But besides all that, I love the playlist . . .

With all my reviewing of Harry Potter lately, I realized I have seriously neglected another important avenue of reviewing—specifically reviewing the music my husband just put on my Ipod. Now granted, he put the music on the Ipod unasked, just to be sweet and kind because he knows I am technology-challenged and therefore there is no way on earth that I will ever be able to figure out how to create a playlist. I’m still not even sure how to download songs from Itunes.

So kudos to my husband, who shall hereafter be referred to as TB (Technology Bob*), for his thoughtful gesture. However, after 21 years of marriage he still isn’t clear on the songs I like. You’d think he’d know my favorites since it's my habit to put on a CD to the exact song I like, hit the repeat button, and listen to the song play over and over again until the rest of the family is weeping. Then I take off the CD with a disgusted sigh and proclaim, “What’s wrong with you people? It’s a good song!”

Seriously, I have many CDs where I haven’t even heard the rest of musician’s songs.

Anyway, so here are a couple of highly enlightened comments on the music:

1) You have to hand it to Rod Stewart. What other person could make a career in the music business with a voice that sounds like he is in perpetual need of a cough drop? That said, even a better voice wouldn’t save most of his songs. Most of them make me run shrieking to the radio in order to change the station.

That one that starts out, “Wake up Maggie, I’ve got something to tell you . . .” Ahhh! I’m shrieking now just thinking about it. Ditto for Forever Young; Do You Think I’m Sexy; (No, actually I don’t) and Young Turks. (Turks? What does that even mean? I’m envisioning little turkeys. And besides, does Rod Stewart ever even use the word ‘turks’ in the song or did he just through it into the title to confuse people?)

With all that said, a musician is bound to get lucky over the years and actually record a few good songs. I do like his songs, Some Guys Have All the Luck. (Probably because this was a remake from another artist) and The Rhythm of My Heart.

TB put Forever Young on my Ipod. (In his defense though, he may have been subconsciously influenced by the fact that I am forever whining about getting wrinkles.)

This is where being technology-challenged is a pain, because I don’t know how to delete the song from my playlist and now every time I hear it come on I may be tempted to throw my Ipod in a bucket of water in order to exorcise the Rod Stewart demons.


2) I love the song I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You by Savage Garden. I've listened to that song so often that not only I, but the entire family including the dog, know the words by heart.

So my husband put The Animal Song by Savage Garden on my Ipod. Granted it is a cute song. Catchy beat. The chorus is:

Cause I want to live like animals
Careless and free like animals
I want to live
I want to run through the jungle
the wind in my hair and the sand at my feet

The problem with the song is that it engenders way too much thought.

First of all, even though the guy supposedly is saying the word, “animal” it never, not once, sounds like the word “animal”. Listen to the song and I promise you will hear the singer say, “I want to live like cannibals.”

Which, you know, gives the song an entirely new meaning. Like yeah, I bet somebody is running through the jungle—running to get away from you!

The title: Savage Garden suddenly makes a lot more sense now, doesn't it?

Plus, even if he did write the lyric to say, “animals” what is he thinking? Has he ever seen the way animals live? I have a ton of animals and thus far I’m not very impressed with their lifestyle. What does the singer think is appealing—the way animals lay around on the floor all day, the way they lick themselves clean, or perhaps it’s the way they keep leaving half eaten lizards on my patio?

Sorry, Savage Garden, I’m happy to live like people.



*Not his real name, if you haven’t already guessed as much.