4.8.24
Don’t you forget about me
I’ll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby
Going to take you apart
I’ll put us back together at heart, baby

I have another song in mind to write about, but it’s eclipse-related. After seeing that celestial event for myself, I want to take a little time to digest and process the experience before writing. So probably tomorrow.

Also, while I’m thinking of it, tomorrow’s song will be the last entry in Professor Sandman’s Cosmic Jukebox of Harmonic Consciousness for a while. This project has been an opportunity for me to get back in the habit of writing on a daily basis, and I’m thrilled by how successful it’s been in that sense. I’m also amazed by the wonderful response it’s received from readers. 

But I’m feeling a bit burnt out by the routine of picking a song to write about every day. I want to just listen to music and enjoy it for a while. So starting Wednesday, April 10, I’ll be doing something different on the blog. I’m excited about what I have planned, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I’m enjoying working on it.

Ok. On to tonight’s song.

Today was the first comfortably warm day of spring. It was a chance to get outside, do a bit of work in the garden, soak up the sun, and appreciate nature’s rebirth. Days like this always make me think about being on the farm and tackling all the big chores that come with warm weather.

When I was a kid, I always enjoyed riding in the big, blue and white Ford tractor — the TW-10 or TW-20, depending on the job — with my dad. He was always in the big driver’s seat, and I’d get scrunched up in the left window, my butt firmly planted on the tool box that doubled as a seat. 

I’d ride with him while he was plowing and harrowing the soil; planting the clover, alfalfa, and corn; mowing, tedding, raking, and baling the hay, and chopping the corn. And during the spring and summer of 1985, the radio in the tractor cab was tuned to WDOT.

At that time, WDOT was an AM station that played Top 40 pop and rock. And it was a great time to spend hours on end listening to that music blaring over the sound of the tractor and whatever machinery happened to be attached to it.

What a time to have daily exposure to a decent radio station. Shout by Tears for Fears. Raspberry Beret by Prince. I Can Dream About You by Dan Hartman. Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush. And my favorite song from those tractor days, Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds.

In my 10-year-old mind, that song was the height of emotional intensity, and it was the ultimate expression of wanting to not just be with somebody, but wanting to be part of somebody. Nearly 40 years later, I don’t know that my understanding was that far off. It’s a passionate song that really holds up.

The big claim to fame for that song was being part of the soundtrack to the classic ‘80s film, The Breakfast Club. I didn’t get to go to the movies as a kid, though, so I just knew the song from my exposure in the tractor and loved it on its own merit. Years later when I finally saw The Breakfast Club, it placed the song in a whole new context that made me appreciate it even more.

Don’t You (Forget About Me) turned up in a really good mix I was listening to recently, and it took me back to my days in that tiny tractor cab with my dad. And thinking about it, I realized something. My dad always listened to country music. Always. But those days we were together in the fields, it was on WDOT without hesitation. And I think that was something dad did for me.

And now that I’ve realized this, it’s not something I will soon forget.