Day 4 of the 30 Day Music Meme - "A song that reminds you of someone you'd rather forget"

[shadowkat]

Hard one. I'd say it's more a song and for a long time, a song-writer, that was ruined by someone I wanted to forget. That someone sang this song to me after he dumped me. I couldn't listen to the song or anything by this particular song-writer for years after that. (That and anything by the Grateful Dead, still struggle with the Grateful Dead.) Which was a tad problematic, because for one thing - the song-writer is somewhat prolific. And for another, everyone loves this particular song-writer. I was, however, able to listen to other people sing songs by this guy during that time period. And I did eventually get over it. But this song, to this day, makes me cringe, and there's only one person's cover of the song that makes it at all palatable.

So, this is the song, I hate - due to the fact that I first heard it in a negative context and somewhat humiliating one. Note - if you play this song to someone you've just dumped? You deserve to be punched repeatedly in the nose and have your guitar broken over your noggin. Just saying. It is NOT a good dumping song. Oh, I forgot to add - he played it publicly in front of a lot of people.

All of that said? I did forgive him. He was 21. And about thirteen years ago, we met again in NYC, and went contra-dancing. He's married. Has a kid. Lives in Livingston, NY. And is a mindfulness psychologist. And still plays the guitar, has released a couple of albums online, and has a band.
I'll provide a link to his music at the end of this post, if you are at all curious.

So, rather forget? Eh? I'd rather forget the song and the person he was at the time he sung it to me - at that time, he sounded just like the original song-writer. I think at the time, he may have..what's the word? Channeled that song-writer - who is still living by the way. Why? Because assholes live a long-ass time. Great songwriter and musician, but still an asshole.

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright by Bob Dylan

And here's the version by Joan Baez, who by the way - Dylan wrote the song about. He'd just broken up with Joan and wrote the song. Then later, Joan did a better cover of it than he did.

Watch on YouTube

That's young Joanie, here's old Joanie singing it Joan Baez singing the song twenty years later.

I love Joan. Dylan, I want to smack. (Love his music though, saw a few years ago a retrospective of his work at JP Morgan Museum in NYC - I miss museums.)

Oh, I did promise to provide a link to the music by the college boyfriend who broke my heart with this song in the 1980s...who I went contra-dancing with sometime in 2007.

Song tracks by boyfriend I was talking about (Oh he looks like Keanu Reeves kid brother and has the same mannerisms, and vocal intonations as Reeves - I had troubled watching Keanu Reeves movies for the longest time.)

Comments

[cjlasky7]

My selection: "He's Misstra Know It All"

This is a difficult category, a very personal one. In my recent past, there's one person I'd like to forget--a (former) member of my family who thought he knew all the answers for everybody, but doesn't even know how to run his own life.

Stevie Wonder supposedly wrote this song about Richard Nixon... but the bitterness in this song goes well here, too.

https://youtu.be/JL5wei4phz0

[wpadmirer]

Huh. I don't have one. I only have songs that I connect to people I love. But then, I've been with Pat for over 42 years, so maybe he's simply erased that by causing me to have SO many songs I associate with him and periods in our life together.

I also have a few songs I associate with my brother, who was also a music fiend like Pat.

[shadowkat]

Mine is really more associated with an event and how the song was sung. I don't really have a song that reminds me of someone I'd rather forgot. Outside of that song...I don't really associate songs with people. And even that song - I don't completely associate with the guy who sung it to me. (He was a Deadhead - so I tend to associate the Grateful Dead more with him to be honest.)

[shadowkat]

It's a really difficult category - and very personal. There's a few categories - I'm going to struggle with a bit.

(Not helped by the fact that I can't remember song titles. But at least I didn't have to google song titles for this one and the last category - progress!)

My selection: "He's Misstra Know It All"

That's an excellent song. I've never heard it before. Most of Wonder's songs are kind of...overly sentimental and kind of irritate me, but that one is quite good. I love the instrumentation.

Also it applies to a lot of people - it could apply to Trump, and well, an old boss I had at Wilson...that tried to gaslight me.

[cjlasky7]

In the sixties, Stevie's big hits were mostly love songs, and the very occasional foray into social commentary didn't hit the charts. In the eighties, glop like "I Just Called to Say I Love You" dominated.

But in the 70s--like Marvin Gaye--he could stretch out with more socially conscious songs: Living for the City, Too High, You Haven't Done Nothing, Village Ghettoland, Pastime Paradise.

I would recommend Innervisions for Prime Stevie. It's one of my top five albums. Ever.

[shadowkat]

I might try Innervisions on Apple Music, thanks for the Rec. I don't like his 80s and 90s stuff at all, and as a result decided I didn't like his music. I did not know anything else existed.

Oh, on the songs that last more than ten minutes there was a Creedance Clearwater Revival rendition of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" - which just felt wrong to me somehow.

[wendelah1]

Great song, great cover, too.