A short post today. I was jamming to some music from my childhood a few days ago and was reminded of something that made me laugh. So, I thought I would share.
I've always been a fan of the band The Outfield. They are best known for their smash hit, Your Love, from 1985. At the time, I had a vinyl copy of their debut album, Play Deep. For those who don't know what I mean by vinyl copy… it was called a phonograph. Look it up on Wikipedia.
Anyway, I had this mono record player in my bedroom. Yes, there once were record players that only had one speaker. I may be really dating myself now. Anyway, the first song on the record was called Say It Isn't So. Great song, by the way.
Somewhere in the middle of the second stanza of the song, my phonograph would always skip, causing it to jump over one line in the stanza. Being the young pup I was at the time, I never realized that it was skipping. For more years than I want to admit to, I thought the lyrics were:
I can't sleep at night
I keep on dreaming you're gone
Facing the day,
A face in the crowd
I'm sure I saw you just a moment ago
There must be something you don't want me to know
So, I spent a long time innocently thinking that was the second stanza. It never made sense to me, but many songs don't so I just went on with life, blissfully ignorant to the skip in my phonograph.
Fast forward many years later. My phonograph is long gone, lost somewhere during life's journeys. Apple creates this wonderful new thing called iTunes. Like so many people, I started buying up new music, as well as old tunes that bring a sense of nostalgia. Play Deep ends up on my list to buy.
The first time I listen to the album in all of its digital glory, I was shocked to find something I had never heard before. It was like a bright light shining down from heaven. Well, maybe not. But, it was funny how all these years, I had been missing something.
Here is the correct second stanza.
I can't sleep at night
I keep on dreaming you're gone
I'm staring into a space that was filled by your face
Facing the day,
A face in the crowd
I'm sure I saw you just a moment ago
There must be something you don't want me to know
The interesting thing is that the generation that has grown up only hearing music in digital form have missed out on all of the adventures with skipping records and cassette players eating cassette tapes. They've missed out on the fun of using a pencil to wind miles of tape back into a cassette, or rushing to press the Record button on a cassette player in order to record your favorite song when it starts to play on the radio.
Oh, those were the good old days…well, maybe not.