When I was about 13, one of my most treasured books was a two-parter: Romeo and Juliet in the front, West Side Story (book and libretto) in the back. Yes, I am a theatre geek. In the West Side Story section, I read the stage direction that remains my favorite to this day: "She jives to the rhythm in her own head."
That pretty much describes me, too. I have a constant, ever-rotating playlist going through my head at all times, fit to accompany any occasion with the merest of suggestions. And I'm pretty suggestable; just ask my next-cubicle neighbor, who is really good at whistling and gets songs in my head all the time.
Usually, there's some sort of narrative flow to my choice. It's been hummed near me, or I've recently heard it on the radio, or someone mentions a word in the title to me which triggers the jukebox in my mind. Other times, I wake up with a song in my head for no apparent reason--a dream, maybe?--and it will.not.leave.
My internal playlist will be the subject of my Running Through My Head posts. Today's feature: The Verve Pipe's "The Freshman."
I have very strong memories of this song, of singing it loudly in the parking lot of my high school after rehearsals from the front seat of my friend Adam's car. Adam was probably rolling his eyes at me, since we were in the middle of our "Phantom of the Opera is the best musical ever!!!" phase. (Boy, is that a topic for another post.) It was just so meaningful, you know? I was a senior, and the characters in the song were freshmen! And the lyrics sounded so deep! "For the life of me, I could not believe we'd ever die for these sins; we were merely freshmen." OH yeah.
My high school self loved the soul with which I thought it was sung, loved the lyrics I thought were incredibly deep. I always wondered what "she was touching her face" meant. Apparently, the line was inspired by The Divinyls "I Touch Myself" in which the girl in the video was touching her face in a sexy way. So, the writer says, it means she was trying to be sexy. Yeah, not so deep. It's the only line my husband remembers, too, and he jokes that he thought the song was called something like "The Face-Touching Song." Probably not what the band wanted the listeners to come away with.
Still, even though I know better than my high school self now, and fully acknowledge that the song is stupid, I wasn't upset or even annoyed to have it running through my head all day. It's mellow. It didn't get in the way of any of my work. Whatever part of me chose that song to have playing on my internal jukebox all day wasn't all wrong.
I can't believe it didn't make VH1's list of top one-hit wonders of the 1990s.
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