My Gen X Playlist: Semi-Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind

I searched through a few cabinets. It’s been a while since we needed them. I wondered if they were still good. I’m sure all were past their expiration dates, but I read results from expired ones could still be trusted. I finally found our stash of Covid tests.

It feels like Covid was a million years ago and just yesterday at the same time. That’s a strange overlay of time perspectives. Because it’s been in the rear view mirror for some time, the scare of the pandemic has worn off. We didn’t even get the last vaccine shot. When I received the call that we’d been exposed to someone who tested positive for Covid, I was only slightly concerned. Sure we quarantined for the right amount of time and made sure to test ourselves. We chuckled because for a few days, we even wore masks around the house. Even in doing so, the fear and panic was a distant memory. So starkly different when we were in those days of uncertainty and fear.

It’s an incredible thought we endured this. I wondered what people will be thinking as they read about the pandemic in the history books hundreds of years from now. Probably the same thing I thought when I read about the bubonic plague as a kid. Not gonna happen in my lifetime. But according to the experts, I may still be around for round two.

According to the Center for Global Development, the annual likelihood of a pandemic is 2–3%, which means a 47–57% probability of another deadly pandemic in the next 25 years.

HealthUCDavis

I’m a data guy. I look at the numbers and take odds and probability to heart. It’s almost summertime and the sitting poolside worrying about getting sunburned seems like a much better use of energy, though. I think I’ll choose to put my blinders on and let this one go for now.

That last sentence made me think about the band Third Eye Blind. I was listening to some of their music and saw a song title that seemed to match – Losing a Whole Year. Unfortunately, I’d never heard of it before and I was lukewarm on the song. I thought it best to pick a tried and true song even without the connection to our lost year of the pandemic. I settled on Semi-Charmed Life.

I read the backstory of the song. There’s no remote connection I can make towards our experiences to the pandemic. It’s sounds like an upbeat happy song but in contrast, it’s really about suffering from drug addiction. This juxtaposition of a happy melody overlapping darkness is an unexpected pairing. Such is life.

So, I followed a trail from Covid tests to blinders, to Third Eye Blind, to a happy melody about darkness. Yikes. That’s a windy road.

I will say, there is something I learned about the song that I thought was interesting.

The band has admitted that they borrowed the “doot doot doot” part of the song from Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side.”

Songfacts

I think I’ll keep my blinders on and enjoy this fun fact instead.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo

I'm packed and I'm holding
I'm smiling, she's living, she's golden
She lives for me, says she lives for me
Ovation, her own motivation
She comes round and she goes down on me

And I make you smile, like a drug for you
Do ever what you wanna do, coming over you
Keep on smiling, what we go through
One stop to the rhythm that divides you

And I speak to you like the chorus to the verse
Chop another line like a coda with a curse
Come on like a freak show takes the stage
We give them the games we play, she said

I want something else to get me through this
Semi-charmed kinda life, baby, baby
I want something else, I'm not listening when you say good-bye

Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo

The sky was gold, it was rose
I was taking sips of it through my nose
And I wish I could get back there, someplace back there
Smiling in the pictures you would take
Doing crystal meth, will lift you up until you break

It won't stop, I won't come down
I keep stock with a tick-tock rhythm, a bump for the drop
And then I bumped up, I took the hit that I was given
Then I bumped again, then I bumped again
I said

How do I get back there to the place where I fell asleep inside you
How do I get myself back to the place where you said

I want something else to get me through this
Semi-charmed kinda life, baby, baby
I want something else, I'm not listening when you say good-bye

I believe in the sand beneath my toes
The beach gives a feeling, an earthy feeling
I believe in the faith that grows
And that four right chords can make me cry
When I'm with you I feel like I could die
And that would be alright, alright

And when the plane came in, she said she was crashing
The velvet it rips in the city, we tripped on the urge to feel alive
Now I'm struggling to survive
Those days you were wearing that velvet dress
You're the priestess, I must confess
Those little red panties they pass the test
Slides up around the belly, face down on the mattress
One

And you hold me, and we are broken
Still it's all that I wanna do, just a little now
Feel myself, heading off the ground
I'm scared, I'm not coming down
No, no
And I won't run for my life
She's got her jaws now locked down in a smile
But nothing is alright, alright

And I want something else to get me through this life
Baby, I want something else
Not listening when you say
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo

The sky was gold, it was rose
I was taking sips of it through my nose
And I wish I could get back there
Someplace back there, in the place we used to start

Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo
Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo
I want something else