Sometimes I’m reminded that Rick and I are not in fact one person.  Our backgrounds are so freakishly similar that it is easy to get lulled into the belief that we share our collective memories and experiences.

Two things to keep in mind.  As you know, when I listen to a song, I listen to the component parts as well as the whole. You can read, “Life Deconstructed” to know more about this.  Second thing, I just had a ten hour video marathon on our flight back from London.

I highly recommend the movie, “Twenty Steps from Stardom”.  I don’t like the way it was edited and the sound quality of my experience with cheap ear buds, an ipad and airplane noise was detracting.  But, it struck a chord with me.  I can identify with the people who make the front man look good.  The people who sing in the dark while the star struts his stuff.  The people who get paid minimum wage to sing the background vocals that live on in history,who produce riffs that are sometimes more famous than the melodies they enhance.

There was one particular episode in the movie that gave me chills. Merry Clayton reminisced about the night she was awoken to come to the studio where this young British group was cutting a record. They were at an impasse and needed a female vocal. And the rest, as they say, is history. She described arriving by limo in her hair curlers and bathrobe and laying down one of the most famous vocals in rock and roll. The screen panned between shots of her and of Mick Jagger, the years chiseled on both their faces, listening to her isolated vocal track that was recorded so long ago. 

I shivered and couldn’t help but share the moment with Rick.  I re winded the movie and plugged in his ear buds.  As he listened with a blank face, I thought maybe I had gotten to the wrong spot in the movie.  He nonchalantly handed me back the ipad and said, “I’ve never heard that song before.”

We’ve been married twenty nine years and I thought I knew the man.

(If you are viewing this on a mobile device, you won’t be able to see the youtube video.  It is worth going to a PC to have a look)