Especially For You

As it turns 40 years old

Photo by the author

I’ve been so busy lately, and I am still plugging away at a long post on Noah Kahan - I should probably stop trying to write long posts that I know I’m going to want to say a lot about! But I can’t help it. And it takes me forever.

So, today, in an effort to at least get something out sooner rather than later, I looked at what albums were turning 40 this month, and one stood out to me that has great memories attached to it, and is one that I will never part with - I still have my original vinyl (in the photo above). Spinning as I write this.

Especially For You by The Smithereens.

Way back in 1986, I was in high school. I don’t remember exactly how I met this guy: it was either at the teen dance club we frequented, or maybe through my younger brother, who was a skateboarder, because this guy was a skateboarder, but my age.

His name was Cristin. See that. Same name, different spelling.

Photo by Jane (Cox) Segura in 1986. From L to R: Cristin, Kristin (me), and Rune, a foreign exchange student from Norway. I ended up going to my senior prom with Rune.

We started dating, and found out that not only did we essentially have the same name, but we also had the same birthdate! November 11th. It felt completely fated.

At some point, we had discussed The Smithereens, who had some recent hits with “Blood and Roses,” and “Behind the Wall of Sleep.” While neither of us owned the album, we both had decided that “Cigarette” was our favorite track. (And it’s playing right now as I write this!)

I can’t remember when we started dating, but I’m sure we had dated for a month or so before we celebrated our birthdays. And guess what we got each other for our birthdays? Yep. Especially for You on vinyl! What are the odds? We laughed and laughed about this!

I can’t remember exactly how long we dated, but I do remember it was through most of the winter. There was a day when there was a bad snowstorm, and school was canceled. He decided that, despite the weather, he would drive over to my house. The roads were horrible, and instead of risking my side street, he parked in a pharmacy parking lot a few blocks away. As I was getting bundled up to go meet him in the parking lot (he called me from a payphone on the corner by the pharmacy), my mom yelled at me for making him drive in the weather!

As with most of my high school relationships, I don’t remember the particulars of the breakup, but we went about and started dating other people while remaining friends. Which is what most of us did because we all hung out in the same circles through our musical tastes. I think ultimately, we were too much alike, and that just didn’t work too well. But this is one of the vinyls that will always remain in my collection for its sentimental value.

The Smithereens came into my life again in the early 90s (probably 1991!), when I was working at the local Funny Bone Comedy Club. Their newest album, Blow Up, was in constant rotation in their 5-CD disc changer. It would always remind me of Cristin and the matching birthday gifts of Especially for You.

Another album turning 40 this month is an R.E.M. favorite, Lifes Rich Pageant. I was lucky enough to score tickets to see the Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of this album at my favorite almost local music venue, Codfish Hollow, in September! I’m super excited for this as I’ve heard from many MusicStackers that this is a fantastic show! Things to look forward to!

Honestly, it seems unreal that either of these albums can be turning 40 years old!!!

I’ll be crossposting my most recent collab within the next couple/few days! I meant to do that the day it was posted, but now that I’m actually posting something today, I will wait on that to show your inboxes some courtesy.

Have the best Saturday ever! Fill it with treasured music!