young_folks raze something in this song stabbed me in the heart when i first heard it twenty_years_ago. i can still feel the mark it made. i felt as alone then as i ever have. i turned the tv on after everyone i loved was asleep and saw these cartoon people singing about their search for connection. and if i could have cried then i guess i probably would have. what almost undid me was the whistling. a joyful sound with something like sorrow sewn into the scruff of its neck. it wasn't even supposed to survive in the final mix. it was a placeholder track, meant to mark time until organ or violin or something more dignified took its place. but someone was wise enough to realize it was the emotional glue that kept the whole thing from collapsing beneath the weight of its half-hidden vulnerability. so an afterthought grew up to be an anchor. then there was victoria bergsman croaking, "usually when things has gone this far, people tend to disappear." not have. has. the wrong word made right somehow. the perfect mistake to make. when the band and all their friends were gone and all that was left was the mess they made while marking time, i wanted to be an insect drowning in some stranger's spilled beer on that carpeted floor. to know the taste of being known, if only secondhand. now all we care about is talking. talking only me and you. 260118 what's it to you? who go blather from