A Sweet Refrain, For A While At Least ...

In 1998, I walked the streets, paths and halls of Mizzou (Misery) for the first time. I tell you, everything was old.

Norm Stewart and Larry Smith were the basketball and football coaches. I lived in a dorm room that looked more like a jail cell without the bars. Compact discs were still in style like cassette walkman's in 86.

Cell phones weren't the hot item to have. I remember calling my fling (can't really call her a girlfriend because "she had a man at home." Think Pretty Willie from the STL), and leaving messages on her room phone even when I knew she wasn't there as our mode of communication.

I remember going to her dorm room before she got there so we could go to dinner, something that would not have happened in 2000, once it seemed like 98.6 percent of college students had cellys. Or maybe even just waiting for her to answer the door because she was trying to get off the phone with her loser man (cough), boy (dude was supposed to graduate high school in 1998, but was classified a sophomore in high school that year. enough said).

Anyways, during my wait there was a neighbor of hers, we will call her The Sarg, an attractive quiet/shy girl, or so I thought she was reserved, who blasted one song on repeat seemingly everytime I dropped by: Tyrese's "Sweet Lady."

"Sweet Lady, would you be my, sweet love for, a lifetime. I'll be there, when you need me, just call and, receive me," he crooned over and over and over and over again.

I had no problem with it because it was one of my favorite songs of the day, it just helped me know that The Sarg wasn't as shy as I originally thought. We never really got that cool. My first-semester freshman-year tryst ended after, well, just one semester, and I rarely returned to that dorm for fear of running into the my freshman fling, who decided to patch things up with her boyfriend and not speak to me for a year.

The Sarg and I spoke a few occassions before we both graduated, but nothing major. She joined a sorority that had about four or five of my close friends in it, so we would speak on occassion. I never told her about her affection for Coca-Cola's best advertisement voice. It was my sweet refrain.

In Nov. 2004, we actually ended up at a John Legend concert before John Legend was John Legend, and I told her about the Tyrese addiction for the first time. She was slightly embarassed.

Everytime I see her facebook profile, though, I immediately think of the song's chorus and smile like it was 98 all over again, and I didn't have a cell phone - you know, back when we were innocent. Today, I left a note on her facebook wall reminding her about Tyrese, and hopefully she smiled.

She cameback at me with a little heat, saying that I must have had a few obsession songs back in the day, and that I was probably obessesed with some John Legend song (she was right, currently the track "Again."). So I decided to make a short list of eight that bring back memories. Here's a short collection of songs that would make it on to my radio-recorded mixtape of the 90s.

My 8-trak mixtape
1. Glenn Jones - I've Been Searching (For So Long). I actually just found this song after an exhausting year-long search. So worth it, though.

2. Hi-Five - Unconditional Love. I loved the New Jack Swing Era unconditionally, and this is one of my favorite tracks from that time.

3. Janet Jackson - Anytime, Anyplace. I still swear up and down Janet showed (blurred) nipple in this video, long before Justin and the Superbowl malfunction.

4. Maxwell - Sumthin, Sumthin (Mellosmoothe Mix). When this song played in Love Jones first love scene, I knew it was a song I would have to have on my GIW Mixtape. If you want to know what GIW means, just ask or guess it. Think Twista.

5. LL Cool J f. Boyz II Men - Hey Lover. Think about the song I posted a few days ago. I felt like this a few times, including the freshman fling. speaking of whom ...

6. Boyz II Men - Doin Just Fine. Freshman fling played this song while I was in a sophomore slump as I walked by her room one day (and she knew I was going to walk by). The lyrics: "I'm doing just fine, getting along very well without you in my life. I don't need you in my life. Time made me stronger, you're no longer on my mind."

7. Jodeci -Lately. "Lately, I've been staring in the mirror, very slowly picking me apart. I'm trying to tell myself that I have no reason, with your heart." They did Stevie some justice.

8. Brian McKnight - I Remember You. I'm a huge fan of The Peanut Gang, so for it to be a major part of the title track to this album, I was in heaven.