Forever in Blue Jeans and Humilation

A friend of mine was giving me crap for my crazy music tastes.  I don’t think my tastes are crazy at all.  They are eclectic.  I have just enjoyed all kinds of music.  Growing up I listened to whatever was on in the house.  One day, with my grandparents it could be Ella Fitzgerald and with my parents Billy Joel. 

I wasn’t really a radio kid.  My parents didn’t give me a radio and we usually only played the cassette tapes that made it into the van.  I was the oldest and thus the experiment child.  Exposing children to current music wasn’t on the parental radar.  This became painfully obvious for me when I started seventh grade. 

It was my first year of junior high and we had a large music class.  I absolutely loved going to this class.  We would sing, learn about new instruments and different types of music.  One of our assignments was to bring in a recording of our favorite song.  We could either bring in the album on cassette tape or record the song from the radio.

Remember recording music on your cassette player from the radio?  This was so awfully awesome.  It would make me so mad when the DJ would talk on the front or back part of the song.  Totally ruined it and you’d have to wait until the next time they played the song.  Still cracks me up thinking about it.

Anyway, I went home and thought about what music I could bring in.  It never occurred to me to turn on the radio, I went straight to the cassette tapes.  My parents had some great songs from the 70’s but this was the 80’s and I was clueless.  I put in a few tapes and listened to the songs.  I’m pretty sure my parents were happy I didn’t choose Rod Stewart’s “If You Think I’m Sexy.”  Going though Billy Joel, Rod Stewart and Neil Diamond I finally decided on Neil.  The song?  “Forever in Blue Jeans.”  Still, to this day, a fun song and I don’t want to hear otherwise.   

I loved my choice and was proud of it.  I carefully stopped the tape right before the song started and marked the side that should face out of the player.  When we got to class, the teacher asked us one by one to play the song we brought and point out a portion of the song we liked the most.  The teacher would explain what instruments were being used and if the voices were harmonizing, etc. 

As soon as three kids had played their songs from the radio, I started sweating it out.  I didn’t really recognize these songs and my best friend had recorded hers off the radio too.  There was one kid that brought in some classical piece and the rest of the class kind-of snickered and made fun of him.  I sympathized with him, he was probably an experiment child like me and his parents didn’t know.

When it was my turn, I walked up and gave my tape to the teacher told him the singer and song.  The song started and I explained that I liked the chorus of the song. The song was not about really liking blue jeans as I originally thought.  Apparently, I did not have a firm grasp on what “chorus” meant either.  The chorus of Neil’s song was:

Maybe tonight
Maybe tonight, by the fire
All alone you and I
Nothing around
But the sound of my heart
And your sighs 

I thank my teacher for seeing the horrified look on my face and popping the tape out immediately.  I turned bright red and went back to my chair.  My best friend just laughed it off and said the song still had a fun beat.  Um, ok.

I doubt that anyone really remembered my incident after “Super Freak” was played.   It was this experience that made me into the huge music lover I am today.  I listen to the radio almost daily and have a huge music collection, including a few ditties by Mr. Diamond…