I have never negotiated a hostage release.
I am not a surgeon awaiting word that an organ needed for me to perform a transplant is on ice.
Those are two of a cornucopia of reasons that I didn’t bother getting a cellphone until two years ago.
The phone I have is basic, a mere conveyance for telecommunication that would have been an impressive device in a ’70s sci-fi flick from my childhood.
It would have still wowed us when I was in college and Gordon Gekko had a mobile phone the size of a brick pressed to his head.
My phone doesn’t talk to me or advise me.
I keep seeing a commercial for the iPhone in which Zooey Deschanel asks her phone if it’s raining.
Her home doesn’t appear to be very large. In fact, it has a cozy bungalow feel. So, unless the place isn’t hers and she secretely lives in the attic, there has to be a window within a few steps.
In fact, as the voice in the phone gives an affirmative on the precipitation, Zooey is shown peering out the window.
Thus, you might not need a weatherman, to know which way the wind blows, but apparently a talking phone is needed to know if it is raining.
I’ve read that mountain gorillas in the wild have been observed to remain in their nests, delaying the start of their day, if they wake and it is raining.
Without a phone to tell them, the gorillas are able to figure out that it is indeed raining and have the good sense to stay in bed.
Undoubtedly, they will be ruling the planet in the future.
A search for songs about “talk” yielded a few dozen. Here are four of them that seemed good for today…
The Tubes – Talk To Ya Later
from The Completion Backward Principle (1981)
I was well acquainted with The Tubes via a high school buddy who worshipped the band. Though The Completion Backward Principle probably mortified long-time fans of the band’s more outrageous stuff, my friends and I loved it.
The slick, new-wave tinged Talk To Ya Later featured Toto’s Steve Lukather on guitar was infectious beyond belief and its title became our salutation for years to come.
A Flock Of Seagulls – (It’s Not Me) Talking
from Listen (1983)
When A Flock Of Seagulls arrived with I Ran (So Far Away) and their self-titled debut, I quickly adopted the Liverpool quartet as my own. I was hearing the music of the future and I wasn’t about to be left behind.
The future was short-lived, but it was fun while it lasted and the band left behind more than just their lone hit in an underrated catalog that produced two wildly entertaining albums.
The hyperkinteic (It’s Not Me) Talking is about a man who believes that he is receiving messages from aliens in his head.
The Alan Parsons Project – Let’s Talk About Me
from Vulture Culture (1985)
The progressive-pop/rock consortium The Alan Parsons produced a string of successful albums during the latter half of the ’70s and early ’80s. Songs like I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You, Games People Play, Eye In The Sky, and Don’t Answer Me were radio staples during those years.
Vulture Culture marked the beginning of the decline in The Alan Parsons Project’s commercial fortunes. However, I did hear the catchy Let’s Talk About Me fairly often on rock radio during the spring of ’85.
Bongwater – Everybody’s Talkin’
from The Big Sell-Out (1992)
I discovered the avant-garde, art-rock duo Bongwater through Paloma with their gorgeous cover of Roky Erickson’s You Don’t Love Me, Yet on a various artist tribute to the Austin cult musician.
On The Big Sell-Out, Bongwater’s final release, the pair offered up a strange, surreal take on the Fred Neil/Harry Neilsen classic Everybody’s Talkin’ that reimagines it as a spoken word tale delivered by a failed actress who has had a nervous breakdown and believes she is actually working with suicidal people.