While walking down Queen Street a couple of weeks ago, I passed a couple of girls, both with acoustic guitars, strumming some chords. I recognized them and nodded in their direction, and one of them motioned for me to come and talk.
“Hey,” she asked, “we’re trying to settle an argument and since you know all these old songs, maybe you’ll know.”
Since she was in her mid-to-late teens and knew of my accordion repertoire, I guessed that by “old” songs, she meant songs from the eighties, when I was her age.
“I can try. What’s the argument about?”
“You know that band with the old chicks, the Indigo Girls? They have a song, Closer to Fine?”
(Wendy would scream if she’d heard the Indigo Girls being called “old chicks”.)
“Sure. They always played it in the pub after graduation at Queen’s [better known as Crazy Go Nuts University].”
“I say the from the song is ‘I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper and I was free’. She says the word is prostate.”
After I finished laughing, I said “Prostrate! Pros-TRRRATE! Like this…”, and I made the Wayne’s World “We’re Not Worthy!” gesture.
I then added, “I don’t think the Indigos — or half their fans — have been anywhere near a proSTATE.”
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that's freakin hi-larious.
omg. i remember sitting in my dorm room at NU singing closer to the fine while my roomie played it on the guitar.
OMG! I AM A 32 YEAR-OLD OLD PERSON.
thanks dude k
That was exactly my reaction too.
Except that I'm 37.
OK, you want to hear old? I was listening to an oldies station (Los Angeles' K-EARTH 101) yesterday when they were playing the original version of "I Think We're Alone Now." I turned to my wife (with my daughter in the back seat) and said, "I'm so old that even the REMAKE of this song is an oldie." (You'll recall that Tiffany re-recorded it a decade or two ago. Yeah, Tiffany. The one that sang at malls.)
-OE
ok, how is this for lame?
in high school i recorded "i think we're alone now" at the recording studio at great america in gurnee, il (remember that place?). i also recorded "Lost in Your Eyes" by debbie gibson.
i'm old _and_ lame.
k
To combat that "OMG I am 30-something" just remind yourself of the very social lives of the ladies of Sex and the City. At our age, we can party and go the club, but unlike the recently legal, have the money and personality to make things more interesting.
I never minded being in my thirties, especially considering that some of the most memorable stuff -- including taking up the accordion and all resulting adventures -- happened after I turned 30.
I do find it amusing that someone refers to the Indigo Girls (both of whom are barely a year or so into their forties) as "old chicks".
amen sister. or brother.
i started playing the accordion at age 31.
and it is SO FREAKING FUN.
ok. maybe i don't mind be old.
k