Count on Me

I can think of fewer indicators of a great day than when I discover a song I love. The strange thing is that, in most cases, they're songs that have been around for decades. A classic example for me is "The Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart. It charted in the '70s and got tons of airplay on "Double Q," the local rock station where I grew up. But it wasn't until I was well into my teens in the mid-'80s that I discovered it. And it ranks among my top five favorite songs of all time.

I watched this film called "The Family Stone" last night on HBO as I was balancing my checkbook and tinkering around in iTunes downloading podcasts. The film, actually, is surprisingly good. The theatrical trailer made it look like just another "guess who's coming to dinner"-type holiday flick, which it was, but it had a good cast and...I don't know. I just liked it.

My favorite part, however, was the closing credits. There was this song I hadn't heard since I was probably a pre-teen called, "Count on Me." I'd heard it a thousand times, but I couldn't place the band. I Googled it and voila! It's by Jefferson Starship. Now, I don't know what it is about this song that made me fall in love with it. Maybe it was because the producers couldn't have picked a better song to close the film with. But it just struck a chord with me. The little musical bridge toward the end just sends my stomach a-knotting. Maybe it's the piano and guitar together. Go figure.

This is, by far, the very best song Jefferson Starship/Jefferson Aeroplane/Starship, or whatever you want to call them, has ever put out, in my opinion. I suppose other than "Go Ask Alice," "Dreams" is their most popular song, which my sister played ad nauseum when I was a pre-teen. What stuns me is that this is the same band that gave us "We Built This City on Rock and Roll," which is tied with Styx's "Mr. Roboto" as the worst song of ALL TIME.

Of course, I immediately hopped on iTunes and bought it, and I've played it about 10 times today. God, I love that. It's a thrill for me to find a song I love, especially one that's been around almost as long as I've been alive. That's the beauty of art. It's always there for you to discover.