Well, well, well, Darling Ones,
Today is the 40th anniversary of “Let it Be” (The Replacements’ version), which contains the song “I Will Dare,” which happens to be the greatest side one, track one of all time.
ALL TIME!
If I were better at seeing into the future I’d have saved a few thoughts brought on by the 28th Anniversary of The ‘Mats’ ‘Let it Be’ for a more monumental anniversary. Even twelve years into my blogging career I couldn’t predict I’d make it twenty-four years. Though to be fair, forty years in, what more can be said about “Let it Be?” I’m sure there are forty GenX guys who got paid to pontificate on the significance of this record, but lord knows none of us need more GenX guys yammering on about The Replacements.
You’ve heard the song before, right? Give it a listen. It’s sonic joy. A few years I had a very cranky reader complained that she finally listened to it and hated the song. That’s neither here nor there, but just something I was thinking about.
I’ve been failing to adequately explain to the Internet why this song for twenty-four years.
It’s not the first Replacements’ song I heard. That was “Merry Go Round” as documented in Jim Walsh’s All Over But the Shouting.
And on a pretty regular basis it’s not even my favorite ‘Mats’ song. Some days it’s “Can’t Hardly Wait” and others it’s “If Only You Were Lonely.” However, if you ask me what my all-time favorite song is I often say “I Will Dare.”
It is for-sure, with zero doubt the one song guaranteed to make me smile. Usually my body recognizes the song before my brain does and my heart starts to beat a little faster, my blood feels zingier in my veins, and then I start to smile. I say to myself, without fail, “I love this song” every time I hear it. Why not this song?
I can tell you there are way worse songs/mottos to build your life around. I will dare is sometime I whisper to myself every day, especially now post-stroke. It’s a nice way to motivate myself to do something I don’t want to do or am afraid to do.
This whole letter is a little all over the place, forgive me. About halfway through writing I got hit in the face with allergies and now my head is all floaty and wooshy. But I couldn’t let this anniversary go without saying something. Who knows were I’ll be in 2029 or 2034? Still writing, I hope.
Counting the rings around my watery eyes,
Jodi