VENNE MY BAY BOOCHAY

So I'm sure that everyone has flashbulb memories sometimes when a song comes up of a time in your youth where the exact place and time of where you were and what you were doing will come into your mind. Well, that just happened to me when a song by Paul Simon came on called You Can Call Me Al. From nowhere suddenly the memory of me being upstairs in my bedroom of our old house in 105th Court, came into my mind. Downstairs the 2000 Athens Olympics are playing on our old TV and swimming is going on, and my parents are watching it. It is a glorious sunny day outside, the trees and grass in our backyard is green. Our trampoline above all that ivy is beckoning to me. I was 7 or 8 years old at this point in my life. And I just remember this song playing for no apparent reason, I think it must have been from a tape player, and loving the chorus where he says, "If you'd be my bodyguard, I can be your long lost pal. If I can call you Betty, and Betty when you call me you can calllll meeee Alllll." Except ever since I was little I thought - and this is literally a revelation I just had when I looked up the lyrics to this song - that he always said "If I can call you Daddy, Daddy when you call me you can calllll meeee Allll..." That is quite hilarious how just doing this post can reveal certain things that I would have never known.




A man walks down the street
He says why am I soft in the middle now
Why am I soft in the middle
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don't want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard
Bonedigger Bonedigger
Dogs in the moonlight
Far away my well-lit door
Mr. Beerbelly Beerbelly
Get these mutts away from me
You know I don't find this stuff amusing anymore

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty  <---- I seriously always thought he was saying "Daddy" up until like 5 minutes ago
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al

A man walks down the street
He says why am I short of attention
Got a short little span of attention
And wo my nights are so long
Where's my wife and family
What if I die here
Who'll be my role-model
Now that my role-model is
Gone Gone
He ducked back down the alley
With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl
All along along
There were incidents and accidents
There were hints and allegations

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al

A man walks down the street
It's a street in a strange world
Maybe it's the Third World
Maybe it's his first time around
He doesn't speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound
The sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says Amen and Hallelujah!

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al

Another song of such nature is the song "Medicine Man" by Bobby McFerrin. We had this CD that my sister and I would always pop into our living room CD player (man, so many memories of that living room in the old house), and as it would play we would just walk around in circles (I would follow her) and just bob up and down like a bunch of Indian tribals...actually a lot like how he looks on the cover in the video. Listen to the song, and you can probably understand how we being so young just thought it was a hilariously funny sounding song. Probably the part that sticks out in my mind is that we would always shout, "VENNE MY BAY BOOCHAY!!! UHH UHHH!!!" at the beginning because that is what he said. And to this day I can picture us perfectly walking around in circles singing "I am a medicine man....I am a medicine man..." Tiana can attest to this.




Listening to good music from childhood can bring back some great memories. That much I can say with certainty.