Radio XXIV, side A, track 3: “Roll With It” by Steve Winwood, #1 on The Top 88 of. . .wait, what?!?! Are you kidding me?!?!

Oh, Steve Winwood, no!  Nooooo!  NNOOOOOOOOO!  The top song of the year?!?!  No @#$@#$@# way!!!  Do you know how long I stayed up for this thing?!?!  I starved myself, Steve Winwood!  I faced the wrath of my parents for this project!  I did not stop until we got to the top, and this, THIS?!!? is what the top is?!?!?  I didn’t even really like this song in the first place, and now they’re saying it was the #1 song of the year?!?!  I feel betrayed.  I just don’t know by who.  Maybe it’s not fair to hold you responsible for this devastating blow to my expectations, Steve Winwood, but let me explain something. . .

Way back in January of 2012, I mentioned that this song was my first real taste of bitter disappointment and half-digested pizza.  And this is what I was talking about.  You may remember from some of my previous posts about this countdown that I barely moved from the radio all day, that I was sustaining myself with Planter’s tortilla chips and maybe a can of pop here and there.  Well, later that night, my parents came home with a pizza from the Pizza Ranch, and I was famished from all my taping of the countdown, and so I ate half that pizza in roughly five minutes.  Nothing new there, Steve Winwood.  I have impressive pizza-eating abilities.

But normally I wasn’t devouring a pizza on a completely empty stomach.  And so sometime in the night I woke up with some unpleasant feelings in my tummy, and before you know it, I was heaving my guts out at the toilet.  I say “at the toilet” rather than “in the toilet” because my aim was not the greatest.  My parents were not happy.  Hell, Steve Winwood, I was not happy.

Besides Christmas, New Year’s Eve was my favorite holiday.  It was that giant “To Be Continued. . .” that I loved so much about all the comic books I read, except it was for real.  It was the promise of amazing things to come.  And it was the chance to reflect on what had come before.  It was the crossroads of the two things I love the most: remembering and imagining.  And now all I had to remember was that I stayed up all damn day just to find out you wormed your way into the top spot, and all I had to imagine was how my parents were going to make me clean up the mess I’d made in the bathroom.

So thank you, Steve Winwood, thank you SO much for making New Year’s Eve of 1988 SO memorable.  That’s sarcasm, Steve Winwood.

What’s that?  What are you telling me to do?  You’re saying that I should just roll with it?  I am going to punch you right in the nose.

“Roll With It”

When life is too much

Roll with it, baby

Don’t stop
And lose your touch
Oh no, baby

Hard times knocking on your door

I’ll tell them you
Ain’t there no more

Get on through it
Roll with it, baby

Luck’ll come and then slip away

You gotta move, bring it back to stay

You just
Roll with it, baby
Come on and just
Roll with it, baby
You and me
Roll with it, baby
Hang on and just
Roll with it, baby
Hey

The way that you love
 
Is good as money

I swear
By stars above
Sweet as honey

People think you’re down and out
You show them what
It’s all about

You can make it
Roll with it, baby

When this world turns its back on you

Hang in
And do that sweet thing you do, you just
Roll with it, baby
Yeeeah, you just
Roll with it, baby
Come on and just
Roll with it, baby
You and me, just
Roll with it, baby

<Steve Winwood jam>

Roll with it, baby
Yeeeah, you just
Roll with it, baby
You and me, just
Roll with it, baby
Hang on and just
Roll with it, baby
Hey

Now there’ll be a day
You’ll get there, baby

You’ll hear
The music play
You’ll dance, baby

You’ll leave bad times way behind
Nothing but good times
On your mind

You can do it
Roll with it, baby

Then you’ll see life will be so nice
It’s just a step up ta paradise

Roll with it, baby
Yeeah, you just
Roll with it, baby
You and me, just
Roll with it, baby
Hang on and just
Roll with it, baby
Hey
C’mon

Roll with me, baby

Hang on, baby

Come on
Roll with me, baby

Roooollll

Hey!  

Come on now, roll  

Roll with me, baby