Feeling good, feeling fine, oh, baby, let the music play

It's only early December, so it feels a tad early to start with all the year-end retrospectives, but everyone loves a good list. My favorite list is Spotify's end of year compilation of top songs and artists. Music is such a powerful part of memory, bringing back thoughts and visual images and emotions - I look forward to and save each year's list because they are time capsules. 

I love a good time capsule. 

I find it hilarious that my top song of the entire year was Van Halen's Dance the Night Away. But it's definitely a sorry not sorry thing, because I love that song. From the opening cowbell to the hooky-as-hell guitar riff to David Lee Roth's scream-y high notes to the "let's cut loose and enjoy life" vibe, it's completely captivating. It also makes me smile because of the reason it's at the top of the list. 

Last January, I had my first date with Greg. We went out for a lovely dinner. Two days later we went out again, this time to play pool at my favorite bar in Denver, a dive-y place on Colfax called PS Lounge. Every woman gets a rose when she walks in, every person gets a shot of Alabama Slammer when they sit down, and it has a seriously amazing jukebox. 

Playing pool at PS Lounge in January

I think Pete (the owner) has monkeyed with the settings, because a dollar that is only supposed to buy 4 songs actually buys, like, 11. So Greg and I took turns picking songs and ended up with a great list, when I turned into a Spotify playlist called "Pete's Jukebox." The first song I picked was Dance the Night Away, and Greg said, "oh my god, I love that song." 

Now whenever we go to PS Lounge, we pick out songs together and the next day I add them to the playlist. I listen to it often, and it makes me smile. It also includes Cheap Trick's Surrender, Hall & Oates' Rich Girl, and Bobby Darin's I'm Beginning To See The Light, and the Police's Invisible Sun, which are all high on the year-end list as well. 

In October, Christin and I climbed Mt. Sherman wearing our Dead & Co. concert shirts (naturally), and then a few weeks later went to two Dead & Company shows when they were touring here. The first show was at Red Rocks, on the night of the full moon. It was cold but beautiful and the band sounded amazing. I had actually gotten rid of my ticket for the second show at Fiddler's Green because I was like, do I really need to go to two Dead shows in a week? But 15 seconds into John Mayer opening the show by singing Bertha, the answer was clearly "yes," and I immediately pulled out my phone and repurchased the ticket to the Fiddler's show, which ended up being even better than the Red Rocks show.

Something was very funny at the Red Rocks show

The shows were fantastic for a number of reasons, on top of the music. I always love hanging out with Christin, and she and I danced and sang along and laughed our asses off. We bought more shirts and giggled about how perfect it was to be scarfing down pizza while enjoying a bit of a contact high while listening to the Dead - like being back in college! We were highly amused when, at the Fiddler's show, the guy in front of us was super drunk and sat down on the grass in front of me, and proceeded to lean back into my lap, proclaiming how comfortable I was to sit on. We enjoyed grabbing a bite after the show at Perkins, this super sketchy IHOP-wannabe type of restaurant - our meal of choice was pie and tater tots, and it was as delicious as it sounds.

For about a month surrounding these shows, I listened almost exclusively to Deal & Company. Which is why it's the top artist on my 2021 playlist. 

Late in the summer Zeke got really into skateboarding. Like, really really into skateboarding. He now takes his board with him everywhere and practices tricks all the time. "Mom, watch this ..." followed by a skateboarding trick is a recurring thing in my life. That got me interested in watching Lords of Dogtown, about the birth of the skateboarding scene in southern California in the 1970s. There's a scene in the movie when Three Dog Night's Shambala was playing, and then I heard the song somewhere else, realized it was turning into an enjoyable ear-worm, and now it's number 12 on the year-end list. 

Zeke skateboards near my parents' house in Virginia during our Thanksgiving break

Rain on Me, by Lady Gaga (with Ariana Grande) was played in a Peloton class I took. I "liked" it from the bike's touchscreen, which puts it on a Spotify playlist, and then I added it to an exercise playlist. It's super catchy. Sometimes I'll play that playlist and Josie and I will dance around and be silly.

I listen to these songs and they make me feel good. Which makes me feel good about the past year. There were things about the year that were extraordinarily awful and difficult. But there were also things that were really great, and that make me hopeful for the future. 

I will say good-night as I listen to Aretha Franklin's cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water, which in my humble opinion is the best recording of the song ever. A couple of months ago I was playing it in the car when I was driving around with Zeke, and he said, "Jesus!" 

"What?" I said.

"Her voice. It's incredible."

I told him he should add it to one of his Spotify playlists.