Day 18 - The Gambler

fun.

2009

Disclaimer: All perspectives, opinions, and memories in this entry are mine and mine alone. Some content is rugged, raw, and - sometimes - NSFW, but it's all authentic and included with purpose.

Why It’s On The List:

While Sum and I were dating, she introduced me to a band called The Format. I really enjoyed them and their song, Snails, is still one of my favorites (unfortunately just didn’t have a story/reason strong enough to make the list). The Format eventually broke up and the lead singer went on to help start a new group called fun. Almost everyone knows fun.’s mega hit album, “Some Nights” that was released in 2012. I don’t know why - and I don’t have a good reason for this - but that album will always remind me of the Obama-hipster-millennial era of the 2010’s. So many good songs were included: Some Nights, One Foot, Stars, and Out on the Town.

And, full disclosure, I tried so hard to get Carry On or Why Am I the One on this list. “Why Am I the One” is a brilliant track. I love it so much. Just couldn’t sell it with this collection.

Seriously. I’ve linked them all so that you can listen to them all.

Do it.

And then there’s We Are Young. Could have/should have been on this list because it was/is THE song of this generation (even if this generation rejects that notion which only proves further that it is THE song of this generation. We could go in circles about this for hours). But.

I just didn’t have a good reason to include “We Are Young” other than those few lines in the paragraph above. Ultimately, it did feel incorrect, indefensible, and frankly insane to not have a fun. song on this list because it’s been an important band to me for 13 years now and I still listen to all of their songs all of the time (including tracks from The Format in the regular rotation).  But then it hit me - before “Some Nights” in 2012, fun. released their first album “Aim and Ignite” in 2009. Some good songs for sure, but you can still hear the band finding their way. Throughout their initial exploration together, there is one song that has stood out from day one, “The Gambler.” Crazy thing is that Summer and I loved that song from day in 2009 before we even got married. It has taken on an almost spooky and creepy resemblance to us and our story and our family over the years. Definitely not on purpose. Most of it we could have never controlled. It’s been weird but yet almost comforting to have a song we’ve felt so connected to - a song that’s almost predicted our life moving forward.

Does that make sense? These are the parts of the song that have really meant a lot to us: We were barely eighteen when we crossed collective hearts

It was cold, but it got warm when you barely crossed my eye

Then you turned, put out your hand, and you asked me to dance I knew nothing of romance, but it was love at second sight

And then we started having kids and even though we’ve got a way to go, it’s wild how accurately the singer seems to be describing our kids so far. First Jack: It was the winter of '86, all the fields had frozen over

So we moved to Arizona to save our only son

And now he's turned into a man, though he thinks just like his mother

He believes we're all just lovers, he sees hope in everyone And more recently, our little future CEO and grinder, Katherine: And even though she moved away, we always get calls from our daughter

She has eyes just like her father's, they are blue when skies are gray

And just like him she never stops, never takes the day for granted

Works for everything that's handed to her, *never once complains (*This last line is where the comparisons stop. I complain about everything all of the time)

And then finally, this part was chilling when we listened to it after all the dust had finally settled on Jack’s birth experience:

You think that I nearly lost you when the doctors tried to take you away

But like the night you took my hand beside the fire thirty years ago

'Til this day, you swore you'd be here 'til we decide that it's our time

But it's not time, you never quit in all your life

So just take my hand and know that I will never leave your side

You're the love of my life, you know that I will never leave your side

So far, so very good.

This song makes me FEEL so in love with Summer every time I hear it. Makes me excited for the journey and growing old together. 

Wouldn’t mind at all if this song takes us home the rest of the way:

I swear when I grow up I won't just buy you a rose

I will buy the flower shop, and you will never be lonely

For even if the sun stops waking up over the fields

I will not leave, I will not leave 'til it's on time

So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side

We should live until we die.

Listen to "The Gambler" here:

While We’re Here:

Programming Note - up until now, the songs I’ve posted have all been tied to chronological stories from my life. Starting tomorrow, until the end, we will move to songs I just freaking love and the reasons why.