LCG got to pick the dinner location last night so we went to the Italian restaurant that he likes to frequent. I don't think any self respecting Italian would actually eat there but he has been going there for years because they have a penne dish he loves. He craves it at least twice a month and I go along because they always have the baseball game on and they have their satellite radio tuned to a classic rock channel. I'm more than willing to make another attempt through the menu (there's nothing there I really love) if my soundtrack features T. Rex and The Kinks. And I get to watch baseball. Everybody wins, pretty much.
So we were sitting there watching some baseball and gabbing about baseball and it was a treat until I mentioned that the A's have the cutest first baseman in the world. He started giggling and he giggled until his whole body was shaking and then he said, "I've been waiting all week for you to say that! And you think I'm predictable! You're such a mark!" (I had called him predictable when he picked that restaurant.) He went on to do his notoriously accurate-yet-unflattering impersonation of me: "Ooh! I can see his hair even when he's wearing a batting helmet!" For the record, I had listened to the first two Twins-A's games on the radio so I didn't know about the hair until Friday. Also, shut up LCG. Bungholio. A few minutes later we were enjoying a pleasant baseball induced lull in the conversation when all of a sudden he said to me, "Hey. What's the saddest song ever written?"
A song immediately came to mind but then I second guessed myself. I took note that Rocket Man was playing so I thought maybe that had caused the question, but Rocket Man isn't really all that sad. I stared at a point over his shoulder while I reviewed a few sad songs in my head and then I switched to staring at the ceiling, looking for my answer there. Eventually I came back to the song that first came to mind.
Me: Your Wildest Dreams by The Moody Blues.
LCG: Thank you! That's what I said.
Me: When did this come up?
LCG: Oh, I was watching TV with my brother and that silly R.E.M. song was playing in the background of some show.
Me: Shiny Happy People?
LCG: No, but I can see how you would have thought that.
Me: They do have a song in their catalog that can legitimately be called silly and that could count as sad.
LCG: It was that one...Everybody Hurts.
Me: Aha.
LCG: And my brother said, "Man, this is the saddest song ever," and I said no, it's Your Wildest Dreams by The Moody Blues.
Me: Everybody Hurts is too heavy handed. I like Your Wildest Dreams because it's more subtle. That wistful deal gets me every time. At first I thought you brought this up because of Rocket Man but it's not sad. It did make me think about Space Oddity, which I used to think was the saddest song but it's not really sad until that last verse. When it gets to, "your circuit's dead, there's something wrong," my stomach sinks. But then I went, no! Forget Space Oddity, forget any of those tragedy songs, they've got nothing on Your Wildest Dreams.
LCG: Although the song that Pearl Jam remade is pretty sad.
Me: Last Kiss?
LCG: (beginning his second accurate-yet-unflattering impersonation of the evening, this time Eddie Vedder) Oh where, oh where...
Me: That's Last Kiss. But it's just a regular tragedy song! That's why I ruled it out. Did I tell you I got that entire Moody Blues record for fifty cents? Worth every penny. I had the forty-five but it was actually my mom's. She bought it when it was new, I think because she was glad to see the Moody Blues back on the charts. And, you know, she liked the song. Now I have to go home and play it and be sad. I wonder if I ever bought my own copy of that forty-five. I'm going to have to find out.
It's possible that Your Wildest Dreams isn't really the saddest song ever written, but man. The entire song is based on him remembering, "once upon a time, once when you were mine," and he never really fills in specifics. Just that he is currently wondering where she is and wondering if she thinks about him. It's very vague and that makes it worse because that makes it universal. You can fill in the blanks any way you like. You don't know why he is wistful and wondering but when his voice cracks on the second line of the song you know you are in for a song that presses down on you.
On top of that, it's catchy as all get out so when it comes on the radio you really want to listen to the whole thing. Last year, maybe the year before, I was in the car with LCG when the telltale Theremin-ish keyboards started up and LCG changed the station so fast it almost literally made my head spin. I certainly swiveled sharply in the direction of the radio.
Me: Waitta minute! I wanted to hear that!
LCG: No. Way.
Me: It was Your Wildest Dreams!
LCG: I thought so.
Me: That song always bums me out.
LCG: I figured as much. It chokes me up a little so I assumed if you listened to the whole thing there would be sobbing.
Me: Oh. Yeah. There's a good chance of that. If that happens I'll have to go home and take a nap.
LCG: Exactly. And we've got places to go.
Even though I had places to go this morning I felt the need to pull out my fifty cent copy of The Other Side Of Life so I could check out Your Wildest Dreams. Yep. Still a tearjerker. The keyboards are very eighties and kind of unfortunate but the wonderful background vocals more than make up for it. The first two plays gave me severe goosebumps, unfortunately, the record skipped on the third listen and it just now skipped again on my fourth listen. If it's not a lint issue I'm going to have to go out and get another copy of The Other Side Of Life (unless I do have the single) because now that I've opened the door to Your Wildest Dreams I don't want it to shut. Right now I can't get enough of the saddest (yet strangely upbeat) song ever written.