Death of the Party

My friend stopped by with his new Honda motorcycle. He was pretty excited about it. He asked if I wanted to come tonight to a pharmacy school party (his wife is finishing pharmacy school). I asked if there would be any cute girls there. He had one in mind, so I signed on the dotted line.

I showed up and found them sulking at least five feet from the nearest group. We moved to a more out of the way place to get acutal seats. I asked if --- was there and they said she was in La Crosse. Pisser. They said they felt out of place and wouldn't mingle. After finishing my Spotted Cow, I reached for the free beer on the table: Miller Light. I don't know if that transformed me or if I thought that if I was going to sit around, I wasn't going to let everyone else boogie down. That's when I dove into the world that has sustained me ever since I requested "Love Stinks" at a wedding reception: Music.

Strange thing was, these mid-twenty and younger people were not aware when the music they were playing was on the radio..... in sincerity. White Snake. Skid Row. Motely Crue. Bon Jovi. I couldn't let these little white girls shake their asses and these Ambercrombie guys swallow barley water while I had to sit in a corner.

I threw $5 into the mp3 juke box to kill the party.

I was still thumbing through the list to fill my 13 credits when my first came on: Kenny Roger's "The Gambler". I had used two credits to play it immediately. It was still playing when I made it back to my friends and I found that these kids who had been born AFTER this tv movie was huge knew the song. They sang along. Still, the ass shaking and beer swilling was down a little. My next immediate play scored big. "Touch of Grey" mired these twits in a daze. They didn't know it and couldn't automatically dance to it.

Another song, requested before I took over, played, but I was delighted to know that my next 9 songs were next. First on the list was "Mrs. Robinson", which probably wasn't the wise choice as they all knew it. Still, it chilled the crowed some. Then "Cicelia" popped up and got some excited, but it didn't match the hard beat of "Girls Girls Girls". The next one scored big: "Three Times a Lady". None of them knew what to make of it. The roar turned into a million murmurs and I could actually hear my friends talking. That song was followed by the organizer of the party thanking everyone for coming out. By then, I had people leaving.

Next up: "Optimistic". While a great song, it's not a great dance/bar song. Again, these kids seemed a little lost. Masterfully, I followed that with "Time" from Dark Side of the Moon. The din quieted more. My friend ended up interrupting my set with a Ramones song. Considering a lot of Ramones songs sound alike and the bar was still a bit noisy, I didn't know what he had played. You think the up tempo of the song would get asses shaking, given the swtich from Lionel Ritchie to CBGB's finest, but I don't think Tyler and Taylor quite understand the Ramones.

"Man of Constant Sorrow" was the next song and I'll give credit to two girls who tried to dance to it. Then came "Love Hurts" as recorded by Nazareth. My pharmacy friend told me not to let anyone know it was her friend doing this. Evidently, the pharmacy world in this town is a small one and can be a bit spitefull. By the time a Toby Keith song (bad misjudgement on my part; mia culpa) rang out, my friends were grabbing their keys and walking to the door. The bar that had been full when I kicked out "The Gambler" was now 2/3 empty.

Mission accomplished.