You know I'm entering that bad boy! Let's not get ahead of ourselves, however. It is still July, and 1973 me wants to cram in some summer reading before I totally turn myself over to NFL73.
You know I'm entering that bad boy! It'll be exciting to see if I hear back from Wells Fargo or Amazon or Alibaba or whoever today owns Vitalis and the Sports Illustrated Book Club.
That's three straight paragraphs opening with exclamations, so I think it's high time to gear down this #freakinweekend mix tape a notch with some slow-hand love for sleepy, just-after-the-All-Star-break baseball. When we last checked in on MLB73, Oakland had just taken over first place in the American League West. Well, the Swingin' A's now are cruisin', as shown in the Friday morning, July 13, division standings:
A's 50-39
Royals 49-43, 2.5 games back
Angels 45-41, 3.5
Twins 45-41, 3.5
White Sox 45-42, 4
Rangers 30-56, 18.5
In fact, I'm feeling comfortable enough about the defendin' champs to check in on the rest of the league:
AL East
Yankees 50-41
Red Sox 46-39, 1
Orioles 44-38, 1.5
Tigers 46-42, 2.5
Brewers 43-44, 5
Indians 31-58, 18
Back to Billie Jean King for a moment ... I guess I had never checked, and I grew up just sort of believing that Charles Schulz had created the Marcie character amid the 1973 Bobby Riggs hysteria. Not true. It goes back a good bit before then.
A couple of years ago, 1971 me was surprised to discover Marcie in the newspaper strips, before Billie Jean King had really exploded into the culture and onto the covers of People, TIME and even Sports Illustrated.
Bobby Riggs is one of the stories on the July 13, 1973, 60 Minutes, incidentally.
Is all of this Marcie/Billie Jean King deal covered in that great Charles Schulz biography? I'll bet it is, and I've forgotten reading it. This is going to turn out to be another of those deals where, like, I have the same original observation about Tiger Woods's anxieties, except I have it about three Masters tournaments in a row.
Which, in conclusion, reminds me: The British Open!
OK if you have read my reviews you probably can tell where this one is going when I say female, Norwegian, electronic dance pop. This has been the hit album of the summer so far in my house. Me and the kids play this album all the time and leads to a lot of dancing and fun times. There are a few tracks you have to skip on the explicit version of the album but for the most part it works well.
Like any good dance pop what makes this album work isn't so much her singing or the music, it's the lyrics. They are interesting enough to draw you into the song and keep you there. If I were to put a label on Sigrid I would say she's taken influences from Lorde, Lady Gaga, Bjork, and Kylie Minogue.
OK now back to the songs. Let's look at a song that is a big hit in our house and discuss why it works so well.
The song is called "Strangers" and here are the lyrics.
Just like in the movies
It starts to rain and we
We're the broken beauties
Blindfolded minds collide and we fall
When the curtain drops
Our touch is just a touch
Not like in the movies
Our story's after the end
Like strangers
Perfect pretenders
We're falling head over heels
For something that ain't real
It could never be us, eh
Just you and I
Strangers
Perfect pretenders
We're falling head over heels
For something that ain't real
It could never be us, eh
Just you and I
Memories in photos
Too easy to rewrite
Left as lonely shadows
Holding each other tight and we fall
When the curtain drops
Our touch is just a touch
Not like in the movies
Our story's after the end
Like strangers
Perfect pretenders
We're falling head over heels
For something that ain't real
It could never be us, eh
Just you and I
Think we got it, but we made up a dream
'Cause we've got a pretty look of what we could be, whoa
I don't want you, all you want is someone
Going home together to forget we're alone
Think we got it, but we made up a dream
'Cause we've got a pretty look of what we could be, whoa
I don't want you, all you want is someone
Going home together to forget we're alone
You and I, you and I, you and I, you and I, you and I, you and I
Not like in the movies
You and I, you and I, you and I, you and I, you and I, you and I
Not like in the movies
Like strangers
Perfect pretenders
We're falling head over heels
For something that ain't real
It could never be us, eh
Just you and I
Strangers
Perfect pretenders
We're falling head over heels
For something that ain't real
It could never be us, eh
Just you and I
Think we got it, but we made up a dream
'Cause we've got a pretty look of what we could be, whoa
I don't want you, all you want is someone
Going home together to forget we're alone
Think we got it, but we made up a dream
'Cause we've got a pretty look of what we could be, whoa
I don't want you, all you want is someone
Going home together to forget we're alone
Strangers
(Think we got it, but we made up a dream 'cause we've got a pretty look of what we could be, whoa)
Perfect pretenders
(I don't want you, all you want is someone going home together to forget we're alone)
We're falling head over heels
For something that ain't real we could be, whoa)
It could never be us, eh (I don't want you, all you want is someone)
Just you and I
So the lyrics are interesting. It creates a compelling story. We have two people they meet. They are drawn to each other like a magical moment in a movie. Like the movies though this moment isn't real and in reality their story will really begin once the movie is over. I really like the line, "when the curtain drops, our touch is just a touch, not like in the movies, our story's after the end."
So lyrically this song is something I find very interesting. It has good imagery, it's an interesting piece the way it's structured, and then she combines it with one little hook after another. Me and the kids will just be sitting around and start singing "Just like in the movies" or "you and I, you and I, you and I, you and I, you and I." All together you end up with a great dance tune that you can listen to when you want to dance and be happy or when you are feeling emotional and dark, it works anytime you need it.
Right now this is my album of the year. Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good.
