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My Gen X Playlist: Every Beat of the Heart – The Railway Children

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I received an email for comped rooms in Vegas. How could I refuse free rooms? Well, technically they’re not really free. We still had to cover the resort and parking fees. Nevertheless, it was still a great deal and I booked it.

My wife doesn’t care to gamble. And that’s probably a good thing. The odds are always in favor of the house.

The main thing to understand is that the odds always favor the house. For example, the house’s take on a slot machine is about 35 percent. This means that if you bet $10, you can expect to walk away with $6.50; if you bet $100, you can expect to keep only $65, and so forth. The more you play, the more you lose. Although some gamblers are ahead temporarily, in the long run the odds will prevail.

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We took a trip to Vegas before we were married and I was showing her how to play craps. Craps is pretty fast. You can win pretty fast, or lose pretty fast. Unfortunately, that time it was the latter. As they raked all my chips, I told her not to worry. I’d just win it back at the blackjack table. She gave me a little side eye with that comment. We were recently engaged and I assured her I didn’t have a gambling problem.

My buddies planned a Vegas trip for my bachelor party. One of the good things about getting married later in life (we were almost 40), the youthful wild side was out of our system. It was a great weekend of drinking and gambling. I remember being down more than usual and thought how that money would really come in handy to help pay for the wedding. Fortunately on our last night, a 2AM hot streak at the craps table brought me back to even. What a great way to end the trip.

These days, Vegas trips with my wife are less about gambling and more about getting away. We’ll have a nice meal, check out the hotels and sights, maybe a little shopping or catch a show. I still gamble – less craps and more blackjack. Not to subject my wife to standing around watching me play cards, I found a happy compromise. I wake up around 4AM and gamble until about 9AM to get my fix. I will say it’s definitely a different crowd in the early hours of the morning. It’s either the drunk guy that’s been clubbing all night, hard core gamblers who are playing through dawn or just a few oddball people up in the early hours. Now that I put it that way, it sounds like I may be in that last category. Way to insult myself.

I thought about the drive and decided to go old school for this trip. I went through my CD collection and pulled a few for the ride. The trick was finding CDs that we both could enjoy.

Unfortunately, my wife had a little accident and broke her toe a few days before our trip. Las Vegas is a walking town. It didn’t make sense to go, so we canceled our trip. She felt really bad, but I was fine. Vegas will always be there and based upon the odds, she saved me 35% of my gambling stash. Anyway, it gave me an opportunity to walk down memory lane with my CD collection. Just that alone made me feel like I was walking away from the tables a winner.

I rediscovered the Railway Children as I sorted through my CDs. Every Beat of the Heart was a flash from the past. I’m pretty sure my wife isn’t familiar with it, but it’s such a catchy tune, I can imagine her tapping her finger and bobbing her head as we make our way through the desert. I’ll set it aside and keep it handy for our next road trip. In the meantime, here you go. Hope you like it.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

That's some angry sky behind me
But I don't need you here to guide me
Identify too familiar ground
And I'll keep away, I'll keep away

I think I can control my need
But you're so precious when you leave
Don't demonstrate, its life and death
In front of me, in front of me

Every beat of the heart
Brings me closer to the start
Takes me further away from you
Brings me closer to the truth

And don't show me around
It's just an easy way you've found

That's a part of my life behind me
And I conclude that we can't fail to see
Center ground, better days
Too familiar now to keep away

You think you can control this greed
Well, turn full circle, you can't fail to see
It's second place I've found the key
Close to you I can believe

Every beat of the heart
Brings me closer to the start
Takes me further away from you
Brings me closer to the truth

21 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: Every Beat of the Heart – The Railway Children”

  1. That’s such a nice story…and funny…when I have the time, I try ‘n look up the songs you talk about and today I did expecting to recognize it but I don’t. Hope her toe heals up fast 🙂

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  2. Nice you still have a CD player in your car. mine doesn’t but Friend Husband does.

    I think often about this whole music situation where everything I listen to is streaming. The only way I can play CDs is on an old Sony Walkman. if I use all the right cords, I can play through my computer, but the convenience of streaming is almost irresistible.

    I haven’t heard this song before but I really like it. I can also see your wife tapping here (non-broken) toe to it.

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    1. We do! But when we retire that car, that’ll be it. I don’t think we’ve ever used it, though.

      I only listen to streaming these days. It’s so convenient and at our fingertips. I was looking at Amazon and might buy a discman so I can listen to my CDs once in awhile. But then again, I can find all the music online.

      Haha… yep, her non broken toe!

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  3. Can’t say as I have ever had any desire to go to Las Vegas. Gambling doesn’t seem to have much of an attraction for me. When we lived in the Bahamas when we were bored out of our minds we would go to a casino, my husband would lose at blackjack and anything else he played while I would win on the slots. My budget was $20 and I could never lose it. I’d be down to my last quarter and bada-boom, bada-bing – ding, ding, ding – I’d win my original $20 and then some. And then I’d cash out and go home. Slot machines are tedious.

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      1. It was a work thing for my husband – could have stayed for 6 years, got out after the first 2 – it’s nice for a long weekend but live there? Boring! Going ‘off island’ was celebration time – and I certainly did it often.

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      2. Sounds like a case of island fever… my wife and I have considered retiring in Hawaii one day, closer to her family. But she’s concerned I might get island fever…

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  4. You really brought it all around! I’ve only been to Vegas once, and was working so didn’t get much of a chance to learn to gamble. The atmospheres are so unique that I could imagine that 4 am to 9 am environment pretty well. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever heard this song. Not sure how that happened. 🙂

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      1. Reading your post, I felt like I must have heard this and was tracing my memory to those years, but no, so thanks for the exposure. 🙂

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  5. Glad to hear you’re sorting through those CDs. That tune isn’t familiar to me, but definitely sounds like peak 80s! Hope you get that road trip to Vegas rescheduled soon.

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      1. I’m doing fairly well, thanks! With a family wedding, a family visit, time at a cottage and then sick time, I’m just on my third post in almost a month so there may not be much to catch up on!

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  7. lol i have a love/hate relationship with vegas. my friends and i might be going next month depending on if we get free tickets to a concert or not. hopefully, you’ll be able to go soon and have a great time!

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  8. I don’t think think I know the song, but it has an 80s sound to it. Catchy
    Free trip to Vegas? Thats awesome, I hope you get another! And your wife’s poor toe heals quickly!
    I’ve had a few fun Vegas trips, it’s always an adventure. There’s a lot of stuff to do there. I’m not much of a gambler, but I’ve had some fun losing🤪

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