Whistle and Hum

Yesterday afternoon, as our work day was winding down, Alex and I sat in our office talking about music. We were talking about how much we liked The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel. And, as is our way towards the end of the day, we broke out with an impromptu version of the song while I tapped out the beat on my leg and Alex took the lead vocal. Sometimes, he will pick up his guitar and we’ll really get cracking on a song. The rest of the office must think we are mad, but they are tolerant of the “arts corner” and the three of us packed into an office with loud talk, laughter, occasional swearing, and music (both live and recorded) pouring out most of the time. This is punctuated by brief periods of repose, when we retreat into our headphones and stare into our phalanx of monitors while Photoshopping background slides for the weekend service. Then we’re as quiet as…(ahem) church mice.

Anyway, when we got to one particular part of The Boxer, I declared that there wasn’t enough whistling and humming in music these days. I guess I was dreaming of the past and by way of citation, I offer the SOTD – Jealous Guy by John Lennon. A simple, truthful, and beautiful song. If you are older than me, you might listen to John Lennon’s original; if you are younger, you might like Elliot Smith’s version. For me, musically (and emotionally) land-locked in the 80’s, it has to be the Roxy Music cover from 1981, made in tribute to John Lennon after his murder and sung by one of my musical (and sartorial) idols – Bryan Ferry. Just look at that beautiful pastel suit. He was wearing those when Duran Duran was still wearing leather pants and New Romantic pirate shirts.

Jealous Guy

I was dreaming of the past
And my heart was beating fast
I began to lose control
I began to lose control

I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a jealous guy

I was feeling insecure
You might not love me any more
I was shivering inside
I was shivering inside

I was trying to catch your eyes
Thought that you were trying to hide
I was swallowing my pain
I was swallowing my pain

I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a jealous guy

Ha, something funny just happened. When I am at my desk at home (like now), my cat Cat-Cat, sleeps in an open drawer or on the writing desk, like this:

Cat-Cat responds to whistling and will come when I whistle for him, even if he is outdoors. Of course as I was writing this post, I was listening to the music and as soon as the whistling began, Cat-Cat stood-up and got in my face as if to ask why the hell I felt like I needed to whistle for him when he was right there.

Finally, I have to give a shout-out to Rob Booth. I don’t think I can ever really talk about music (especially older music) without thinking about Rob. My life is full of music lovers and honest-to-God professional musicians and songwriters, but it is Rob who is my real musical muse. Part of it is because he is one of the only people I know who cares about the lyrical content of music as much as I do. Part of it just has to do with when we met and what was going on with music in those days. Anyway, Rob calls every couple of weeks when he is stuck in Houston’s rush hour traffic. We are never home that early, so he always sings me a song on the answering machine or will quote/rap/scat/toast some lyrics for me. It always, always makes me smile. Thanks, mate.

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