Relationship songs – you gotta love ’em. At least I do, because as long as I can remember being a music fan, I’ve been a huge fan of the “love gone wrong” songs. Not because I had gotten my heart stomped on a million times at that point, but because it caught my ears as something truly “real” musically compared to the stuff that I had been listening to up to that point. It’s only now that I am really connecting some of the songs that I love with the romantic experiences of my past.

Now that I’m 20 years removed from my first relationship, I was able to know what is girlfriend activation system, and I am in a place where I am able to reflect on all that has happened between then and now. I’m able to look back at the unique characteristics of what went wrong and what went right with each relationship, and as I’ve thought about those past relationships, I remember the songs that I was listening to at the time of each one.

For some reason, it’s the music that I was listening to in the summer of 1988 that sticks in my mind in the most vivid form. Those songs are connected to so many great experiences….and was it the relationship itself, or the nostalgia connected to that time of growing up and experiencing so many things? At that age, there was so much to figure out, and there was this thing called the “real world” that was approaching rapidly.

Musically, as I’ve been listening to my CDs, I’ve been hearing CDs that I have heard many times in a whole new way. I’m hearing songs that somehow, I managed to miss the brilliance of, all of the times that I heard them before.

Enter Patti Rothberg. You might remember her from her mid-90’s single “Inside.”

A great description

Patti is the real deal, through and through. She is sly and clever while being heartfelt and truthful at all times. She knows how to channel all the best things in classic rock (Bowie, Zeppelin, Patti Smith) and new wave (Duran Duran, Missing Persons) without ever sounding derivative. It’s pure Patti. I can’t wait for the new album.

Inside video
(man, I haven’t even SEEN this!)

That’s how I came across her music, on the radio in 1996. Her voice, rough around the edges at times, was a unique presence amongst all of the other female singer/songwriters that I had heard up to that point. I got a hold of a copy of her CD “Between The 1 and the 9” from the radio station that I was working at, and as you always hope for, the rest of the CD was every bit as good as the initial track that I had liked. If I could have worn a hole in the CD, I probably would have done it that year.

From that point, there was a bit of a lag period involving various types of limbo, red tape, and otherwise before we’d hear another CD from Rothberg, and in 2002 we finally got it.

Candelabra Cadabra was a must-own for me as soon as it came out, because it had a couple of songs that I had heard on a live San Francisco radio broadcast, that I was craving to hear studio versions of. You Killed My Time was one, and you know it’s a great song already before you hear it, because of the title. Who can’t identify with that?

As for the rest of the CD, it’s only been in the past year that I’ve really grown to appreciate it as a whole. And then, lo and behold this week, ANOTHER track from CC reaches out and smacks me in the head.

The Late Late Show (listen here)

“The Late, Late Show,” written by frequent collaborator Freddie Katz is genius stuff. For me, it captures so many emotions bundled into one song. That feeling that you have at the beginning of a new relationship, wondering if what you have with that special someone is really something, or is it nothing at all? It’s that point when you’re trying to figure everything out, and it’s either going to be really good, or you’re going to find yourself at that point of awkward silence with nowhere to go.

but if the words we have in common,
turn out to be too few
I can watch the Late Late Show with you

Which is of course why it’s important to have some background noise to fill in the gaps, should they appear.

My most recent relationship introduced the world of late night TV to my night time ritual. Sure, I had watched Leno, Letterman, etc. in the past, but for the first time, we were watching Leno and Conan each night as the day drew to a close. It’s that together time where no conversation is required, and yet lots of random conversation makes its way into the room. You’re lying there, and you think of things, and conversation continues back and forth until one of you is officially ready to call it a night. Or perhaps there is no conversation on that particular night. Either way, you’ve got Jay and Conan hanging out with you until you drift away.

We can cry, or we can kiss….
and when this commercial’s over, there’s a scene
you just can’t miss and if you’re not sure you love me
I can change your point of view
If you let me watch the Late Late Show with you

You wake up and the TV is still on, and too bright to your sleepy eyes. You try to sneak out of bed and turn it off without waking her up. And then it’s back to bed in the newfound darkness.

Patti’s got two CDs full of great music like The Late Late Show. If you haven’t heard them, check out her website and educate yourself. She’s got a new CD on the way called Double Standards, that from the samples I’ve heard on her Myspace page – I can’t wait for it. It really sounds like she has hit the jackpot on this one, and hopefully people will hear it! Check out “Double Standard” in particular on the Myspace player, it’s great.

Additional Listening:

You Killed My Time (live in San Francisco 1996)