In My Room

Today has been a fun day. It started with a slightly later wake-up, which was good as my sweety and I were really busy all weekend, attending five shows as part of Winnipeg’s Crankie Festival. We haven’t been out so much in a long time.

If you’ve been following along here, you’ll also know we’ve been hosting one of the Crankie Fest performers, our friend Corin Raymond, since last Tuesday. With the festival now over, today he focused on connections and errands. While he went for brunch with a local music venue owner, I took the opportunity to do an hour-long Zwift.com workout on the indoor bike trainer.

By the time Corin was back, I was cleaned up and fed, Sweety had made bread (hot out of the oven with butter… mmm, mmm, good!), and then we drove him around for a couple of errands, the longest of which was a trip to Toad Hall Toys, a fantastic toy store in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District (a National Historic Site with its warehouses, bank edifices and terracotta-clad buildings… quite an amazing precinct with about 150 buildings of historical significance; my six-years-retired City Hall job was in this area, too… it was a very cool place to walk around when I took the time to get away for that). A bank was also conveniently placed nearby for some necessary business today.

Then when our temporary and beloved housemate left to have dinner with a friend earlier this evening, I sat down to write today’s blog post. My starting soundtrack was what I was listening to much earlier this morning when I was the only one up: Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour on BBC 6 Music (February 26, 2023, “Pancakes with Same Fender!”), where I heard “In My Room” by California, USA band the Beach Boys (a band whose music I’ve featured once before, with their pioneering recording of “Good Vibrations“); I also was drawn to a few more songs on that program that I’ve put on my list for future posts. Then, while our friend showed us various prized finds during his week here including at a record sale, he handed me a CD by a former band of his, The Undesirables, called Summer’s Gone (2003). What a delight to hear the voice we’ve come to love, in its 20-year-ago iteration.

So, yeah, after savouring the CD, I returned to Garvey’s program and, with the dulcet tones of Garvey’s narration in my head, “In My Room” came on. I was flooded with memories of hearing that song throughout the decades it and I have jointly been inhabitants of the earth.

About the song, a website that captures album artists’ liner notes served this up on the internet today on a search: “‘In My Room’ found us taking our craft a little more seriously. Brian and I came back to the house one night after playing ‘over-the-line’ (a baseball game). I played bass and Brian was on organ. The song was written in an hour … Brian’s melody all the way. The sensitivity … the concept meant a lot to him. When we finished, it was late, after our midnight curfew. In fact, Murry [the Wilson brothers’ father] came in a couple of times and wanted me to leave. Anyway, we got Audree [the Wilson brothers’ mother], who was putting her hair up before bed, and we played it for her. She said, ‘That’s the most beautiful song you’ve ever written.’ Murry said, ‘Not bad, Usher, not bad,’ which was the nicest thing he ever said to me.”

“There’s a world where I can go and tell my secrets to
In my room, in my room
In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears
In my room, in my room

Do my dreaming and my scheming
Lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing
Laugh at yesterday

Now it’s dark and I’m alone
But I won’t be afraid
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room”

“In My Room,” by Gary Usher and Brian Wilson.
Lyrics retrieved from AZLyrics.com.

I enjoyed today’s serendipitous, generous and gentle reminders of music and its attachments to my life now, and back then—which helped develop, inform and enrich the infinitely wonderful life I live today.

“In My Room” comes from Surfer Girl, the Beach Boys’ 1963 album.

Now you know a little about why this is my Song of the Day for Today. Thanks for joining me here.

Please enjoy the audio from the Beach Boys’ YouTube channel:

With my best summery wishes, while winter still hangs on here…

Steve