I can only ever realize in retrospect how much the music I showcase on this blog (and on my radio show, more on that later) reflects my mood.
It usually takes someone saying something like, "man, all the songs you played just now were really sad," to make me even think about music in terms of "sadness" or "happiness" because strangely enough that's just not how I think of it.
Maybe it's because I myself tend to be a bit melancholy when left unchecked, or maybe I find sadness more interesting than happiness because what I am really looking for is honesty.
I've written before about the Four Tops (also here) and how Levi Stubbs is, to me, a shining example of something rare: a person who is nice, and happy, and creative, and successful.
That is what I want. I know it's a lot to want. But that's what ambition is.
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I've also written before about my radio show, which is broadcast on WCBN at 88.3fm or wcbn.org.
For the past year it's been late at night, and I've grown really used to it that way. It was not always -- or even often -- easy to leave my house at eleven or midnight on twenty-degree nights to walk a mile (uphill both ways, kids) to the radio station.
But every time I did it, every time I pulled up off the couch and put on a sweater and filled the pockets of my coat with trail mix, I'd think to myself, "this is what ambition is."
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Now my radio show will be on at a time when most people can actually listen to it if they wish: 9am-11am Eastern Daylight Time, on Wednesday mornings.
And now I want to share a happy song.
The song: The Four Tops, "Sweet Understanding Love"; 1973
There are many things to love about this song, but one of my favorites is when they start spelling out L-O-V-E (I mean, who does not love that) but it's all these ridiculously long phrases like, spoiler alert, "O is for the only love I've ever known, given to me by you" and "V is for the value of our priceless understanding".
Ah, well. It's not very smooth. But when is it ever?
Yrs,
AW
inbedwithamywilson@gmail.com
