I've come to paint rainbows all over your blues
After getting a particularly rotten result in a recent experiment, I sat to check my email and see if Kristy had any updates. Boy, did I feel like shit-and not in a physical way at all. Spiritually, emotionally, I felt drained. Worse-I felt anxious. It’s a cruel anxiety that runs up your spine and into your neck, so you can’t turn your head out of fear there might be a monster in your periphery. It’s the fear of failure, the dread of what failure might bring. The chronic worrying that’s been beating your ass for years… a self-evident voice that demands perfection until the day you die.
And who should send me an email but my father? It’s one of his usual jokes where he uses a fake email address and fake name to tell me fake news. Here, he pretended to be a jumbo-sized Mexican pig-man giving orders on how to behave: “Watch out for endless tunnels.” “Examine the billboards for poor grammar.” Just inside jokes. But the last one catches my attention: “Paint rainbows all over your blues.” I recognized the words. It was the name of a song I had never actually listened to, by the always-in-season Lovin’ Spoonful (or was it John Sebastian in his first solo album?). Years ago when we got the greatest hits, my dad remarked, “Oh, it doesn’t have Paint rainbows all over your blues on it! Damn!” Since then, I’ve periodically wondered how good it could be… if it’s good enough to overshadow Do You Believe in Magic? and Darling Be Home Soon, I suspect it must be a real gem.
Even without ever hearing the song, something wonderful happened. My mind was full of EPR and protein impurities. Then I see, Paint Rainbows all over your Blues. At that moment, I felt like getting up from the computer and leaving Clark Hall. More, I felt like leaving campus, leaving Pullman, and walking off into the golden wheat fields of sublime August. I wanted to paint rainbows all over my blues, and everyone else’s blues too, all the blues in the whole world.
In the words of John Sebastian,
I been waiting my time just to talk to you
You´ve been lookin´all down in the mouth
and down at your shoes
Well, baby, I came to give you the news
I´ll paint rainbows all over your blues
I heard you been spending
a lot of your time up in your room
And at night you been watchin´
the dark side of the moon
You don´t talk to nonody
if they don´t talk to you
So Buddy and me came here
to sing you a tune
"I give up" is all you´ve really got to say
It´s time to find a new life style
Cause this really ain´t the way
Let´s go for a bounce
on my trampoline
I can show you the prettiest mountains
that you´ve ever seen
You better run to your closet
and fish out your blue suede shoes
I´ll paint rainbows all over your blues
The Lovin’ Spoonful saved me in 2002. Shall they do it again in 2007?
And who should send me an email but my father? It’s one of his usual jokes where he uses a fake email address and fake name to tell me fake news. Here, he pretended to be a jumbo-sized Mexican pig-man giving orders on how to behave: “Watch out for endless tunnels.” “Examine the billboards for poor grammar.” Just inside jokes. But the last one catches my attention: “Paint rainbows all over your blues.” I recognized the words. It was the name of a song I had never actually listened to, by the always-in-season Lovin’ Spoonful (or was it John Sebastian in his first solo album?). Years ago when we got the greatest hits, my dad remarked, “Oh, it doesn’t have Paint rainbows all over your blues on it! Damn!” Since then, I’ve periodically wondered how good it could be… if it’s good enough to overshadow Do You Believe in Magic? and Darling Be Home Soon, I suspect it must be a real gem.
Even without ever hearing the song, something wonderful happened. My mind was full of EPR and protein impurities. Then I see, Paint Rainbows all over your Blues. At that moment, I felt like getting up from the computer and leaving Clark Hall. More, I felt like leaving campus, leaving Pullman, and walking off into the golden wheat fields of sublime August. I wanted to paint rainbows all over my blues, and everyone else’s blues too, all the blues in the whole world.
In the words of John Sebastian,
I been waiting my time just to talk to you
You´ve been lookin´all down in the mouth
and down at your shoes
Well, baby, I came to give you the news
I´ll paint rainbows all over your blues
I heard you been spending
a lot of your time up in your room
And at night you been watchin´
the dark side of the moon
You don´t talk to nonody
if they don´t talk to you
So Buddy and me came here
to sing you a tune
"I give up" is all you´ve really got to say
It´s time to find a new life style
Cause this really ain´t the way
Let´s go for a bounce
on my trampoline
I can show you the prettiest mountains
that you´ve ever seen
You better run to your closet
and fish out your blue suede shoes
I´ll paint rainbows all over your blues
The Lovin’ Spoonful saved me in 2002. Shall they do it again in 2007?