Monday, May 4, 2015

Chris de Burgh - "Lady In Red"

My parents had been divorced about six months when we all ended up driving home from Florida together.  My Dad was in the front seat with me in the passenger seat while my Mom and brother sat in the backseats.  (Why were we all driving home from Florida together?  It's a long story, but it involved half of us not wanting to take Amtrak.)  During a rainy stretch of traveling through Tennessee, my Dad popped one of my Mom's cassette mix tapes into the stereo.  The music not only helped the time pass but worked to drown out the awkwardness of a broken family vacation car ride.  The awkwardness then shifted into a higher gear when Chris de Burgh's "Lady in Red" started playing.  My Dad's focus went from driving 75 MPH to awkwardly fumbling with the stereo to shut off "Lady in Red".  Instead, he ended up ejecting the tape sending the silence to deafening levels.  My Mom finally wondered aloud why he hated that song so much.  My Dad never gave an explanation other than: "I don't know.  I just hate that song."  That's one reason I'll never forget the "Lady in Red".