OFF TOPIC: Um, Did He Say...Douche?

Yesterday my friend Christy sent me an email asking if I knew the song “Higher Love.”

"Um, yeah. It was only a number one hit for Steve Winwood in 1986 from his album Back in the High Life. Doesn’t everyone know that?” I wanted to say, but didn’t. Instead I opted for, “By Steve Winwood.” Taking the moral high road blows and is much less rewarding than giving someone a hard time.

I hit reply and waited for her response. I’m thinking she’s going to tell me that she just heard the song at lunch and really likes it, or that it’s going to be featured on season two of Glee (premiering Tuesday, September 21 at 8/7C on FOX).

“You know, up until yesterday when I saw the name of the song on my Sirius Radio,” she emailed back, “I thought it said ‘make me a pie of love.’”

Talk about coming way out of left field. She must have been tailgating.

But it got me thinking about music and how each of us has a song or two that leaves us swearing the singer is crooning one thing only to learn later in life (sometimes much, much later) that it’s really another. Interestingly enough, that song was one and the same for Kacie and I. If you’ve ever heard “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, you probably know what I’m talking about.

Over the summer, Kacie and I were driving around town doing whatever it was we were doing when “Blinded by the Light” came over the FM airways. I’m jamming out playing drums on the steering wheel. She’s jamming by doing whatever Guitar Hero moves she knows. And then the chorus hits, and she freezes. Her body is literally motionless as she faces forward – but she’s trying to peek at me through the corner of her eye to see if I caught it too. She's looking to me for a sign that everything's okay. I did no such thing. Instead, I fought not to look at her because laughing hysterically would have only made things worse.

Manfred tried his best to keep the party going, but a silence had started to build that brought with it a certain awkwardness. Changing the station would have been easy. Telling Kacie what he really said would have been easier. But that’s not me. I spent over twenty years thinking I knew what the lyrics were to that song until I looked them up on Google earlier this year. It’s only fair - she needed to figure it out for herself. That’s when she surprised me.

“Um, did he say…douche?” she asked, her voice full of trepidation. Kacie said the word “douche” as if she thought she’d immediately be kicked out of the car for uttering such vulgarity. I loved it.

The parent in me understood that it was not the time for shtick. I wanted her to like the music that was such a big part of my growing up. “No, babe, he didn’t. He said deuce,” I clarified. “Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.”

Relieved, she sunk into the passenger seat. Her face began to regain its color. “Good. I really like that song – but not if it says…you know.” She changed the radio station.

Funny. I liked the song better when I thought it did say douche.

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