Why does Nat King Cole have so many hits encouraging his listeners to become positivity-obsessed human automatons who play the song "Walkin' On Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves on repeat while their unacknowledged negative emotions turn into ulcers and kill them? Granted "Smile" and "Pretend" are probably about the power of positive thinking, and not about unhealthy emotional practices, but as my mother noted earlier, I always assume the worst.
In "Smile," he suggests: "light up your face with gladness/hide every trace of sadness." Even if I made an honest attempt, I would fail. My emotions are always luridly displayed and inappropriate. Barely muffled hysterical laughing over the syntactical errors portion of the SATs. Open weeping over a movie called Electric Grandmother. Open weeping over nasal allergy commercials. Open weeping over an episode of Roseanne on the tube in a suite in the Sands Hotel in Reno. Open weeping in the trunk of a car on the way back from a biscuits n' gravy run at a local diner. What was I doing in there and why can't I just take Nat King Cole's advice?
The keep-on-the-sunny-side emphasis is maintained in "Pretend," with a further suggestion for keeping "bad" emotions at bay. Instead of facing your public with an insincere smile plastered on your face, don't go out at all. Why put in the effort to sustain friendships, buy groceries, or change out of those foul smelling tie-dye sweatpants when you can seek refuge in your daydreams, where you are never lonely and forever glamorous? Now, Mr. Cole, you are speaking my language.
2 comments:
Another favorite ode to seething denial is Dee Clark's "Raindrops," although that's getting into FM territory. He basically insists that apocalyptic freak weather is more likely than him crying. And the song bounces along nice enough with this little conceit, until the ending chorus, when he suddenly screams "IT KEEPS ON FALLING!!" and the sound of a deep thunderbolt is heard. No, that wasn't a soul-shattering divorce proceeding, Dee, it was an electrical storm.
loyally readerly,
andy
"There must be a cloud in my head, rain keeps falling from my eye-eyes! Oh no, it can't be teardrops, for a man ain't supposed to cry!"
A cloud in his head! Doesn't stuff like that only happen to Ziggy?
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