I Should Probably Download Shazam But...- Personal Saturdays (P.S)
- MFH
- May 30, 2015
- 5 min read
Did I mention that Google is a lifesaver?
I'm good at remembering specific details of my life and especially of other people's lives that can go back many years. I was just talking to my mom the other day about the time that I first got my ears pierced, a few months away from me turning three. The white room, the nurse marking on my ears with a purple pen, the long needle that she used to puncture my intact lobes - I remember all of it. My short term memory however is...pretty shot. This sucks the most when I'm in the car aand I hear a song that I don't know but I like and would like to listen to again. I'll be jamming in the car, singing along to whatever I can pick up from the first listen, and when the song is over I am pissed with myself for failing to at lease hold on to five words that I could look up later. For about 85% of songs in existence, the chorus contains the title of the song in some catchy, upbeat way, but if you have ever listened to the other 15% of songs (i.e a Fall Out Boy or Panic! At the Disco song), you know that is not always the case. ("Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued"- You hear that nowhere in the song. Thanks for making my Google searches easier, FOB).
Even Captain Marvel knows how important Shazam is.
There was a day when I was about 13 when I was riding with my mom home from school, and I heard a song that I hadn't heard in a couple years playing on the radio(When you've only lived 13 years, it seems like an eternity, but it had only been maybe 4 years at best). 13 year old me is the same as now almost 23 year old me in that I still sung - if you ask my mom, she'd say screeched - my lungs out to this song, remembering all the lyrics I needed in that moments and then forgetting practically everything once the song ended, leaving a pissed off teen. This was before the I had been exposed to Shazam, and I was working with a cute little flip phone that was basicallly a toy outside of its ability to make calls. Good quality 3G phones weren't at my disposal yet, and with a shotty connection I had to rack my brain for anything I could enter into my Google once I got home.
Once I'd gotten home, I'd even forgotten the beat of the song. Classic.
"...da dam duh dum...barely breathing," was all I could remember coming from the car. I got super lucky, because this was one of those songs where the title actually matched up with the chorus. Barely Breathing by Duncan Sheik. Thank you for not falling into the 15%.
How pretentious could they be at 15?
Two things come to ming when I think about this song. The first is Dawson's Creek. I have a repertoire of songs in my Dawson's Creek memory arsenal, but this is one of the most poignant for me aside from the well known theme song of the show (side note- did you know that only the first season of the DVD's in the show's boxset have that famed theme song? Now you know. Now you also know that I have all the seasons of the show in a boxset. Embarrased? Not too much). I always envision and then giggle at one of the literally millions of scenes where Joey and Dawson realize they need to break up or Joey and Pacey realize they need to break up or Dawson and Jen, etc. You get it. This song has the perfect "I love you, but I'm holding on to something that may not be worth holding on to anymore" kind of mood. This song is about the ending stages of a relationship when both parties know it should end, but they hold on because of the love that is undeniable between the two. Typical Dawson's Creek melodrama.
The second thing I relate to this song, or rather person, is Scott Wolf. You know, the actor from Party of Five? It's okay is you don't. I was like 2 when the show came out. I don't really know why he somes to mind. Maybe I thought he was singing the song? (UPDATE: After I did some research, I saw that "Barely Breathing" was featured in the Spring Break episode of Party of Five. I'm sure this is just coincidence, but do you remember that weird memory of details from long ago that I have? Hmmm.) Whatever the case, his face pops into my mind everytime that intro on the guitar starts.
Those eyes sear the soul.
It wasn't until sometime after I finally found the song's title that I actually watched the music video. I realized that prior to that I had only heard the song rarely on the radio and in grocery stores. Cut to a seven year old me hanging on to the front of a shopping cart in the middle of a Harvest Foods daydreaming about Scott Wolf. The video honestly isn't all that interesting to me. Aside from seeing Mr. Sheik playing guitar on a couch, there is a lot of looking that goes on. He looks through windows. He looks through doors. He looks into a hallway at a girl who is also looking right back up at him. They both look into the camera a LOT. Somehow I am sure that this is a statement about the trials of their relationship, but I'm just not getting it. This is a very 90's take on an artistic attempt for a music video. (At 3:45 in the video, I had to laugh at him wiping his eye. All that staring I bet. Watch the full video below.) Despite my quails with the video, this is the song that I listen to when I feel like getting a little nostalgic. I've got too many unexplored Scott Wolf memories that need uncovering.
What is Duncan Sheik currently doing? Well he hasn't had a hit of this caliber since, but he has gone on to do some pretty great things in musical theatre. He's composed music for Spring Awakening and most recently, The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey. In 2013, this particular song was used on the show Girls during a "torture scene" with the character Marnie locked in a closet similar in style to the overall style of the music video. There was a LOT of looking.
CP.
FIRMO- Pineapple.
Well, fresh pineapple. Luckily I was somewhat able to grow out of it, but in my adolescence I had a pretty nasty allergic reaction to fresh pineapples and apples. With a purple tongue and basically hayfever in my mouth, I was about a step away from being "barely breathing". If you can handle some pineapple in your life, check out this recipe for "Tropical Dogs" below:
Take a Listen!
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