I Saw The Light
Last Saturday night, I got to go backstage after a Todd Rundgren concert. All day long I had this fantasy of returning home with a photo of me standing next to Todd—a smile that stretched the width of my face—but he (Todd), didn't seem to be in a photo op state of mind. So I didn't ask.
I never want to risk waking up in the morning and regret being pushy. And so...I woke up in the morning with a bit of regret for having not been pushy. But I think that's better than…being pushy. I just do. So no picture. C’est la vie.
This photo op stuff can be tricky. What if Britney told me to go f*ck myself when I readied my iPhone? I don’t have one beside Idina Menzel either. She wasn’t feeling 100% the day we wrote a song for her new album and I didn’t want to say, “I’m so sorry you’re not feeling well Idina…but would you mind saying cheese anyway?” I’m just not that girl. (It’s a shame because surely these ditties would have garnered considerable likes and followers.)
Photo op and selfie culture is relatively new for me, a baby boomer. I come from a time when we didn’t have gadgets in our hands 24/7 to take pictures of moments. We actually lived in them.
That said, I've pretty much gotten the hang of it. It's a necessary skill in a time of sharing and branding and finding like minds who may want to jump onto your ride.
But I digress. Back to the concert. I can’t remember the last time I was filled with so much joy over hearing a song. My dear friends Brian and Aileen humored me and documented my delirium. I don’t think they’ve ever seen me like that, or realized I had the capacity. To be honest, neither did I.
This is how I want music to make me feel more often. Out of control.
It may sound vulgar but if ears could come (as in ejaculate), I believe mine would have. No apologies. That’s the way I felt. (I wanted to use that analogy in my book, but my editor insisted I take it out. So I did. But I’m using it here. Because it’s the truth.)
Anyhoo afterwards, backstage, Aileen did her best to try to capture Todd and I together. But just as she went to snap a pic of him shaking my hand, he extended his to hers...So she got this picture of his foot.
But it’s all good. It really is. Cuz about 6 months ago, I saw a sponsored ad on Facebook (the kind of ads I hate—and, umm, the ones I occasionally place myself). It said that Todd was going to be at a local Barnes & Noble, signing his new CD. I flew down to the mall and got this:
So, at least I have one of us together. (I must say I’m feeling a little stalker-y as I type. But so what).
And there's more silver lining: in the 80s when I lived in NYC, I'd ride up and down Broadway on my 10-speed, headphones on, stoned out of my mind, feeling pretty immortal, listening to another Todd-centric album I was pretty obsessed with: Utopia’s Oblivion—on which many of the vocals were performed by Kasim Sulton (Todd’s longtime bandmate). Well, guess who was backstage? And he was very friendly. And I got this.
Kasim gave me his new CD, Three(which I have since listened to numerous times—and highly recommend). Great songs. Same voice...just a little more seasoned. And now, I have even more music with which to be obsessed.
Songs are bigger than a 3 minute recording. They last so much longer than a snapshot frozen in time. They accompany countless memories especially if you were around when a song’s shelf life could last for decades. Because here we are.
So my fantasy of my photo op with Todd did not come to fruition. But I did get to hear "I Saw The Light" hard copy after all the years of listening through speakers. I got to share my mania with a crowd whose feelings were mutual (although they could not possibly have been as acutely possessed as I) and I made a new friend. What I left with at the end of the evening was way more magical than a Tweet-able image.
Life is what happens when you're busy taking selfies.
Thank you for reading, my friends. For more stories about missed photo opportunities and other adventures in songwriting, you might enjoy Confessions of a Serial Songwriter. Click here to receive my blogs via email. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter,Instagram.
