I woke up this morning with an REO Speedwagon song in my head. Not just any REO Speedwagon song, but the absolute best one, the one I always attribute to Chicago, since Chicago was my favorite band at age 9 and I therefore think that all great 80s rock ballads are by them. Sadly, they’re not. They’re mostly by REO Speedwagon. And sometimes by Journey.

So, this morning I popped awake at 6:15am, with YOU GOT ME STEALING YOUR LOVE AWAY, CAUSE YOU NEVER GIVE IT! booming through my head. Unfortunately, I don’t have any REO Speedwagon recordings, not even dubbed on tape. (Yes, I just used the word unfortunately with regard to our household’s lack of recordings by early 80s arena rockers.) My love of these bands dates from the days in elementary school when I went to bed with my clock radio, permanently tuned to Z96, crooning me to sleep. That was well before I had a cassette player, let alone any money to spend on music. You might also rightly assume, based on the number of times I’ve been persuaded to accompany him to Skinny Puppy shows (3), my partner shares this notable omission in his music collection. Which means, by 7am, I’ve been belting out the same two mistranscribed lines for 45 minutes now (YOU GOT ME CHASING THE YEARS AWAY, BABY WE CAN’T RELIVE IT) with absolutely no relief in sight, because, well, quite frankly, Napster is illegal now.

Problem not solved, I made my partner suffer through I MAKE YOU LAUGH, BABY YOU MAKE ME CRY all through breakfast and kept on with IT’S TIME FOR ME TO FLY I’ve got to set myself free TIME FOR ME TO FLY Baby, that’s just how it’s got to be on the walk to the mailbox and library. Luckily for him, it was raining so I wimped out on walking him all the way to the metro. Luckily for all of us, except maybe the teenagers next door who are likely trying to sleep in after talking in the street until the middle of night, LastFM came through in a pinch.

I wish I could tell you this sad tale of woe had a happy ending, but it doesn’t: after playing the song something like fifteen times in a row, the website cut me off and is now only giving me the 30 second teaser! If clearing my cookies or cycling the modem and getting a new dynamic IP address doesn’t work, I fear this means I may have to go see them in concert. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that: so far, cookie clearing has done the trick!