Friday, January 11, 2008

songs that double back

I love the piped-in music that's played in grocery stores and drug stores. I often get to hear songs I haven't heard on the radio in years, and since I don't have any objections to soft rock, the lighter sounds that are typically played in these stores don't make me want to shoplift out of spite. The other day I heard "Doubleback," ZZ Top's big single featured in 1990's Back to the Future Part III. "The Power of Love" it was not, but just as Huey Lewis made a cameo in the first Back to the Future in '85, the ZZ Top triumvirate showed up in Part III to play Old West musicians who had spinning-guitar straps all the way back in 1885.

When I heard "Doubleback" the other day at the grocery store, it wasn't the first time I'd heard it in that setting; the first time was last month. And last spring I walked into the grocery store and heard the opening boi-oi-oing strains of Bread's "If," then walked in exactly one week later and heard it once again from the very beginning.

I don't think this is a case of the Jewel-Osco supermarket chain having too short of a playlist. I think it means I go to the grocery store more frequently than I realized. (I don't own a car, so it's a lot easier on my arms if I go three or four times a week rather than one. I HAVE WEAK ARMS, OKAY?) I also think Jewel-Osco wants me to buy more bread.

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