“Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” – Gloria Estefan
I just want to freak out. I want to put my head in my pillow and scream at the top of my lungs until I turn blue and pass out. Better, I want to do that exact thing, minus the pillow, but in the middle of a crowd. The passerby will think: “wow, something must really be bugging that girl” or “what a fucking spazz” or “whoa she’s got balls” or “wish I could do that.”
Too uncomfortable to sit, too antsy to run, I just wanna pull my skin off. I don’t know where to put my hands. I don’t know how to stop the aches in my muscles. I can’t make my eyes stop darting. I can’t make my mind stop on one idea, it just goes to the next, to the next, unable to complete a thought.
Enter Star Trackin’ 76, a Ronco presentation with “20 original hits, as seen on TV!” I put the freshly unsealed record on my new phonograph and everything shuts up. It all stops. The rhythm of these smooth and soulful tunes corrects all the chaos and for at least the next 20 tracks I know that the dance moves I’m breaking into in my room is exactly where I should be doing exactly what I am doing. Breath.
I challenge someone to claim that there is something better than being reminded of the power of music. Good music, the right kind at the right time will make everything immeasurably better than it was before it started playing. This is one of the rare, ultimate and universal truths of the human condition.
