What keeps me up at night, part 45 (as in RPM)
I've caught myself whistling the same song today, over and over again, and I can't lose the tune. Now that's not unusual of itself- I sing and hum and whistle often. But the melody that shook itself loose from whatever cerebral wrinkle I'd tucked it into was "Red Rubber Ball," one of those "golden nuggets 'cause you dug it" that surfaces on oldies stations every now and again.

Where in God's name did that come from?

Since I don't listen to much geezer rock, it isn't as if I'd heard it anywhere recently and latched onto it that way. It isn't even that I'm very fond of the song, or have a particular memory attached to it, though it's not an altogether horrible tune. I didn't remember who did it or when it came out (turns out it's the Cyrkle, doing that fonetyk myspelling of kommun wyrds that was a cleeshay with 60s bandz).

All I remembered of the lyrics was the chorus...

I think it's gonna be alright/ Yeah, the worst is over now/ The morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball...

All day long, I was driving myself batshit with this. Was the sun red this morning? Is the worst over now? Is it gonna be alright? Am I gonna have to jump in front of a bus to make myself STOP, please STOP?!?

I went out to see a movie tonight, forgot all about red rubber balls. Came back to my building about half an hour ago, pressed the button for the elevator, and while waiting for it the whistling started again. Aieeeeee!

So, what's my subconscious trying to tell me? Logged in, did the lyrics search. Turns out this song has an amazing pedigree. It was co-written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley, apparently expressly for the Columbia Records one-hit-wonder assembly line. And what a post-divorce, mending-ego epiphany disguised as a happy peppy pop tune THIS is...

I should have known you'd bid me farewell/ There's a lesson to be learned from this and I've learned it very well/ Now I know you're not the only starfish in the sea/ If I never hear your name again it's all the same to me...

(chorus... the only part people who've ever heard this are likely to remember)

You never care for secrets I confide/ For you I'm just an ornament, something for your pride/ Always runnin', never carin', that's the life you live/ Stolen minutes of your time were all you had to give

There are stories from the past with nothing to recall/ I've got my life to live and I don't need you at all/ The roller coaster ride we took is nearly at an end/ I bought my ticket with my tears, that's all I'm gonna' spend*

Someone writes this today, they'd sprinkle it with fuck-yous for good measure. These guys were gifted enough they could say that without saying it. Because back then you couldn't say that. Unless you were Lenny Bruce.

Now I'd like to be able to say that my sudden, unbidden awareness of this song is a sign of some Serendipitous Turning Point for me, someone from the spirit world trying to communicate or something airy-fairy like that, but I'm not quite that deep. I have to work through metaphor and pop culture references. Not an original thought left in my head. Just some dusty scratched 45s.

---

(*Though I could find these lyrics on a dozen websites, none of them had credits or a proper copyright citation. Shame on them. And since I'm not running pop-up ads like they are, I'll claim fair use for my quotation, and encourage whomever holds the rights to the words to go kick their ass) 1:16:31 AM    comment []trackback []