March 6, 2010
Do Ya Know What I Mean?
We have a little game that we play around our household called “Name that Tune,” which, not coincidentally, is the name of a popular television show from several decades ago where they had people guessing songs in a couple of notes or less.
One of our favorite topics of discourse being music (and our slow metabolism), we often entertain ourselves by bringing up songs that we can’t, for the life of us, remember who the flock sang them. Often we inadvertently bring in one of the show's elements because we only HAVE a note or two to repeatedly sing at one another, as we keep guessing away who warbled their way through the whole ditty originally.
This leads to fun, spirited discussions, often followed by long distance phone calls, emails and the testing of our friends’ patience and memories as we attempt to determine the answer. Yes, we do often revert to utilizing the Internet, but we consider that a last resort, almost like flipping to the back of the math book to see what the answers are. Besides, it’s amazing how many other musicians get a kick out of this little game too, so we like to torment others with our snapping fingers as we screech, “Oh! What IS his name? You know, he had that hair, sang that song, it came out in the early 80’s and he dated that other singer?” It’s amazing we don’t guess the correct answer sooner, what with that kind of helpful information we provide one another.
So, along about last week I began working on a column about the fact that I’m noticing loads of people peppering their conversations with the rhetorical question, “Do you know what I mean?” which led me to the guessing of who sang that song. No one knew and I had to revert to the Internet to get the answer which is that it’s a 1970s song, sung by a guy named Lee Michaels who was sort of a “one hit wonder.”
Do Ya Know What I Mean?
We have a little game that we play around our household called “Name that Tune,” which, not coincidentally, is the name of a popular television show from several decades ago where they had people guessing songs in a couple of notes or less.
One of our favorite topics of discourse being music (and our slow metabolism), we often entertain ourselves by bringing up songs that we can’t, for the life of us, remember who the flock sang them. Often we inadvertently bring in one of the show's elements because we only HAVE a note or two to repeatedly sing at one another, as we keep guessing away who warbled their way through the whole ditty originally.
This leads to fun, spirited discussions, often followed by long distance phone calls, emails and the testing of our friends’ patience and memories as we attempt to determine the answer. Yes, we do often revert to utilizing the Internet, but we consider that a last resort, almost like flipping to the back of the math book to see what the answers are. Besides, it’s amazing how many other musicians get a kick out of this little game too, so we like to torment others with our snapping fingers as we screech, “Oh! What IS his name? You know, he had that hair, sang that song, it came out in the early 80’s and he dated that other singer?” It’s amazing we don’t guess the correct answer sooner, what with that kind of helpful information we provide one another.
So, along about last week I began working on a column about the fact that I’m noticing loads of people peppering their conversations with the rhetorical question, “Do you know what I mean?” which led me to the guessing of who sang that song. No one knew and I had to revert to the Internet to get the answer which is that it’s a 1970s song, sung by a guy named Lee Michaels who was sort of a “one hit wonder.”
The part that amused me the most about all of this wasn’t that a) Once again, I had entertained myself for days with minutiae that no one cares about; b) Once again, I had entertained myself for days with a song that no one cares about, but rather c) Once again, I had been singing a line from a song incorrectly for yea these many years which would be a bigger deal if I was a professional singer, which no one cares about.
It’s that line where I thought it said, “It’s been 14 days since I don’t know when.” What does it actually say? “Been 40 days since I don’t know when.” Okay, so I was off by 26 days which is yet another example of why I would always rather write an essay than tote the numbers. And that’s the name of that tune!
No comments:
Post a Comment