Saturday, November 16, 2013

Old Sad Folk Music... While You Shop!

As I was browsing around the local pharmacy tonight I noticed that the song playing on the in-store system was very slow, dull and sad.  I can’t remember words but one line in the song kept repeating.  The line was something like:  “Why oh why is my heart so sad?”

Over and over again.  Sort of like the old Chinese water torture tactic.

“What kind of music is this?” I thought to myself.  I was not familiar with the song but I would describe the musical genre as old, sad folk music with a twist of funeral dirge.

I chuckled, thinking, “These poor people who work here have to listen to this stuff?”

A clerk at the cosmetics counter noticed my chuckling along with my wise-guy grin and she said, “What’s so funny?”

Referring to the music I said, “What kind of song is this?”

She laughed, shaking her head and saying, “I don’t know.  It’s terrible, isn’t it?”

I said, “I hope you don’t have to listen to this kind of sad music all day.”  

She laughed again.

“Is this music on some type of loop so that you have to listen to that song a bunch of times throughout your shift?” I asked her.

She said, “I work at another store and ‘What’s New Pussycat?’ plays a bunch of times during my shift.”

I said, “First of all, there should be a law against playing the song ‘What’s New Pussycat?’ more than once a day and second, there should be some type of rule against torturing your employees.”

We both laughed again.  Fortunately, I was able to pay for my stuff and leave.  But the crummy music?  It kept playing…




No comments: