If you are lucky enough to have a job that allows you to listen to music of your choice during the day, be thankful. As a longtime employee in the retail enviornment, I am at the mercy of whatever in-store playlist happens to be in effect on any particular day. And since I travel to different stores each day, it’s always something new. One store has a definite 80s thing goin’ on (Men w/o hats, Soft Cell), another is all teen-pop and Blink182 type stuff. The worst are the stores whose playlist repeats after only a few hours, forcing the same songs on me more than once. Please indulge me, as I’d like to share an hour or so of what I must endure.

Cher-Right Now
Al Green-Let’s Stay Together
Push Stars-Crazy (I)
Dire Straits-Sultans of Swing
James Taylor_Jump Up(I)
Stevie Nicks-?
Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack-Looking Like Love(I)
Jimmy Buffet-Mexico
Association-Cherish
Eric Clapton-It was You
Badfinger-No Matter What
Sheena Easton-Too Many Walls(I)
10,000 Maniacs-Trouble Me
Harpers Bizarre-Feelin Groovy

..and so on. The (I) indicates where the song was interrupted by an in-store commercial. You’ll notice the gods were kind enough to let both the Association and Badfinger to go unmolested, and for that I am grateful.

Today was a good day, as Ice Cube might say, but tomorrow…who knows? Throughout the day, I am subjected to the ridiculous (Gloria Estefan) and the sublime (Todd Rundgren) and often on the ride home, I just turn on NPR to flush the involuntary music from my brain. So enjoy your choices if you have them and say a prayer for those of us who have none.