oh, mercymercyme

Saturday, mar. 15, 2008   |   0 comments

n a recent LA-to-SF road trip, I caught my self fucking ROCKING OUT to Marvin's Grapevine, a song that, though usually a real "just can't change the dial fast enough" song, was the only damn thing I could tune in whilst cruising down the I-5 in my blindingly red rental Neon just outside Lemoore-Hanford at 11 o'clock in the pee em. Don't get me wrong. It's a fabu song and all, in fact it was once a true favorite among me and my little friends back in the day of the reunion classic "The Big Chill" (which incidentally, is the name of THE f'rogurt hot spot in LA...known county-wide for its freakishly large portions of super-yum low- to no-fat fro-yo, it is the epicenter of all sorority life, offering a lip-glossed, honey-blonde, steely bun bonus for my fellow ice-cream cravers shooting for a little piece of virtue), but the years since then have been ravaged by the Raisins (bendable! poseable!) who have ruined the song fer good.

Rocking out as I was, I still felt relief as the song started its fade. But, oh! imagine my chagrin when the very same bom bom ba bom bommm, bom bom bom boms started up once again. And, after the second go around, it started again, only this time it was CCR's version, which played twice. Then some motowny woman's version played, then two more of Marvin's.

Just as I felt my sanity running away from home, the umpteenth "honeyhoney I knowwwww, that you're letting me go..." crackled out range and I was free to go on with my life.

The whole thing would have rendered me totally immobilized had I not already heard rumors of this abomination of nature from my fine friend Amy, who had stumbled upon the station during a drive back from an all liquor, no sleep trip to Vegas.

Her encounter started when she pulled into a motel with the cloying tune playing absently in the background. She shut off the engine, went in and slept, stumbled out to the car the next morn, started the car, and was greeted by "Grapevine." She turned to her co-pilots and said "isn't that freaky? this was playing as we pulled in last night. huh! just like 'groundhog day!'" The song played all the way through, and then it started again. And again. And again. Amy described the next hour as one of the most emotionally diverse times of her life; she told of her initial giggles, followed by nauseous unease, then rolling fear, then disgust, anger, a brief giggle revival, boredom, then relief as they finally drove out of the grasp of the cursed tune.

Apparently I was lucky to at least get different versions of the damn song...Amy had all Marvin, all the time. Maybe the station is now trying to appeal to a wider body of advertisers? The whole thing is just totally flummoxing. Is this the pet project of some obsessed billionaire? (Bill! You SHOULDN'T have!) Is this some small desert community's attempt at a tourist-pulling gimmick? What? What?

I'm entertaining any and all explanations, so if you have an idea, suspicion, faintest clue, or, better yet, have a similar experience, DO mail me with the low-down (julie brown). Maybe we can form a support group.

Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps.