New Years Eve 2009, 2:00 AM
I used to love the song "A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays" by De La Soul back when it first came out twenty years ago, and hearing it now reminds me a lot of those times. I had just started at NASTYMIX, and riding Sir Mix-A-Lot's success, I thought we were all headed for a long, rewarding future as a big happy family not unlike the Motown Records story I'd read about as a kid.
Obviously, that dream didn't quite work out...but that's another story.
More than that, the song makes me remember a much simpler time when as the lyrics state there were "five days of work and one more day to play." As I much loved that job, I lived for those Saturdays.
As for the music, "Saturdays" was the high point of the album De La Soul Is Dead, which was an otherwise disappointing followup to the hip-hop classic Three Feet High And Rising. Still, the sampling magic found on this song matches anything on it's predecessor. Who else could blend Chicago's "Saturday In The Park" and "Grease Is The Word" -- two songs which I otherwise absolutely hated -- to make music alchemy around the lyrical fantasy of running through sprinklers and roller skating your woes away on a Saturday? The song is brilliant escapist fun, as all Saturdays should be for the working stiff.
As 2010 approaches, I am hoping to once again enjoy a few of those Saturdays myself, following the first full year I've ever spent among the unemployed in my adult life. So good riddance to 2009, and here's to a year filled with Saturdays in 2010.
"Now is the time to act a fool tonight, forget about your worries and you will be alright...it's a Saturday."
Bring on the skating revival!
Happy New Year!
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