This is a little gift for you guys because it's Friday. I'm not sure if I've shared this song before, though I'm almost certain I have. Every single person I've ever shared it with has absolutely loved it and many have even reported that it actually became one of their favorite songs:
The album it comes from, 2003's When I Pretend To Fall, is a golden treasure, but "Scared Straight" is the scarred and tarnished history-laden diamond tiara on top of the heap. I'm not at all sure what John Roderick is singing about but when I hear it I get it and I think, thank goodness, he gets it, too.
For a year after this album came out "Scared Straight" featured prominently on all my mix cds. I don't know if I made a single one that didn't have it. The song always fit. It was always perfect. I didn't post mixes, or even many songs, on Movies of Myself then, but I was always copying and passing these mix cds out. I printed nifty custom artwork and people seemed to look forward to them, but I was never sure what they thought. And I didn't care. Music was my life and I wanted everyone to hear these songs.
Then one afternoon my friends Kate, Jason, Chris Hagan and I were driving down Foothill Boulevard in Pasadena. I'm not sure where we were headed, but it was a beautiful day, the windows were all rolled down, and it was good to just be with friends. There wasn't anything good on the radio so Jason put in a mix that I'd given to him a few months back.
"Scared Straight" came on a couple of songs in and everyone in the car was like, "fuck yeah, this SONG!!!" "You guys know this song?," I marveled. "Yes, because you put it on your last mix!", Kate explained. "Actually I think you put it on my last two mixes.", Chris said.
But I could tell they loved the song. I could tell because we all sang it at the top of our lungs, every single damn word of it. Friends in the car together, on our way to nowhere in particular, all our troubles flying out the window, singing and shouting, "Let me breathe fire down on you."
I remember singing and being unabashedly and absurdly delighted that they had embraced the little gift of this song. I was proud and happy and astonished. That moment is one the main reasons why I love sharing songs and talking music with people. And the memory of it is why I want to keep doing it forever.
