The Song in My Head

Say, since we're speaking of profanity...

The song in my head tonight comes straight out of Mark Hellenberg's excellent radio show on WOUB-FM (Athens, Ohio's NPR hook-up), called "Crossing Boundaries." Many times I've heard a song he's played and raced right to the laptop to find out more about the artist and often to buy the song.

Last night, on the way home from a late night at work which followed a butt-kicker of a day, I found myself gritting my remaining teeth, when out of the car's speakers came a song by an artist I'd never heard of: Jenny Owen Youngs.

Hmmm a new artist, I thought...cello intro is nice, soothing almost. This female vocalist has a funny twang to her singing, a slightly hoarse voice tinged with a bit of tremolo. She was singing a song which had a chorus that asked the Question For the Ages:
What the *%$# Was I Thinking?

OK I'm hooked...

Of course on Mark's show, her naughty words were blanked out. But, as I steered the van through the challenging curves on the road home, I laughed until I cried hearing this sweet-voiced young woman verbalizing my exact thoughts, accompanied by acoustic guitar, cello, and drums. It was a perfect meeting of new song and old feeling. I surrendered to the waltzing flow.

Within an hour of arriving home the song was mine, with all lyrics intact and not a bleep within hearing.

I do not recommend this song to you if four-letter words beginning in F are not your cup of tea. But for me the song strikes the perfect chord. At least for now. It's so nice when someone else says your bad words for you, and says them exactly right.

Tonight the Song in My Head is:
F*#* Was I?
by Jenny Owen Youngs
from her album:
Batten the Hatches

I especially like this line:
Skillet on the stove is such a temptation.
Maybe I'll be the lucky one who doesn't get burned?

Check it out, if you're a brave soul.
But consider yourself warned about the bad words (and understand that if you sing along, you might get your mouth washed out with soap).