It just don't add up fer me

When I was a sophomore in high school I bought the album Kick by INXS. I asked my mom to bring me to the mall, I walked right into Spec's music store, pulled the casette out of the wall and put my $7.99 + tax on the counter. I walked out of that store knowing I now owned a piece of real rock 'n' roll. INXS was no bubblegum band or overrated pop group. They had everything a teenage girl found appealing.

I convinced my mother to let me walk in the neighborhood early in the mornings for exercise. I loaded that cassette into my Walkman and went at it. My favorite song? "New Sensation." I knew every single word to that song. Still do. I played it over and over. That song was great for getting your heart pumping in a workout. And then there was "Never Tear Us Apart." Do you remember the video to that song? That Michael Hutchence had me swooning. Him walking so slowly with that awesome jacket and great hair, and the boots. He was some kind of a sight. It was a day and age in which you really didn't know what sorts of things rock stars were up to, you just formed whole narratives of their lives based on music videos. You didn't know that music videos were marketing tools; you thought they were true reflections of the creative genius of the band themselves, freely expressing themselves. So I saw INXS and Hutchence and I thought, what an amazingly creative and sensitive guy. And wow, he is good-looking, isn't he?

Last night Grace asked me to update her "80s" playlist for her iPod. Not all the songs are really from the 80s, but she really doesn't care. She just knows there's some songs that go together and she wants them in one playlist. Among the new songs she wants to put on there: "Need You Tonight" by INXS.

Do I need to remind you of the lyrics? The first thing you hear is Hutchence whispering come over here, followed by driving guitar riffs. The title of the song comes in as he croons passionately, "I need you tonight, 'cause I'm not sleeping...there's something about you, girl, that makes me sweat."

Whoa. As Grace asked me for this song on her iPod, I thought, is this age appropriate? And then I realized not only had I heard the song at the same age, I had swooned over the lead singer while watching the video daily on MTV. The lead singer who was dressed only in a leather jacket and pants for the video. Oh, and I owned the album and listened to it over and over and over and over until the lyrics were burned into my memory forever.

And then it occurred to me, how did I ever convince my mother to let me buy this album? We had a pretty strict household. I'm sure she had seen the videos and heard the songs, yet she allowed me to buy the album? Huh?

So I'm letting Grace have the song because she said, I love the way it sounds! I can imagine; so do I. At least she hasn't seen the music videos. And she definitely won't swoon for the band because Michael Hutchence, afterall, is dead.