Upon Discovering I Wasted My Time
one of my favorite albums is chicago IX...it's a greatest hits album, the one that has the band falling off of scaffolding while painting the familiar chicago emblem. it is a great album...it isn't one of my top ten...but it is well loved and listened to often...when i'm feeling down and need a little pick me up. it does that for me.
starts off rocking with "25 or 6 to 4"...who knows or cares what it means. then comes the existential wondering of "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?"...can you keep from smiling as the horn section comes in? it slows down quite a bit for the prom favorite "Colour My World"...a song i thought was cool bc it used the british spelling for color...kind of like pink floyd's "Any Colour You Like"...you kind of have to say it different...but i digress. "Just You and Me" gets skipped sometimes, but it isn't half bad (trks 8, 9 and 10 always get skipped and won't even be mentioned other than this).
then comes "Saturday in the Park"...a great little smile as your toe taps song. first, that great carol king piano...organ and then the horns. sweet.
it has a line in it "a man selling ice cream, singing italian songs" that we'll get back to in a few.
it took me a while to listen to "feelin' stronger everyday"...i thought it was chicago smaltz...but it grew on me and rocks at the end.
and then the last song, "Beginnings". great rhythm guitar riff...great percussion... great for the entire (almost) 8 minutes.
so, let's skip back to "sat/park"...
he sings: "a man selling ice cream singing italian songs"...and then this wonderful (i'm sure) italian phrase...every time it comes on i think i should know it. so i start thinking about it. i should be able to understand it! i mean, i'm italian (well, half)...i'm good with languages...i could even appropriate some of the spanish i learned over the course of 10 years of overhearing dina talk to her mom.
i put it on again. and again. then i start scrolling back and listen to that phrase over and over (having USAF flashbacks of listening to tapes over and over trying to figure out what...oops, that's as far as that goes)"...comay' aday...esay nodre'..." or something like that. that's all i could come with. but they must be very meaningful, right? so i keep trying.
then i get an idea...find the lyrics on line...well...every where i looked it said something like "unintelligable italian words"...they can't figure it out either!
then, it hits me, wikipedia! of course! they'll have it! i hear they have everything.
as it turns out...the phrase is made up italian sounding syllables. they aren't real words...in italian, portugese, spanish...or anything really...it's just nonsense.
and i wasted my time.
and the question hit me...how much time do we waste on things we will never figure out and wouldn't change anything even if we did?
just wondering...
and perhaps the bigger question is how did the band that recorded all of the above songs end up recording junk like "you're the inspiration"?
starts off rocking with "25 or 6 to 4"...who knows or cares what it means. then comes the existential wondering of "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?"...can you keep from smiling as the horn section comes in? it slows down quite a bit for the prom favorite "Colour My World"...a song i thought was cool bc it used the british spelling for color...kind of like pink floyd's "Any Colour You Like"...you kind of have to say it different...but i digress. "Just You and Me" gets skipped sometimes, but it isn't half bad (trks 8, 9 and 10 always get skipped and won't even be mentioned other than this).
then comes "Saturday in the Park"...a great little smile as your toe taps song. first, that great carol king piano...organ and then the horns. sweet.
it has a line in it "a man selling ice cream, singing italian songs" that we'll get back to in a few.
it took me a while to listen to "feelin' stronger everyday"...i thought it was chicago smaltz...but it grew on me and rocks at the end.
and then the last song, "Beginnings". great rhythm guitar riff...great percussion... great for the entire (almost) 8 minutes.
so, let's skip back to "sat/park"...
he sings: "a man selling ice cream singing italian songs"...and then this wonderful (i'm sure) italian phrase...every time it comes on i think i should know it. so i start thinking about it. i should be able to understand it! i mean, i'm italian (well, half)...i'm good with languages...i could even appropriate some of the spanish i learned over the course of 10 years of overhearing dina talk to her mom.
i put it on again. and again. then i start scrolling back and listen to that phrase over and over (having USAF flashbacks of listening to tapes over and over trying to figure out what...oops, that's as far as that goes)"...comay' aday...esay nodre'..." or something like that. that's all i could come with. but they must be very meaningful, right? so i keep trying.
then i get an idea...find the lyrics on line...well...every where i looked it said something like "unintelligable italian words"...they can't figure it out either!
then, it hits me, wikipedia! of course! they'll have it! i hear they have everything.
as it turns out...the phrase is made up italian sounding syllables. they aren't real words...in italian, portugese, spanish...or anything really...it's just nonsense.
and i wasted my time.
and the question hit me...how much time do we waste on things we will never figure out and wouldn't change anything even if we did?
just wondering...
and perhaps the bigger question is how did the band that recorded all of the above songs end up recording junk like "you're the inspiration"?
posted by PMike. | 11:24
3 Comments:
sometimes I've begun a process of "figuring" something out only to come to a realization that the outcome/answer isn't within my grasp but couldn't have known that until i started the quest. That time spent is now gone wasted. can't always avoid those situations.
this is true. sometimes we learn from past mistakes and see that an upcoming issue is going to be "one of those things"...
i think when i started writing the post i had something a little different in mind...
and in the process of writing it, i forgot what it was...hmmm...
It's been a while since I checked out your blog. What a great post... and a great band for that matter. :)
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