Glenn Medeiros, "Watching Over You"
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| Posted on June 14, 2017 at 23:14:14 | ||
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Posts: 7330
Location: Bay Area Joined: December 11, 2000 |
30 years ago, the U.S. Mainland was getting to know Kauai's Glenn Medeiros, whose "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You" was rising on the charts. As much as I wanted to stay home with my friends in San Francisco, I had to go back to Honolulu (from whence my relatives came), for the summer. At Punahou, I took (a) an art class, which was full of incoming freshmen, and (b) a Creative Writing class, with mostly kids who had just finished their freshman or sophomore year. In either class, my classmates had already moved on from Medeiros' "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You," and were onto "Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone," about which we've already read, right here in AA. During a break, a gaggle of girls, sharing Walkmen, were putting in quite an effort, in singing along to Medeiros' "Watching Over You." Sigh... The Creative Writing teacher, Ms. Radulovic, was probably no older than 30. With layers of clothing, and red-dyed hair, she looked like she came from San Francisco's Haight, not from Honolulu. She soon learned that I wrote about sports, music, and girls. And I kept spelling spurious with two R's. So here we are, 30 years later, and I still write about sports, music, and girls. And we use the word "Spurious" in front of "noise." You see, a small minority of my audiophile followers hates and despises girls, especially those in high school and college. And each time we cover a "girlie" song, these audiophiles vent their frustrations, and spew spurious noise, at me. But if you are a girl, you and your friends most likely love this music. What an insult, for audiophiles, who fancy themselves as "music lovers," to denigrate you and your music. If you were a smart boy, you'd wonder what and why your female classmates were so passionately singing. If you had any social graces, you'd ask, and they'd let you in. Hey, as a ghetto kid from S.F., I didn't know anyone at Punahou. It was give & take; tell a little something about yourself, then wait for the girls to let you in on their lives. Hey, as mostly sophs, hardly any of us had ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend. Any ice melted away, when several of us would gather in a tight circle, and sing "Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone," as if we truly were in pain, longing, and desperation. Then we'd space out a little, and take turns singing lines from "Watching Over You." When it came time to go back to S.F., I brought "Watching Over You" with me. When that Fall '87 semester started, my luck turned 180-degrees, as the freshman class was chock full of cute, smart, friendly, and musically aware girls. Yeah, my old classmates knew me as scary, ugly, threatening, and kick-ass Lummy. Yeah, I loved to rock out. But the soft side absolutely loved material like "Watching Over You." Initially, I was with my fellow junior friend, Ming, at her locker. I had Glenn Medeiros on CD, and introduced her to "Watching Over You." But then, Ming was miffed, when "20" freshmen girls "whisked" me away. No, it was more like 5. And with such crowded halls, they did not whisk me away. Actually, as I recall, instead of rushing off to homeroom, I told my locker partner to take roll and read the bulletin (I was a Homeroom Rep, and had such responsibilities). I hung out with freshman KG, and the rest of her homeroom. She and her girlfriends loved "Watching Over You." KG would go on in student government, her friends would meet me in sports and clubs, and those frosh girls would let me join them at dances. Those dances were yet another vehicle, for us to share music. 30 years later, my wife, one of those freshman girls in 87-88, still loves "Watching Over You," and wonders why audiophiles don't. Well, that's 'cuz audiophiles don't know about it. 30 years ago, I didn't think I'd still, in 2017, be introducing it to others. And if Ms. Radulovic is still around, maybe she'd shake her head, that we're still writing about sports, music, and girls. -Lummy The Loch Monster
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