Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin

I can't very well write about Ramble On without following up with Immigrant Song.  Remember that friend I told you about who clued me in to the awesome LOTR reference in the third verse?  Kevin agreed with me that Ramble On is a great song.  He then shared with me that Immigrant Song is even better.  And you know?  He was right.  This wasn't the first time he had done that...taken something I liked and professed to know something even better....and was right, dammit!  He had this maddening way of usually being right!  And then once I got hooked on whatever he recommended, such as Dawson's Creek, Sex and the City (getting him back a little, clearly), Dave Matthews Band, etc....he would no longer be into that particular thing and on to the next coolest greatest thing like the Sopranos or Ben Folds Five.  I wonder what he is into now?

Kevin and I met in the dorms freshman year and we had a lot in common. He had been in the band in high school, but was over it (of course) by college.  We hung out a lot in the dorms and stayed friends throughout and into the first few years after college.  We attended a lot of concerts together, talked late into the night, drank a lot of beers, shared a lot of laughs, frustrations, and stories.  I always appreciated Kevin because he is genuine and known for keeping things real.  He always gave me the straight story on how guys think and act.  I will never forget the weekend I found out that all guys are totally content to spend an entire Sunday in their sweats on the couch.  I couldn't believe that someone would be content to do so very little, but he assured me that this is what guys do.  And sure enough, I have yet to find an exception to this.  Right again, Kevin, right again.

Ramble On by Led Zeppelin

Remember that 1998 Basses Bus heading down to the U$C game that I spoke about?  No?  That's ok. Turns out I don't remember much of it either! Regardless, once it got to LA, we performed the Led Zeppelin show.  I have to admit, I hadn't listened to much Zeppelin prior to playing this show, but I was an insta-convert.  The show was pretty amazing, if I do say so.  It started out with a couple bars from Heartbreaker and then went right into Good Times Bad Times.  Followed by Kashmir, Dancing Days, Ramble On, and finally Stairway.  Stairway started off as a solo by Shuichi, joined by 4 more trumpets, and finally the rest of the band joined in.  The show concluded by fading out to just Shuichi again...and she's buying a stairway to heaven.  I thought it was brilliant.  I was super excited to perform against U$C and I thought we would bring the house down.  I was wrong.

It was received badly.  Really badly.  There was some booing.  There was some really nasty talk by their band.  It's not like we stunk up the joint, but that's just kind of how it goes when you are in U$C's house. It left such an impression on me I may have even brought up their treatment of us to some random dad at Dexter's school who was wearing a U$C shirt this weekend at the pumpkin patch.  Maybe.  But those U$C folks really do kind of suck!

Luckily we reprised the show at home against fUCLA later that month.  I had to look it up, but it seems that we had an away game to UDub between U$C and fUCLA and I don't really remember why we repeated a show.  I think it was the only time we had done so in my 4 years in the band. However, it gave us a chance to perform for a receptive, appreciative audience.

Ramble On is one of my favorite Zeppelin songs now.  I still picture it, when we switched from....and I am totally drawing a blank here....but from one style of marching to another that totally worked with the music, right as the chorus kicked in. It was awesome. Years later still, a friend told me to listen carefully, as the third verse has a reference to the Lord of the Rings.  Fond memories and a LOTR reference in one song?  Can't beat that.  What can and should be beat? Both U$C and fUCLA, this month, one right after the other!

....Baby One More Time by Britney Spears

At the risk of embarrassing him, and although he is very comfortable in his skin, I'm just going to say it.  Vince used to really like this song!  To be honest, I think he probably saw the video, which let's face it, schoolgirl outfit, sultry voice, that's hot stuff.  In any case, it seemed more than appropriate to make sure this song factored into their wedding party somehow.

Vince and Tammy were married in a very small ceremony (I believe) at the court.  They later hosted a gathering in their apartment in Fremont.  It was nothing fancy, just their close friends and family together celebrating the two of them.  It was actually pretty great.  My wedding was beautiful, but I don't remember a lot of it, I definitely didn't get a chance to talk to everyone there, and in spite of careful planning, the DJ STILL played a couple songs off of my DO NOT PLAY list.  Simple and do-it-yourself has its merits! But I digress.  Back to Fremont.  After realizing that Mitch was not in attendance, I took it upon myself to step into the Best Man role.  I was not necessarily assigned to the role or asked to do it.  I just did it.  I took it very seriously and decided that there should be some wedding-y stuff, whether they wanted it or not!  I think I remember we had them recreate a wedding march down the hallway into the apartment. I recruited Vince's sister and brother-in-law and we organized speeches, toasts, and even a getaway car. Let's not forget, Vince and Tammy weren't getting away to anywhere.  They lived there.  But we thought it would be fun to decorate their car with shaving cream, tin cans, etc.  And boy was Vince mad when he found out I used (up) his shaving cream.  Sorry Vince!

To be honest, I am not sure if we really played Britney Spears, but the song reminds me of Vince and it was a good reason to share this story.  I am still honored to have been included in the celebration and looking forward to celebrating many more occasions with the two of them!

Smooth Operator by Sade

This is the story about misheard lyrics.  I don't think that we ever even listened to the song in our teeny tiny dorm room.  Somehow it came up in conversation that Sara's little sister (I think) used to sing the following lyric:  "Smoooooooth Operator!  In Chi-Cago! (big emphasis on the Chi, pronounced with a hard ch-)  I thought that was pretty funny and to this day, that's what comes to mind if I hear the phrase or the song.  And of course, I think of sweet Sarah.

Sarah and I actually didn't have a ton in common, but we somehow made great roommates.  I remember being super jealous because she was clever and picked a super cool email address (a play on her last name), whereas I went with the boring first initial + last name combination.  She had hair so long she could just about sit on it.  She was tiny and cute, soft spoken, sweet natured.  At the same time, she did not hesitate to speak her mind.  I seem to remember some incident with her throwing a chip or something at someone.  The point being that the projectile did not fly well whatsoever and the end result being hilarious.  Maybe Kat can help me out on this!  Sarah didn't often come out with me, the party animal of our room.  It was a huge accomplishment when we finally convinced her to come out with us to a fraternity party.  I want to say it wasn't until Spring semester when this happened, but it was an epic party.  The fraternity had somehow flooded its basement and lined it with stepping stones to the bar. Copious drinking, dancing, and of course someone flirted with Sarah, because of course they did. Like I said, she was adorable.  And not at all a smooth operator in Chicago or Berkeley or anywhere else!