(Self-Titled)

Ah, Melissa, take me back....

So, I had a bit of a thing for Melissa Etheridge. It didn't last forever, but I loved her hard.

I know you girls who knew me in college know what I am talking about....

Yes, I am talking about Melissa, and specifically, That CD. Yes, that one....

Melissa Etheridge, Self-Titled.

Her debut album.

The same one I listened to not just once every night, but three times....three times a night for over three hundred nights....

I had it bad.

My roommates would not come in my room when that CD was on. Mostly because they learned fairly quickly that album made my clothes fall off....especially that ONE song...

Like The Way I Do....it would so be my stripper song, if I ever was one...

In fact, I've recommended it to several strippers, but curiously they never take me up on it...

One night, as sort of a great inside joke, Jennifer and I watched a strip tease given to this song...by our men at the time, dressed in drag....that was extremely hilarious....

At any rate, I had put aside Melissa. I kind of gave up on Melissa when seeing her live the second time, and the last time. It was a night with strange emotional context, which probably didn't help things, but Melissa did nothing to me.

Nothing, especially in comparison with what she did to me the first time.

Yes, it was the only time "that" ever happened just listening to music, and it happened during that song. Seeing her perform it live was just that thrilling to me....

So, I am reading this book right now, an autobiography of Melissa, and it talks about that song, and I realized it effected others the same way.

Here's what it says, in "Melissa Etheridge: Our Little Secret", by Joyce Luck, about that song:

"When Etheridge does "Like the Way I do" in concert (often drawing it out to last ten minutes or more), the effect on the crowd is dynamic: the responsive energy she creates down on the floor snaps and crackles. There's always a point when she and the audience reach a plateau, and the performance becomes almost an out-of-body experience for her. She has described the effect many times to interviewers. She has to take a deep breath to ground herself again."

Ha! I find this hilarious.

That year in college, I wore this album out, but the funny thing was that it was actually Jennifer's CD. When we moved out of the house we shared together, (the old "Pink House"), I tried to give her the disc back. She gave me the funniest look. She was thoroughly disgusted. She knew what I had been up to in my room with that particular disc.

"Uhm, no...you keep that one..."

So, I had to buy her a new copy....

;)