How to make love to a memory and not sleep in the wet spot

There is a song out there called, "Forever my darlin'" which is sometimes called, "Pledging my love" but it's the same song either way. I have always loved the song and it depresses me every time I hear it. Not because it's associated with a former lover or anything like that, but because of story of Johnny Ace.

When I was younger, long before the internet made it easy to just find information, you had to find things in books, or go to a library and look in old newspaper articles on microfiche. It was a painfully long process but it was also very rewarding. It was like treasure hunting with little clues you had to discover on your own. I loved it. That's mostly gone now. Computers and the internet just sort of robbed the glory of it. If you want to learn something now you just type something in the address bar at the top of your computer screen and links to potential answers pop up instantaneously. It's just not as treasurey huntery as it used to be.

I still do it. I still look up information about things. I do it everyday. Compulsively I read five newspapers everyday (KC STAR, NY TIMES, LAWRENCE JOURNAL WORLD, LA TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL) three blogs (HUFFINGTON POST, SCREENRANT, THE ATLANTIC WIRE) and I visit Craigslist (still can't find a job). There was a time when all of these newspapers were unique and the information contained within them was both informative and personalized. Now almost all of the stories are AP wire stories or the stories are just rehashed talking points. Rarely is there something new or unique to sink your teeth into. The blogs are where I go to get the most colorful insight into things. And Craigslist is just a good place to look for free stuff.

If I'm curious about something, I just type it in and I read as much info as I can about the topic before I let it go. I don't feel like much of a sleuth nowadays, but it keeps my mind sharp. Want to know about the Lindbergh Kidnapping? I'm your man. Want to know where to eat in Mumbai? I got it.

All of this brings me back to Johnny Ace.

My father had a 45 recording of "Forever my Darling" and I played it so often that I almost wore it out. At the time (late seventies, early eighties) I didn't care who it was that was singing. I didn't know the difference between the song title and the artist - they were one and the same to me. When I asked for the record, I asked for it by the song title and my dad would get it out for me. No clue who the singer was. I wasn't smart enough to put that sort of information together.

The record finally broke and I was stuck without a copy of it. The broken record was thrown away and the only way I knew how to replace it was to go to a record store and ask for the title. I went to Pennylane, I went to Streetside, I went to Camelot. I went to Musicland - They all said the same thing, "Who sings it?" I had no idea. Everyone told me there were dozens of versions of the song and the most notable was the one done by Elvis. And I knew for a fact that my version wasn't Elvis. Elvis only sang Christmas music. Duh.

For whatever reason my father decided not to tell me who it was. I guess he wanted to teach me a lesson. Or he was just being a prick. It was probably a little of both. More the latter than the former.

The record stores didn't let you listen to singles, you had to buy the whole album, take it home and if it was the wrong version, tough. No refunds. I bought two versions of the song before I decided to give up. I was unemployed when I was ten and allowance was for video games and movies. Priorities man!

"Why don't you look it up at the library?" said my grandmother, who was secretly my greatest benefactor and publicly, my consigliere, my oracle, my yoda. She even looked like Yoda.

I went to the library and a librarian helped me find the song in a book filled with all sorts of facts and other stuff like who they knew, where they were from... It was like a wikipedia before the wiki part! It had the lyrics, the song writer's name, the publishing house, everything. It was awesome. Then we found out that the most popular version of the song was done by a man named Johnny Ace.

I went back to Pennylane and they told them what I found out. "OH THAT SONG." It was like a light switch had been flipped in their tiny failed musician's mind and suddenly they knew exactly what I was talking about. There were no singles available but I could buy the whole album. It wasn't that much more than the single and for some reason I didn't want to miss something so I bought it. The album was amazing. This guy has pretty damn good. I loved that record. I loved it so much I decided that I needed to find out more about this guy. I'm obsessive like that.

Back to the library.

This kind old lady who didn't much care for my loud voice helped me find out all about Johnny Ace. The first thing she told me, "Oh look. It says here he's dead. Killed himself." I was destroyed. It bothered me that I had done so much work to find this man only to find out that my efforts would end up in a dead end, literally. But I felt I must honor him somehow. So Johnny Ace became the first celebrity grave I had to find.

I don't know what it is about listening to dead people sing ballads, but it tempers the song for me some how. From that point on every time I heard the song it was more meaningful. I probably just made it more dramatic for my own purposes.

The best thing about a 45 record is that you can have it repeat for hours. I'm not sure how record players worked or why they worked better than most modern CD players, but I loved listening to that song as I went to sleep. Someone would come in and turn it off after I fell asleep.

The Johnny Ace story is for you to look up. Enjoy the song.