Meant to Be Spent Alone

Timing is everything, the saying goes, and the timing of the COVID-19 outbreak has coincided with what was supposed to be a busy week on my social schedule. I actually took two carryover vacation days so I could help set up for, and then attend, the NY Open Judo Tournament, which was cancelled. These are 'use 'em or lose 'em days', so I'm not exactly broken up about not being able to do anything more momentous than running to the supermarket to buy my allotment of now-rationed eggs or dish detergent.

The prospect of a vacation spent in this time of social distancing reminds me of that most perfect of pop songs, Vacation by the GoGos, in which Belinda Carlisle sang that vacation was 'meant to be spent alone', though I don't think she meant quarantine-style:





At the risk of losing 80s kid cool points for not knowing this, or gaining 80s kid cool points for finding this out, I only recently learned that the song Vacation was a carry-over tune from GoGos bassist Kathy Valentine's first band, the Textones:





I like the rawer energy of this song, though I have to confess that it doesn't quite match the pure pop bliss of the confection that the GoGos' studio version achieved. In Totally GoGos, a 1981 promotional video released by the band's label, the version is, in evolutionary terms, a transitional form... it's reworked from the taut, spare energy of the original, with the more melodic form of the eventual album version:





For me, the fun is seeing an old favorite as a work in progress, and gaining an appreciation for the songwriter's craft. The next week or two is largely going to involve staving off boredom, and if this is time meant to spent alone, there's plenty of time for deep dives into waters once thought well-charted.