Good Lookin’ Girl
Rockin’ me, rockin’ me, when you roll with me
Ain’t no stoppin’ me, stoppin’ me
Gotta go with it baby
You’re so damn fine and you’re on my mind
I swear I’m about to lose it
And this is just an extra, deep into Luke Bryan’s latest spring break EP. It’s so damn catchy I woke up with it on my brain, and ain’t that the indicator of a hit, the same way I had to come home from school and put on the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour,” but now I can take my music with me everywhere and ever since Stagecoach I’ve been on an irrepressible Luke Bryan kick and everything they say is true, there’s too many tailgates and cliches, but the music is so professional and so hooky that it feels so good listening to it and ain’t that what we’re all looking for, something to ride shotgun, make us feel good as we navigate this roller coaster known as life?
This year’s Spring Break EP starts with “She Get Me High,” with a bass drum Jimmy Buffett never featured, a locked-in groove that’s accented by an acoustic guitar, and just a bit of twang and if you’re not taken right to the beach you’ve never been.
What I like most is the line about the Yeti.
On top of my Yeti
On an old boat dock
Standin’ in the river on an old flint rock
Clouds roll by
She get me high
Huh? What’s a YETI?
I listened to “She Get Me High” for weeks before I was finally forced to look up the lyrics, was he talking about an ancient Bigfoot or… Turns out it’s a COOLER! That’s right, they’re called YETI!
A song entitled “She Get Me High” should be boring, a throwaway. And that’s the great thing about “She Get Me High,” it IS a throwaway, the way so much of what was on the White Album was, but just like the Beatles’ second-rate stuff was much better than everybody else’s so is Luke Bryan’s.
No, don’t send me hate mail, Luke Bryan is not the Beatles, he’s of the moment, he’s forgettable…BUT WHAT A MOMENT!
You can wear your black jeans, you can go to the club at midnight, believe you’re better than everybody else as you listen to music most people can’t fathom or…
You can join the masses and exult in joy!
You might feel inadequate, as all those people you want to nestle close to groove all around you, but isn’t this the stuff of your dreams? Girls in cowboy boots and daisy dukes, guys with smiles? There’s this belief that great music must be dark and barely penetrable, but that’s hogwash, if Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow listened to this Spring Break EP they’d still be together.
And Gwyneth Paltrow is a good lookin’ girl, but this is not the TMZ of songs, making us feel both inadequate and contemptuous as the famous and beautiful cavort, because the truth is every girl is good lookin’ to somebody, you’ve just got to FIND THEM!
Yup, you think your hair is frizzy, you wish you didn’t have only one dimple, but I guarantee you there’s a guy who’s infatuated with you, if you just let your freak flag fly and open your mind to them, if you just left the house and parade.
Music is all about how it makes you FEEL!
The notes don’t have to be perfect, the recording doesn’t have to be pristine, you’ve just got to be able to drop the proverbial needle, push play and be moved.
There’s the powerful opening riff, what you used to hear on rock radio before it became Active and eliminated most of its audience, being so hard and impenetrable that most people tuned out.
There’s that bass you can hear, dancing around at the bottom, keeping you bonded to the song.
And sure there’s a banjo, deep in the mix. Not standing out there saying I’m faking country, but adding flavor.
And then there’s that ORGAN! It’s like Felix Cavaliere is sitting on the keys. Remember groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon, well give “Good Lookin’ Girl” a couple of spins and you too will be groovin’, because that’s what the track is all about, the groove.
And you can sit there and nitpick. You can sit there and intellectualize. You can stand by the side of the pool forever debating whether to take the plunge or…
You can dive in and have this music wash over you and feel refreshed and alive.
If you’re too good for trucks, if you’re all about runway fashion, if you’re self-conscious about your image, you’re too good for life.
And that’s a shame.
Good morning good lookin’ girl
I ain’t never felt nothing quite like…
