But I Know One Thing...

There are a lot of songs that I love that remind me of specific events or people. Then there are songs that I love so much that I remember the first time I ever heard them.

The first time I ever heard The Mayor of Simpleton by XTC, I was driving home from work - I'd left at about 4:30 and I was going to drive by my parents' house to fetch something before going home. I was in my 1980 Dodge 1/2 ton pickup truck listening to the radio - DC101 - and traffic hadn't gotten into its nightly snarl yet. It was overcast outside and still cool even though spring was a few weeks away and Easter would be at the end of the month.

The Mayor of Simpleton came on the radio and I fell in love with it immediately. Before the song could even stop playing I got off at the exit for Fair Oaks Mall and by the time it was over I'd parked and was running inside to buy the tape. By the time I'd arrived home I'd learned most of the lyrics.

In the song a man tells his love of how he's not very bright but the one thing he know is how much he loves her. It's sweet and romantic without being sappy and that may be what I love best about it. That and the bass line. Colin Moulding plays a bass line in this song that makes me swoon. It makes me wish I could play the bass so I could play this one bass line. I always was a sucker for a melodic bass line and this song has the best.

For nearly twenty years it's one of my all-time favorite songs - a close to a perfect pop song as I've ever heard.