Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
I’ve never been big on streaming music.
Name the service — Amazon Unlimited, Apple Music, Pandora Plus, Spotify, Tidal — and I’ve tried the trial run and canceled because I just don’t use it. I only have a streaming music service now because a friend added me to her family plan, and I barely use it. I might stream five songs a month.
If I listen to music, it’s from what I already own or it’s from what naturally occurs on the radio or the business I’m visiting.
I prefer podcasts because I either learn something or get entertained. I like how they’re not involved enough to take my attention away from the task at hand, whether it’s a drive ,a video game, a workout or trying to fall asleep.
On a beautiful Friday morning, I was doing everything I could to not be distracted by one of the beautiful women I’ve seen at the gym. To borrow a joke from Jim Gaffigan, imagine the person who’s so in shape you want to say, “Why are you still at the gym? You’ve won. Go home.”
The basketball podcast I was listening to wasn’t strong enough to do it. Then, from out of the sky, “Call up, ring once, hang up the phone ... to let me know you made it home ...”
OK, it wasn’t the sky, but the gym sound system was enough. Hey, it’s “Part-Time Lover,” which I’m pretty sure is my favorite Stevie Wonder song. “I Just Called to Say I Love You” is too slow for my liking. “I Wish” is good, but it just makes me mad thinking of how it was sampled to be part of Will Smith’s simply awful “Wild West.”
I love every part of this song. I love the elevated pitch when he’s, “chasing love up against the sun,” and it’s more of a su-uh-uhh-un than a sun. I love the staccato breaks every 8-10 syllables. “Call up, ring once, hang up the phone (pause) to let me know you made it home.” I love how he abandons the staccato break and smashes two lines together late in the song. “I’ve got something that I must tell-last night someone rang our doorbell.”
And by the time I was done thinking about this, my workout was finished. Why are you still at the gym? You’re done, go home.
I didn’t think much of it the rest of the day. Went back to my podcasts as I drove to photograph some sports events. I had a break between them, creating enough time to grab some dinner but not enough time to find a friend. No matter, as I keep a book in the car for just such occasions.
I hadn’t anticipated the restaurant being so dark, and I didn’t think the server was going to be able to find me a reading lamp. I thought I’d just sit there until out of the sky again, “We are undercover passion on the run, chasing love up against the su-uh-uhh-un.”
Wait, am I hearing “Part-Time Lover” for the second time today? I don’t think I heard it twice all of last year, and now I’m hearing it twice in the same day. Oh ****, did nobody tell me Stevie Wonder died? I checked my phone, and the first link said, “Stevie Wonder is,” and not “Stevie Wonder was.” Good news, readers, he’s still alive as I write this.
What are the odds Stevie Wonder would be there right as my attention span needed him, in two different settings on the same day?
I’ve already listened to it a few more times since that fateful Friday. It’s a good thing I’m on the family plan.
Kevin Wilson is editor of The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him at:
