Thursday, May 29, 2003

When I was in fourth grade (this would be about 1980) the fad among my cohort was digital watches that played songs--tinny, monophonic but definitely recognizable versions of favorite ditties.

The most popular selection--this being Nashville--was of course "Dixie." My watch played "Dixie." I recognize that this is roughly akin to having a digital watch that plays "Glorious Seventeenth of April," the national anthem of Democratic Kampuchea (the Khmer Rouge regime), but hey: I just wanted to fit in.

One day my friend Tommy was describing another watch: one that, he said, played "Hey Jude." I was just on the cusp of pop-culture consciousness at the time and must not have known "Hey Jude" by name. Because what I heard him say was "Hey You," which I assumed meant the Pink Floyd song then in heavy rotation on AOR.

I'd like to think there's a digital watch somewhere that plays "Hey You" ("out there in the cold, getting lonely, getting old," etc.).