Over the summer, I invite you to join me by celebrating a song from each of “my years,” to the present. These 60 songs may not all deserve 10’s on our TNOCS scale, but they all mean something to me. And I look forward to sharing them with you.
Part 5:
We continue this musical memory journey, entering the aughts… and my 40s.
2003:
Whenever I Say Your Name
Sting and Mary J. Blige
My weekly personal charting stopped for a bit at the end of 2002. I was swamped at work. As deputy news editor at The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer, I worked late nights and long shifts helping publish extra sections devoted to post-9/11 coverage.
It was a time of work, sleep, shower, eat, rinse and repeat. This track from Sting’s “Sacred Love” CD brought some solace to it all.
2004:
Over and Over
Nelly featuring Tim McGraw
I remember first hearing this track and thinking, “What?” I bought Nelly’s “Suit” CD because I liked the song “My Place” featuring Jaheim (and its interpolation of a Teddy Pendergrass song). I wasn’t prepared for this hip-hop/country combo featuring a favorite artist.
(TNOCS-ers with a good memory: Tim McGraw is for me what Randy Bachman is for Rabbits Rabbits.) I’ll still listen to this any time.
2005:
The One I Love
David Gray
Gray seemingly came out of nowhere in 2001. He caught my ears with “White Ladder” and songs like “Babylon,” “Please Forgive Me” and his take on “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.” His “Life in Slow Motion” CD cemented my support for him with this romantic track that manages to be both disturbing (the lyrics sound like they could have been written on a battlefield) and exhilarating.
2006:
The Heart of the Matter
India.Arie
iTunes changed the game in the mid-aughts. And so I returned to personal charting as I was able again to listen to and buy more songs that I liked. This R&B cover of Don Henley’s 1990 hit topped my charts for the year.
Professionally, I had more time for personal charting and other pastimes as I moved from nightside and the news copy desk at The N&O to the features copy desk during the weekdays.
2003 Flashback:
- The iPod made catnapping that much sweeter – and Doc and Moo came by it honest.
2007:
Instrument of Peace
Olivia Newton-John
Not a hit. But a track I’ll always associated with the late, lamented singer. Her reworking of the “Prayer of St. Francis” on the CD “Grace and Gratitude” soundtracked my 2007 pilgrimage to Assisi, Rome, and Venice with a delegation from North Raleigh’s Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi. Her voice was never lovelier.
2007 Flashback:
- At the Coliseum on our Assisi pilgrimage. (We did not write “We were here ❤️“ at it!)
2008:
History in the Making
Darius Rucker
By 2008, newsrooms nationwide saw the tidal waves ahead. My paper, bought a decade earlier by McClatchy, saw its first round of buyouts that spring. When I was offered a buyout that summer in round two, I thought it over awhile before realizing I was getting the offer because someone determined my position was no longer needed. Best to go while I controlled the timing.
Oct. 3, 2008 – my last day at The N&O – came 15 years to the day of my first. No longer bound by journalistic restrictions, I volunteered with Barack Obama’s presidential campaign: phone banking, canvassing door to door and driving people to voting booths. Rucker’s song played on my iPod as I sensed history in the making.
2009:
Smile
Uncle Kracker
As an undergraduate, I majored in journalism and English, while taking education classes and completing student teaching at Indianapolis’ North Central High School.
My plan to become a journalism adviser went on the back burner when I realized I got along well with the students because I was only a few years older – a big brother type. I thought I needed more life experience and decided to enter the newsroom.
Fast-forward 22 years. Now I had the life experience, but on the 50 side of 40, was I the best fit for teaching? Conversations with friends and folks in the industry helped me see the benefits of being a school counselor. NC State’s School of Education accepted me – even as I was teaching news editing at UNC-Chapel Hill. .
And by that May, I began my first counselor education classes.
2010:
Teenage Dream
Katy Perry
Spending weekdays on a college campus brought me closer to what young adults were listening to than I had been in years – and in 2010, that meant lots of Katy Perry. Fortunately, I found myself charmed by most of the hits on her “Teenage Dream” CD, none more than the title track.
2010 Flashback:
- Catnapping.
2011:
Rolling in the Deep
Adele
I remember how much I heard this song that summer in Seattle, which Tom and I visited so I could attend the American School Counselor Association convention.
I awoke one night to find Tom up, concerned about heartburn that would not go away. We went down the street to an urgent care, where early monitoring found Tom had a heart attack. Soon we were at Harborview Hospital, where I kept vigil until Tom made it through surgery.
We spent one more week at the B&B, so Tom could recuperate, before flying home.
2011 Flashbacks:
- Joined by my support team the day of graduating from my master’s program..
- Giving “Mr. Small” a tryout at the N.C. Scholastic Media Association in June.
2012:
I Won’t Give Up
Jason Mraz
As I approached 50, I felt roughed up.
Weathering Tom’s health crisis and the deaths of our first felines, Dr. Gray in 2010 and Moo in 2011, as well as navigating my career change felt like a lot. So Mraz’s lyrics hit home:
“I had to learn what I got and what I’m not
And who I am/I won’t give up on us
Even if the skies get rough“
“I’m giving you all my love“
“I’m still looking up.”
Coming up in the final installment:
New life in the household…
And a promise to keep.
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Playlist is updated: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/47FTYLni9GZBSTvvC1OTzq?si=99c2c078d25e4417
Chuck, seeing all these pictures of you napping, and thinking what was passing through Tom’s mind as he snapped these photos of you napping, reminded me of this weird quiz my future wife gave me when we started dating. She asked me to fill in the details of hypothetical scenarios, then interpreted my responses for me (presumably from a psychology point of view).
One of the questions is, you arrive at my house to meet me, do you find me asleep or awake? I answered, “Asleep.” Apparently this means you accept the person as they are and don’t want to change them. (A huevo!)
I don’t remember the other questions so well… one was about whether I brought her red or white roses (I answered half and half lol! I am ever the decisive one…) I guess I passed this pop quiz, as we’re closing in on 20 years of marriage next year.
Count your lucky stars you found each other these 30 or so years and counting. All those pictures of you napping speak to a partner who adores you just as you are!
That’s a great insight, Pauly. I’ve never asked Tom that, but I suspect at least part of it would be bemusement that the guy he met who’d never had a pet became a “cat dad” who naps.
Lesson from 2008: always take the severance package. I had a similar experience a couple years before that, and earned more money that year than any before or after (until very recently) even though I got laid off. Glad the career shift worked for you!
Some songs and names that I’d forgotten existed; India.Arie, Uncle Cracker and the combination of Nelly & Tim McGraw. A good spread of tracks and good to see that you embraced Katy Perry with the move into education. I remember teachers who would dismiss anything new that ‘the kids’ were into, insisting the old days were better. An approach that isn’t exactly going to help inspire the younger generation or make them feel valued.
I forgot to give a shoutout to Texas. I bought Southside. It was a Pulse “No Risk Disc”. Deacon Blue’s baffling inability to crossover hurt Sharleen Spiteri’s chance to become a household name. Apparently, it was hard for Scottish bands to crossover in the late-eighties. Texas is still an active band. Like Deacon Blue, I followed their downward trajectory from cult band to aspiring cult band. (It’s a different story for both bands in the UK.) Deacon Blue sounds like a bunch of old guys. But Texas updated their sound. And sound winning as ever. I’m hoping that Hi isn’t their swansong.
I like oversinging. I remember David Gray. I played “The One I Love”. It had some modest chart success. I wish I heard it in real time. He can’t help but sound Van Morrison-like, but the David Gray I remember is from 1993 when he sounded like a contestant on Impress Van Morrison.
A Century Ends was his debut. Around this time, I was alternating between goth and grunge, but Gray’s album gave me fond memories of The Waterboys’ Fisherman Blues. Miracle Legion’s Drenched and A Century Ends are two albums that never get old for me. Miracle Legion was American, so when Mark Mulachy oversang, he sounded more like Eddie Vedder than Morrison. I just gave Life in Slow Motion a listen. Great stuff.
Looking forward to the next set of ten.
Another great article. I can’t (and never have been able to) nap as a life strategy, and am jealous of the pictures. I would love to be a napper, though.
Sounds like you need to schedule a visit with Dr BothGrouse. I hear he’s a coma specialist. 🙃
I’d be happy to make some recommendations.
Hey Chuck, if you were to put together a video of nothing but pictures of you or Tom literally catnapping with your fur babies, how long a video would it be?! 😉
I’m enjoying how personal these tracks are for you, but it got me wondering – are there songs over the years that were already considered ‘oldies’ that you still associate with a particular stage of your life?
Hi, Dutch. Thanks for the comment! I think said video would be short, as I think this may be it for such pictures. Although if you were asking about how long a video would be of my actual catnapping … hmm, “Gone With the Wind” comes to mind. 😉
As to the oldies question, although there are songs I like from the pre-rock era as well as the ‘50s, I guess the AT40 boy in me has always associated contemporary music with the times of my life (so these songs in this series came readily to mind). In terms of my personal fondness for oldies, if I were in a car with Sirius XM on it, I’d probably pick seventies, eighties, sixties, nineties in that order.
Another great installment, my friend. You definitely had already lived a full life before you were 50. Can’t wait for the final decade installment!
Thanks, Ozmoe! Big week coming up!