The Friday Morning Listen

First posted on Mark Is Cranky:

I don't know about everybody else, but when I was a little kid I used to think that my stuff was cooler than everybody else's stuff. This mostly applied to 'free' things...the Denny McLain baseball game I won at an Eagles Club Christmas party, the whistle that came with my new pair of PF Flyers (for those of you too young to have heard of them, they were these cool sneakers that could make you run faster and jump higher....I'm not kidding....stop laughin' at me!!!), a nice golf ball fished from the edge of the pond across the street from the country club that was up the street from my cousins' house.

Man, I'd get this stuff at home in my room and practically enshrine it on my bookshelf. I'd wake up the next morning, the 'stuff' would still be there (just about giving off its own glow!) and I'd be thinking that I was the luckiest kid on the planet ('cuz of course I had cooler stuff than my poor friends.)

Many years later, when the music thing kicked in, I had many of the same thoughts about tunes. I'd hear some cool thing on the radio and it was as though I'd discovered...well...I guess it didn't matter what it was since it was incredibly cool and of course nobody else could possible have heard it! I'd hardly discuss it with anybody because, hey, didn't want to let the secret out (obviously, I've outgrown this "keep it a secret" stuff). Probably the first tune I can remember having this effect was "I Gotcha" by Joe Tex. Sure, kinda naughty for a fifth-grader but super cool.

Fast forward through to just a couple of years ago. On a cold night in Oneonta, New York me and an old friend go to the Autumn Cafe to see a group called Mecca Bodega. Man oh man, can these guys lay down a groove. Percussion galore. Swirling guitar arpeggios. Hammered dulcimer. Didgeridoo. I was hooked...and took home a copy of Subway Stories. Again, nearly every time I pull this CD out I feel a little amazed to be lucky enough to own such a fantasic (and sh...secret) chunk of fun. Strangely (for me anyway) I never paid much attention to the liner notes. I had absolutely no idea (until just a couple of days ago) that this particular recording was part of an HBO film.

What happened was that I stumbed upon a comment in a Blogcritics post entited What Song Would Represent YOU in a Movie?. Well, I'll be damned...the secret is out! Somebody else has heard of Mecca Bodega.

The difference with music vs. my-cool stuff is that I'm genuinely excited when I share tastes with another fan. Heck, I'm forever evangelizing on behalf of all sorts of music. It's part or what make me me.

Psssst....hey, did you know that they're makin' PF Flyers again?

Article Author: Mark Saleski

Mark Saleski is a writer and music obsessive based out of the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. He has contributed to Jazz.com and also writes reviews for Blogcritics.org. He produces the weekly feature The Friday Morning Listen. …

Visit Mark Saleski's author page — Mark Saleski's Blog