track 6: mad about you

By the summer of 1986, the Go-Go's had broken up (and broken my heart by doing so), but Belinda Carlisle had moved on and recorded a solo album. I probably purchased the 45 of "Mad About You" as soon as I had laid eyes on it.



The song itself is one of those upbeat and romantic pop songs that Belinda would specialize in and I don't know, maybe the song shaped the sort of music I'd listen to for the next 5 years or so. I'm not sure why I was drawn to love songs like this, because despite being on the verge of teenhood, I wasn't really crushing on anyone. Except for the singers of the songs: Belinda, Martika, and Debbie Gibson. Maybe it was simply because these songs just make me happy, and still do. The b-side was a slinky and sophisticated pop song called "I never wanted a rich man" that I hadn't heard for years until recently, when I finally bought the album on CD.

The first time I purchased her debut, Belinda, it was on cassette. I actually remember it very well because it was during that summer when I went to Los Angeles to visit my Mom's side of the family. In my memory it's one of the very first things that happened there, we went to a Peaches near the ocean and I bought Belinda. It was the soundtrack of that time for me and it's unbelievable that I didn't wear the tape out. I remember riding around in the back of a truck with my Grandfather and his wife Dorothy, her daughter Doris, my California cousins, Dwayne and Veronica and my Aunt Della and her husband Mark. I remember going to Magic Mountain and testing my roller coaster mettle. I remember driving through Beverly Hills and one morning's very slight earthquake. Being on a long cross-country flight and not being the bit afraid.



I don't know why it was so difficult to find on CD, but I recently got it and listened to it on my ipod. I recognized every note and lyric despite not having played the cassette for at least 15 years. The music you love just gets in your subconscious and stays. I first played it on a train ride to work. Sometimes I find myself in these reveries where I think about my life now and how I'd never have imagined this is what it would be like. I never expected to move so far from home. Imagine going back 23 years and explaining to that kid listening to Belinda on his Walkman that one day he'd be listening to the very same songs while on a train looking out at the daily sight of the Brooklyn Bridge. Sometimes I wonder how I ever made it this far and how I ever got here. I'd go crazy if it weren't for this music, my constant companions, the songs that made me.

Speaking of Los Angeles, here's the video on youtube. Check out links below for Belinda Carlisle's CDs or MP3s!