Music That Always Makes Me the Happiest

The Go-Go's. All the time. They also happened to play at The Independent last night.

If you know me at all, you know that the Go-Go's are my favorite band. Yes, my very favorite. Above the Beatles, above Buddy Holly, above the English Beat and above a host of other musicians whom I love and will admit are more talented than the Go-Go's. But the music these five women write and play has made me incredibly happy since early 1982. At this point, I could launch into a review of last night's show, but it's a familiar story. It was a sold out club show; you know that goes. It was crowded, but the venue is small enough that you had a good view from anywhere. The Go-Go's looked great and sounded better (I think Belinda Carlisle has even taken some singing lessons recently) as they tore through their set.

Instead of all those details, however, I'll simply say this....

In 1992 Nick Hornby released his first book, the autobiographical Fever Pitch, about a man and his love for his football (or soccer, as we call it here in the Colonies) team. The book was made into a movie in England in 1997. That film was adapted into an American version by the Farrelly brothers in 2005. For the American film, soccer was replaced by baseball, with the Boston Red Sox serving as the team over which the protagonist obsesses. Ironically, the Farrellys had to re-work their script during filming when the Red Sox went to the playoffs and then won the 2004 World Series, but that has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

Anyway, in the American film, my incredibly clever fantasy husband Jimmy Fallon (yes, I know he's married to another woman in real life, but whatever) plays the hapless Red Sox fan at the center of the film, and at one point, he utters this line:

"... the Red Sox never let you down.... they haven't won a World Series in a century or so... So what? They're here. Every April, they're here. At 1:05 or 7:05 there is a game. And if it gets rained out, guess what? They make it up to you. Does anyone else in your life do that?"*

Well, the way Jimmy Fallon's Fever Pitch character feels about the Red Sox is the way I feel about music. Music never lets you down. Even if your favorite band breaks up, you'll always have their records. Plus, until the members start to die, there is potential for a reunion tour. And frankly, even death doesn't stop some bands (INXS, anyone?). There are so many things in life that can let you down: jobs, general circumstances, people, the weather. Hell, we even let ourselves down on occasion; at least I do.

But music. Music never lets you down. No matter what, your favorite songs, albums, concertos and symphonies will always be there for you.

And for the music, I say to the Go-Go's: thank you, ladies. Thank you. You may not be Buddy Holly, the Beatles or Marvin Gaye, but I still thank you for 25... well, 30, really, years of happiness. And counting.

*thanks to imdb.com for the exact Fever Pitch line quotation