So, back to this YO LA TENGO thing. I knew I had this Simpson's Theme that I wanted to post, since it's short and fun. Meanwhile I got an email for some Bjork info, and went to audiogalaxy.com to find a song I thought I had but didn't, and something that I had requested the other night, but didn't download, popped up - another YO LA TENGO tune. It was a familiar title, and I was hoping it was a cover of this 1974 song that I loved so much in 8th grade, but I didn't expect it to sound so friggin' fantastic! And while listening to their version of Be Thankful For What You Got, I had to find out who was singing - I had always assumed that the band didn't sing, but they do, and it's great! So of course, I had to find the original, but didn't remember that it's a 7-minute long song - William Devaughn's Be Thankful For What You Got just swept me back to grade school, when in 7th and 8th grade, we got to sing pop songs in Church. See, going to Catholic school, we had mandatory mass once a week, and the young nuns and other teachers tried to figure out ways to get us involved and make it interesting to us. So, my whole grade went to mass at 8:15 a.m. By the time I was in 8th grade, I was the only white kid in my class, and only one of two in all of the 8th grade (3 classes of about 30 each). While there were times that it was difficult to be a minority of sorts, the times we got to bring our records to school and pick out songs for mass were always a highlight. My taste was god-awful back then, and fortunately I learned after one one horrible mistake never again to volunteer any of my 45's. (definately one of the times the word honkie was muttered several times in class) But we'd sing tons of Stevie Wonder (i.e. Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away) and other cool stuff, and take turns reading whatever that part lay-people got to read (Epistles??).But it was in school, sorting thru records that was really fun, and you can imagine the fun we had trying to talk one of the nuns into believing Bennie and the Jets had religious meaning (i think the line about killing the fatted calf made her realize it was not a good idea for mass)!