Do you ever hear a song that reminds you of a place, time or person in your life? Not necessarily because those songs are that person’s favorite songs, but because they reflect certain attributes of that person which we either love or hate. I’ve put together a short list of songs that make me think of my wife whenever I hear them.
The first song is “Lost in the Supermarket” by The Clash because every time my wife tells me she’s going grocery shopping it takes her approximately 5 hours and she comes home with one bag of groceries. I’m not even exaggerating. The grocery store is only about 5 to maybe 7 minutes away from our house so getting there and back can’t be why it takes so long for my wife to buy groceries. When I go to buy groceries, I’m like a Navy Seal team member. I’m in and out in a short amount of time, without a word, and no one even knows I was there.
I’m all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for that special offer
A guaranteed personality . . .
The next song on my list is “Bad” by Michael Jackson because basically my wife doesn’t listen to me and ignores most anything I say so I like to remind her that she’s a bad wife. To be fair, I tend to constantly rant and rave and make outrageous claims and demands. For example, I like to say to her “do not defy me” and “the defiance will stop”. I also like to explain to her all of the qualities of my “ideal wife”. And of course, I have told her that for the whole month of March it’s OK for me to be mean (aka, “Mean March”) to her because it’s near the end of winter and I really can’t stand winter. OK, maybe I’m the one who’s bad.
Because I’m bad, I’m bad, come on (bad, bad, really, really bad)
You know I’m bad, I’m bad, come on, you know (bad, bad, really, really bad)
You know I’m bad, I’m bad, come on, you know (bad, bad, really, really bad)
And the whole world has to
Answer right now
Just to tell you once again
Who’s bad . . .
Another song that always reminds me of my wife is “Burning Down the House” by the Talking Heads. Why? Because my wife has a habit of leaving the coffee pot on the stove and forgetting that she was heating it up. She also has a habit of cooking beans and forgetting about the pot of beans simmering on the stove all day. Burnt coffee pots and burnt pots of beans – its like being a cowboy out on the range but the range is our stove and it has burnt coffee and burnt beans all over it. Whoa!
My house is out of the ordinary
That’s right, don’t wanna hurt nobody
Some things sure can sweep me off my feet
Burning down the house . . .
One of my wife’s favorite songs is “Fox on the Run” by Sweet. She likes to dance to this song which amounts to a series of awkward gyrations similar to the way Elaine Benes dances on Seinfeld. And similar to the song’s lyrics I like to run and hide myself away whenever my wife dances to this song. But seriously, it’s still a good song sans the dancing – I mean the convulsive gyrating.
Fox on the run
You screamed and everybody comes a-running
Take a run and hide yourself away
Fox on the run
F-foxy, foxy on the run and hideaway . . .
Another one of my wife’s favorite songs is “With or Without You” by U2. This is probably one of the most romantic pop songs I can think of. The song captures the essence of marriage with the lyric “I can’t live with or without you.” OK, mostly “with” but you know it’s probably more romantic to say “with or without you”. But I like to think that U2 originally intended the lyric to be “I can’t live with you”. Hey, it’s possible that’s what they really meant to say. I’ll have to ask Bono to clarify this the next time I see him at an international film festival or the World Economic Forum . . . oh yeah, I forgot, I don’t run in the same circles as Bono.
With or without you
With or without you, oh
I can’t live
With or without you . . .
And of course, no list of songs that remind me of my wife would be complete without our wedding song “At Last” by Etta James.
At last
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song . . .
Towards the end of the song there is the following lyric “And here we are in Heaven, For you are mine”. Of course, I always like to point out to my wife that technically there is no “marriage” in heaven.
“For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Mark 12:25, ESV
Amen, at last.
Regards,
Matt
Copyright 2020 “The Welcome Matt”
ISSN #1538-2648
