Block would be bigger than the Beatles ever were. he laughed for hours.
Celia, that’s Separate Beds and I think it’s “peel the spuds” but either way, yep, that’s a classic.
Soxy, wait, doesn’t changing one word count as writing the song? I believe Vanilla Ice thought something similar before he was descended upon by an army of lawyers.
PS, when I was a teenager I thought They Might Be Giants wrote “Istanbul Not Constantinople.” My mother set me straight on that one.
I thought the Harvard Din & Tonics wrote that song.
Yes, but did any of them LOOK like The Beatles?
Celia, hm, they are not on my label.
Molly, they looked like the kind of girls the Beatles would have shagged in 1964, but that’s as close as it got.