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My Gen X Playlist: Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of – U2

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Daily writing prompt
How do you practice self-care?
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I used to put a stash of candy bars in the freezer. I’m not sure where this practice came from, but I would eat hard frozen Snickers, Milky Ways and Three Musketeers. Once while eating a frozen bar, I cracked my filling and it eventually fell out. This left a gaping hole in my tooth. My single, thirty something remedy? Chew on the other side.

Now it’s one thing if I didn’t have dental insurance. I did. It’s another thing if I didn’t know a dentist to go to. My brother in law is a dentist. These two data points never intersected anywhere in my peripheral and I lived with a hole in my tooth for over six months. I broached the subject with my brother in law over a Fourth of July barbecue and he encouraged me to come into his office. I wisely folded and got this fixed.

Age breeds wisdom. Plus now married, my wife won’t put up with my bachelor shenanigans. The thought of gumming my food in my old age doesn’t sound too appealing, either. It’s high time I take better care of my teeth. And to clarify, better care doesn’t necessarily mean perfect care. I just need to make sure I take care of my teeth so I no longer walk around with craters where my molars used to be. The bar isn’t too high right now, but it can only go up.

So there you have it. My self care is my teeth. Next up on the list, my eyes…

I searched, but there aren’t many songs about dentists. I found a few about teeth, but none that I’d heard before (nor liked). I did find Worst Songs to Play at a Dental Office. That’s interesting. U2’s Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of made the list. I’ve always loved this song. Fun fact – Mick Jagger almost made the recording.

Mick Jagger and his 16 year-old daughter, Elizabeth, came to their Dublin studio and sang backup on this. U2 decided to go another direction with the song and did not use their tracks.

The band sent Mick Jagger a copy of his version of this song and thanked him and his daughter in the album’s liner notes.

– Songfacts

Bono and Edge are pretty amazing. Here they are on Letterman telling the backstory of the song and performing an acoustic version. Priceless. And you can’t beat Letterman’s one liner at the end.

–

For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

I'm not afraid of anything in this world
There's nothing you can throw at me
That I haven't already heard
I'm just trying to find a decent melody
A song that I can sing in my own company

I never thought you were a fool
But darling, look at you
You gotta stand up straight, carry your own weight
These tears are going nowhere, baby

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it

I will not forsake, the colors that you bring
But the nights you filled with fireworks, they
They left you with nothing
I am still enchanted by the light you brought to me
I listen through your ears
And through your eyes I can see

And you are such a fool
To worry like you do, oh oh
I know it's tough
And you can never get enough
Of what you don't really need now, my oh my

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And now you can't get out of it
Oh love, look at you now
You've got yourself stuck in a moment
And now you can't get out of it

I was unconscious, half asleep
The water is warm till you discover how deep
I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall
It's a long way down to nothing at all

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better 
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it

And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if our way should falter
Along the stony pass

And if, and if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along the stony pass 
It's just a moment, this time will pass

31 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of – U2”

  1. I was born with 36 teeth instead of 32. I had to have four removed when I was in fourth grade so I’d end up with a straight set (after two years of braces) of 32 teeth. So, after two surgeries and braces, I had a good-looking set of teeth. In my 30’s I had to have my wisdom teeth extracted. Down to 28. Five years ago, I shattered a molar biting down on a popcorn kernel in the movie theater. Down to 27. I’d like to keep the number there. We’ll see!

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  2. I liked the acoustic version ever so much more than the ‘official’ ideo version – most excellent in every way…(Plus in the acoustic version you can actually understand the lyrics – always a plus…and the backstory – adds layers of meaning…)

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  3. I HATE going to the dentist. My parents never took us when we were kids because we couldn’t afford it. Now, my teeth are messed up. I have to get ultrasonic deep cleaning every four months. I’ve never had a cavity, but my gums are bad.
    I’m so glad you got your hole fixed!

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  4. This song was popular when I was going through a really tough time. That one line “Look at you now!” used to play inside my head all the time then. I thought I’d be stuck in that moment forever. Luckily time did pass and I can remind myself of that now, since I’m kinda stuck in another moment it seems… Dental self care, always a good idea…very concrete, I like your answer to this prompt.

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    1. Getting “unstuck” sometimes takes time. Sometimes you wake up and find you are all of a sudden out of the muck. It sneaks up on you like that. Hope you wake up to a clear new morning soon.

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  5. The backstory about Michael Hutchence from INXS definitely adds poignancy, especially to the title. Bono’s a bit angry at his friend who took his own life. Great song.

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  6. Another outstanding post today. Loved the Letterman link. I was a diehard U2 fan from 1984 to about 2015. I grew up with those guys as we are the same age. I have several U2 memories that mean a lot to me, but there came a time when I really missed their youthful passion and anger and commitment to change the world. It’s a different dynamic when you know Bono has a yacht. And he is welcome to it! Maybe I just grew out of them because I found prog rock and it had me at hello.

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    1. I didn’t know Bono had a yacht, but I guess that makes sense. They sold out stadiums back in the day. There is a great video when U2 sings a gospel version of Still Havent Found What I’m Looking For with a choir in Harlem. It’s the cool stuff like this is what I thought was so great back in the day. I grew up with them, too

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  7. My teeth are terrible! I think I have a good smile, but my molar teeth are terrible! Not to blame my mom, but she never took care of my teeth when I was a kid. Maybe because she was broke and not able to afford insurance.

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  8. I once bit into a piece of chicken and half of my front tooth broke off. I didn’t have insurance nor a dentist, so I walked around with half of my front tooth missing for nearly five years. It’s fixed now, but after the first year, I just got used to it.

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  9. Really like that acoustic version from ‘Letterman.’ Impressive falsetto by The Edge! Last year we bought into my former employer’s retiree health insurance as the benefits had improved making it a good deal. I was so glad because a tooth cracked and the repair was $400!

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