‘Magic’

I’ve been noticing a curious sense of anticipation building in me recently. A feeling like…. Something Is Coming. I don’t know any more than that. I have no idea if it’s something personal coming, or something on a bigger scale, or if it’s bad or good or what, I’ve just been having this anticipatory feeling all the time. And at the same time, similar to around a year ago with the Beastie Boys’ track ‘Barrel of a Gun’, I have another song that I keep listening to over and over for a while lately that’s been matching it. It’s a song I liked as soon as I heard it years ago in a movie theater. I kept almost buying the soundtrack album it was on, just because I wanted this particular song. However, I tended to buy 45’s more often with my pocket money back then, and besides, the title track was on the radio all the time because the movie was Huge.

‘Ghostbusters’ was released Friday June 8, 1984, and I excitedly went to see it that night. I had just turned 11, was coming out of an emotional rock tumbler of a school year in a new town, and I particularly enjoyed ghost stories and anything scary- having devoured old horror comics and plenty of other creepy material for years. And my family taped all of the National Lampoon comedies (including Animal House), plus films like Stripes, Airplane!, The Jerk, etc. when they ran the (slightly) cleaned up versions on network TV, and I could quote large chunks of dialogue from all of them, what a silly little nerd. Naturally, I came out of that theater glazed with excitement…. But one thing I found particularly interesting at the time about this film was the tension of attraction between the characters that Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray were playing. I was old enough to be tuned into that aura now, and I enjoyed seeing their story of romance play out.

I had already been nursing a small crush on Harold Ramis and had felt quite attracted to his character in ‘Stripes’- he was intelligent, sweet, funny, laconic, wiseacre-y, and wound up in surprising adventures with Bill. He was a touch similar to Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland in the film version of M*A*S*H, but Harold was somewhat more under-the-radar than them- even better. Plus, I had been paying attention- I knew that he wrote a lot of all this stuff too, which impressed me. (I still love Elliott and Donald, btw, in M*A*S*H- but then I might be a ‘sultry bitch with fire in her eyes’, so it makes sense. Rest peacefully, dear Sally Kellerman and dear sweet Harold Ramis, my old ‘boyfriend’.)

But back to the song. Surprisingly, today I actually found out that I’ve only been hearing half of the song this whole entire time- the recording I have (from Apple Music), and the only version I’ve ever heard, starts at about 2:19 of this version:

I distinctly remember thinking “ooooooooooo I like this song!!!” as soon as the sexy bassline started. It was underscoring a montage of assorted spirits and ghosts that began causing creepy yet goofy chaos all over New York City, and plot elements were coming to a head. I could feel the music resonating in my chest in the theater, and I loved it whenever that happened if loud music was playing. A slight thudding buzz in my chest, in time with the music. I remember thinking and feeling that somehow the song sounded to me like….it was coming directly from the world of being an Adult, a Grown-Up, a secret, unknowable world that was waiting for me in the mysterious future.

And right now I keep feeling like there is a mysterious future about to happen, but I have no idea what or when it is. I guess I’ll know it when I see it.

I love you, darling.