Blogocentric Formulations

Mexico

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Song: "Mexico"
Artist: James Taylor
Album: Gorilla


Today's song is a different kind of guilty pleasure. In most cases, a song is a guilty pleasure because it's not very good and we just happen to like it anyway. In this case, "Mexico" by James Taylor isn't actually a bad song. It was a Top 50 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, Top 5 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, and - along with "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" - pretty much single-handedly (I guess that would technically be dual-handedly?) accounted for the modest success of the album. Several music critics cited "Mexico" as their favorite track on the album, one going so far as to say it's the only song he liked from the album. Taylor has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the turn of the century, and has seen every album he released between 1977 and 2006 went onto be certified platinum... including a diamond-certified greatest hits album. So he's not exactly an unpopular artist!

The reason this song is on my "guilty pleasures" playlist is because my parents like it. I have long ridiculed my parents for not really listening to any music released on this side of the millennium changeover, and most of their music is from decades before that. My parents are not the "go out and buy Adele's new album" kind of people. They're the "when we switched over from tapes to CDs, we re-purchased the same albums we already own" kind of people. I have teased them, at length, for continuing to listen to the What Women Want on a weekly basis pretty much since the movie came out in 2000. Incidentally, I think that might be the most current album they own.

So imagine my displeasure when I discovered that I actually liked a song from one of their crusty old 70s albums! Oh the humanity! And yet, try as I might to rid myself of this infectiously upbeat song, it somehow found its way onto my computer, ripped from their CD. And then onto my next computer, courtesy of Napster. And then onto the next computer after that, courtesy of LimeWire. (Oh man, I am really dating myself with this entry! ). And onto my iTunes account courtesy of an actual legitimate purchase. So at this point it's probably safe to assume I actually like the song.

Please don't tell my parents.