apparently he had a favorite eighties playlist, because i'd also pretty regularly hear "head over heels" by tears for fears, "something about you" by level 42, and this instrumental new wave piece that i couldn't identify in my head or shazam through the bathroom floor. that last one almost made me knock on his door to ask for the attribution a couple times because damn, i knew that song, i'm pretty sure i did, and i really liked it. i didn't, first because of social anxiety and then because of social distancing, but mainly because of pride. i'm usually damn good at song identification, i think it might be where all my facial recognition skills got allocated instead? so i knew i'd figure it out eventually - had no doubt he'd play it again! but then he moved.
he'd cycle through those and other eighties melancholy pop standards as well as a choice selection of radiohead over the course of a couple weeks, but the tina turner song. every day. at roughly the same time. maybe it's a form of protest. i've definitely used songs to ground myself when struggling to find center, and that one's certainly timely. i can't tell you how many times in recent months i've almost organically arrived at lyrics from the thunderdome song in my thinking, not just because of our neighbor. whatever the case, it was a glorious little music-related mystery, and i need those sometimes. i was sad to see him go.
