This Is What it Sounds Like?

In a fit of end-o-the-calendar-year cleaning, I took all the CD's out of my car. I'd reached that point where I had memorized that disc two was Duffy (tracks 5 and 7 being the best), disc four was a mixtape from a friend (tracks 2, 4, and 13 getting the heaviest rotation), etc. I was in a bit of a CD rut, and a total clean-out seemed the best course of action. Gotta mix things up a bit and get a fresh start for the new year, blah, blah, blah.

But I missed step two of this process entirely. I forgot to replace the removed discs with new ones, so now I find myself stuck with the whims of FM radio for my listening pleasure. I've stumbled into some moments of unexpected greatness, like blasting the Go-Go's "Vacation" and realizing that I remember every stinkin' word of it. Mostly, it has been frustrated button- pushing on my part, though, often searching station after station for something, ANYTHING to sing along with loudly. (That's right, I don't carpool, as a matter of fact. Why ever do you ask?)

Today I traveled to the far-end of the presets and clicked on the station that plays lite songs to sing along with, because I, on occasion,  like to sing along with lite songs. (And just hold on a second there.  Think about whether you can, in a moment of absolute privacy, resist the urge to belt it out with Bette when "Wind Beneath My Wings" comes on before you start judging me. That's right. Ya'll without sin can cast the first stone. Yep, just as I suspected.) 

Anyhow, England Dan & John Ford Coley and I were just wrapping up their masterpiece "Really Love to See You Tonight" when I detected the distinctive four-note introduction to the next song: "When Doves Cry". Now, I realize that this was one of Prince's softer-edged songs; it's not "Let's Go Crazy" or "Little Red Corvette", but is it really lite? Can Prince - the man who confounded our fine Midwestern parents for a good decade or so with all his dancin' around in crazy get-ups and singin' about vaginas and stuff - ever be lite? 

Okay, "Seven" and "Raspberry Beret" were on the cusp of lite-ness, but "When Doves Cry"?! That's from Purple Rain, for God' s sake! That movie was rated R. I had to wait 'til it came out on video before I could even see what all the fuss was about. And he was in a bathtub for half that video! Does that sound lite to you?! (Well, actually it kinda does now that I see it written out like that. Especially when you factor in the doves and candles and stuff. Bet he had lavender bath beads in there too, huh?)

Hearing Prince - the sexually-charged, guitar maestro of my teenage years - as part of the lite FM playlist forced me to ask the great philosophical question: What is lite?. 

In my mind, lite stations have always been where one finds the Carpenters, Chicago, and Celine Dion - music that women of a certain age sing along with in the car on the way to pick up their kids at daycare. 

Then it hit me.

I am a woman of a certain age.

And I'm singing along in the car.

On the way to pick up my kid at daycare.

Ouch.