I’m in the waiting place on a couple of things, and while I’m feeling fairly optimistic, I know the dangers of being complacent or overconfident. The uncertainty is what led to a long-forgotten monster hit to start playing on the radio station in my mind a few minutes ago.
Totally different context for the sentiment, but very similar energy. I doubt that anyone within about 10 years of my age needs an explanation why Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” from their first live album, Cheap Trick at Budokan, is iconic. Which is good, because I can’t provide one. My connection to it is unusual.
I’m sure I heard the song in early 1979, when the album—which was originally released just in Japan—finally came out in the US and “I Want You to Want Me” started to get airplay. And I’m sure I thought it was fine, for the most part. I couldn’t figure out all the lyrics, which was a minor ding on a solid rocker for me. So I could take it or leave it.
That summer, I was part of a wind band that toured across several Western European countries. We were away from home about a month in total, and it was a Very Big Deal for this small-town Ohio girl, starting with flying alone from Dayton to LaGuardia Airport. It was a grand adventure1 overall for me and transformative in many ways, and I’m grateful I was able to do it.
But come early July, the touring was starting to wear on many of us. Sleeping in inns or hostels and parked for hours in bus seats many days isn’t a fun routine. Unusual food, unknown languages, and different music (when we could catch any) wore on us too.
One of our last stops put us in a small town in the Netherlands, staying with local families who’d volunteered to house us. My buddy and I had the misfortune of being housed with a family whose parents didn’t speak any English, and their boy who did was mostly too shy to even try.
But he had a radio. And one day, his station played the live version of “I Want You to Want Me.” At last, a snatch of something familiar from home! I may have cried. Ever since, whenever I hear the song, that flashbulb memory is triggered and I get a little verklempt.
I don’t know how I missed out on Cheap Trick; by all rights, I should have become a fan. Guess it was primarily timing: I didn’t have time to listen to the radio for hours once I started college that fall, and if I heard any other songs by them later, I didn’t know it. They’re still active and well loved, so I might could explore their discography … but truth be told, I’m a little leery of spoiling my special connection with “I Want You to Want Me.”
in Munich: “It comes in liters?!”
The memory my mind serves up is watching CT on Midnight Special and then traveling to Philadelphia the next morning for a Sanford Townsend/Bob Welch/Steve Miller/Fleetwood Mac concert. We nearly died in the crush of fans trying to get through the few open doors. (Same promoters who killed fans later that summer in Cincinnati.) Good times!😬😳