"Play that Funky Music White Boy ". Now that is a song that everybody reacts to. Seriously, that gets you on your feet. I have a friend who is a rather respected physician and will be acting all professional until his cellphone breaks into "Funky Music White Boy". Instantly, he is back at the Frat House and it is on like Donkey Kong!(Whatever happened to Donkey Kong? The name alone should insure immortality at some level. I digress).Super Freak stands the test of time. When I hear Maggie May, I'm instantly dancing in my purple bedroom in 7th grade..
At my recent reunion, I joined my posse from 4th grade in that time honored tradition of dancing with your girlfriends. My BFF ,Ginger Rodgers, was jumping up and down outside the ladies room at the Yacht Club for me to hurry before we missed The Electric Slide. About the time we get in position, the song switched to "Brick House". Contrary to urban rumor, although always identified with The Fabulous Ma'am, Brick House was NOT played at my wedding(s). Nor was Rod Stewart's "Hot Legs". That was at my brother's nuptial. My signature song has and will always be Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison version. Tom Berenger has named a boat after it. Or maybe I did that, so sea wenches would realize all that is TomB and his fine self is already hopelessly devoted to moi.
Speaking of hopelessly devoted, when my brothers' children were little, I taught them all the words to the soundtrack of Grease. They thought I had total recall, not realizing it was the 20th anniversary of this screen version of a Broadway play.. I always liked Rizzo singing Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee. lousy with Virginity. I only like Olivia/Sandy when she put on the leather clothes and high heels and sang "You're the one that I want". I could sing all the songs, and all the parts. My version of Hopelessly Devoted was so NOT pathetic like Olivia/Sandy in her pink babydoll pajamas. I also taught them Camelot one summer. C'est Moi!.
Other than musical theatre, my love of James Taylor and Carly Simon is second only to my devotion to all things Stevie Nicks. Stevie and Lindsey Buckingham made their first album pre Fleetwood Mac in my freshman year of college. Stevie was so avante garde and instantly became my icon. Not to be confused with Barry White, The Icon of Love. After all, nothing spells love like a four hundred pound black man with relaxed hair and numerous dangling gold medallions. With lines like "take off your brassiere, my dear", it is easy to see how Barry endured for 30years. My First , My Last, My everything.
Gladys Knight and those Pips with Midnight Train to Georgia is another tune that will get everybody into instantPip mode during the refrain just before "I'd rather live in his world, than live without you in mine" (Arm pulling train whistle double time natural reflex). I don't know why they got named Pips but that song made being one seem like the next best thing to being Gladys herself.
With the legendary bad acting and great dancing of Travolta in Urban Cowboy, we all went country. Two stepping was an all weekend activity. The Fabulous Ma'am actually sang with a cover band for a brief stint until Teeny Mama and Big Daddy came to a performance. At a honky tonk called Momma's Worry. It lived up to its name and my career was nipped before Nashville.
My appreciation for all things REAL cowboy went into sharp focus. Not what we call "all hat, no cattle" but real cowboys. Bull riders, even better.. Something so attractive about a man whose idea of fun is climbing onto the back of a huge and crazy bull and seeing just what it takes to make 8 seconds. O my yes.
Then came my Epiphany. George Strait came into my life. "You'll Always be the fire I can't put out" I was forever devoted. Hopelessly devoted. George has it all. Face, hat, voice, wranglers, and he is a real cowboy. He team ropes with his brother. A more perfect man, other than Tom Berenger, and Big Daddy, there will never be.
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One of our in-laws had an starter marriage that was full on cowboy/rodeo regalia. Never have I seen the bride get rolled over the back of the dancing groom in a full on wedding ball gown with broken in Luchesses for the first dance. It was like being on a movie set for Oklahoma! In retrospect, the best part of that short lived pairing was that wedding reception. I do , however, draw the line, when the bride breeches all laws of decency and decorum and even THINKS about using the Jack Daniels garter. Not prudent. Nor tasteful. True mark of a starter wedding. Like a starter home. Not where you plan to live forever, but its a start. Think of it as the ranchette of romance.
Lyndard Skynard. TomB wants me to pass out Bic Lighters at his wake and have Freebird played. Last year we went to see the remade Lyndard S at the rodeo. TomB and I were the only ones in the arena, I'm pretty sure, with a full set of teeth and no tattoos but these fans were fired up. It's probably the only venue where you see the Confederate Flag and it is not immediately classified a hate crime! When they play "Gimme Three Steps" I just go with it and hoot and holler. Then come home and have what is called "voice rest' for three days.
Listen to Rod Stewart sing "when a man loves a woman" and who wouldn't melt. Jimmy Buffett's "Come Monday" was so romantic that is was only after a long courtship that my sister asked her beloved Dennis Quaid "what is a brown nelly haze". Brown LA Haze was what Jimmy was talking about, but the mood and magic had already been set forever.
These days, I listen to Cat Stevens again. His new name is Yusuf, I don't care about his politics, his beautiful and soulful voice is the same. Carole King and James Taylor did a great live album last year, playing all the classic songs. I like Darius Rucker post Hootey and love the Girl Gone Crazy songs like Gunpowder and Lead. But it's Brad Paisley's song "She's Everything To Me" that plays in my head. In younger days it would have been a song I imagined Tom B would have chosen in his almost cult obsession with The Fabulous Ma'am. But now, it is the song I think of when I see my Tiny Tot. My mini me. My Trixie is, well, she's everything to me.
I remain,
The Fabulous Ma'am