Recontextualization

"Everybody Let Up" by Apples in Stereo

This track once stood out on many miscreant mixes I would make to aid and abet misadventures with my friends. It's mix of confectionary pop and kiddie-lethargic declaration ("everybody's whinin'/cause I spend the day reclinin'") made for great sunrise drive home listening.

I ended up putting it on a 3 CD mix made for my dad when he was in the hospital. Dad shocked me with his discovery of Belle & Sebastian, so I thought I would take him the next step: indie rock. Why not? The man liked the early Beatles more than the later period, and was known to have a few early Beach Boys records in his ever dwindling collection (though a yard sale revealed not one by two copies of The Beatles' Revolver! ha), and had an affinity for just about any music that could justify its' purpose or had some sort of internal logic.

I don't need to reiterate my fathers' fate, but the song is tagged forever in the "could've been" mix. I thought of him recovering and hearing that song, and it either annoying him with it's inherent brattiness, or making him laugh at the situation of being attended to by winsome nurses and a family at beckon call. "Care of Cell 44" by The Zombies also fits into this category of songs that have nothing to do with death, yet remind me of 2 years ago. Written about a girl getting released from jail, it's lines "Good morning to you I hope your feeling better baby" and "we'll get to know each other for a second time" fit exactly where I knew my parents' otherwise great relationship was heading: loss.

Would I take it back? No. Perhaps someday with age the death-induced associations will fade and my memory will fail and I will create backstories that make more sense out of these songs' reminding me of dad, but for now, 2 years on, this will have to do...