You Keep Me Hangin' On

"Let me get over you
THE WAY YOU'VE GOTTEN OVER ME!"

The weather changed. Traditionally summer comes late to SoCal and lasts late, September is the hottest month of the year. But this year October was just as blistering. It was like living in vacationland, everybody in shorts on hot nights, parading down the avenues...and that's right, usually nobody walks in L.A!

But then it suddenly cooled. Which is quite a surprise. I thought we were living through that "Twilight Zone," the one where the Earth is moving closer and closer to the sun. We've got no water, we're dying from the heat, do we all have to get in our cars and drive to the North Pole?

But I've retired the fan. I don't have to immediately open the windows in my house. The sun is at a different angle. Night falls early. And every song on the radio sounds good.

Maybe because this is the time of year I moved to L.A. It's hard to fathom if you live anywhere else, it never really gets cold, the seasons do change, but you can wear a light jacket through Christmas, even though the locals don down.

And the auto a/c is not a necessity. And the sun doesn't forbid an open roof. So I'm driving down the street, pushing the satellite buttons, smiling all the while.

And yesterday I heard "You Keep Me Hangin' On."

For a long time the original was forgotten. The long, slowed-down Vanilla Fudge epic was the rendition of record. But it's funny how the sands of time move. The Fudge have been forgotten, the Supremes live on.

And my favorite Supremes song is "Come See About Me."

And I've got a soft spot in my heart for "Reflections."

And I'll never forget being introduced to the group via "Where Did Our Love Go," which hit the airwaves about the same time as the Shangri-Las "Remember (Walking In The Sand)." I thought they were competing girl groups. Little did I know...

"Set me free why don't you baby
Get out my life why don't you baby
'Cause you don't really love me
You just keep me hangin' on"

At age 11 it was a jail metaphor. Sure, I'd just had my first summer camp relationship, but that was all about tingly feelings, I had to get older to know torture. And it's always the same, they always come back, however briefly. It takes all of their gumption to decide to go, they've made up their mind long before they tell you, and then they come back, what's up with that?

"Why do you keep a' comin' around
Playin' with my heart
Why don't you get out of my life
And let me make a new start"

The track starts off with the chorus, always an appealing construct, but then the change to the first verse is purely magical. It's like we've gone from mindless to sincere, declaration to meaning. It's like Diana Ross is stopping the show to ask us, why does he keep engaging in this behavior?

"You say although we broke up
You still gonna be just friends
But how can we still be friends
When seein' you only breaks my heart again"

I don't understand this friends business.

I'm gonna set you straight, when someone says the breakup was mutual, they're lying. Sure, it might have been bad, but someone always wants out first, someone pushes the button, pulls the ripcord. And why is it always this person, the one with the power, who says they want to be friends?

You know my life story, we've exchanged bodily fluids, now you're gonna make like that didn't happen? You can't take back so much, once the rocket blasts into space it falls back to earth, there ain't nothing you can do about it, the relationship is toast, let me try to get it out of my mind, forget it, so I can move on.

"You claim you still care for me
But your heart and soul needs to be free
Now that you've got your freedom
You wanna still hold on to me
You don't want me for yourself
So let me find somebody else"

That's what they always say, they need to be free. If this is true, why do they keep coming back to the ball and chain? If we're so bad, and they tell us so, why do they still want us? And when you're young, you're susceptible to this message, you're confused, you think there's something wrong with you when the truth is your partner is weak. They say they don't want to hurt you, but really they don't want to hurt themselves.

Perspective is so funny. I just heard Richard Harris sing "MacArthur Park" on 60s on 6 and I was reveling in it, and I positively hated the track back when.

And then there's stuff like "You Keep Me Hangin' On" that I thought was a trifle, but turns out to be laden with meaning, it's just that I was a couple of years and a couple of changes behind it.

And that's a great record. Not only one that gives us insight into our lives, but continues to do so as we evolve. The track is static, but as our angle of vision changes, new elements are revealed.

But songs are different from people. Songs stay, people don't. Songs are dependable, people are not. When you find someone you can count on, hold on, then again, do you really want to be free?

That's the world we live in, one made up of those who want to stick and those who don't.

But the truth is we all want to be glued together. It's just tough.

So we listen to records to get us through.

Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1wsYkQe

YouTube: http://bit.ly/1w5tHS4


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