Track 6, Side 1: September by Earth, Wind and Fire
No one can resist dancing to September...even in the ICU!
My dad taught me every epic journey deserves a great soundtrack. My PalliMed Mixtape is the story of my Palliative Medicine Fellowship year, told in 15 songs.
(Photo: Wikipedia)
My little brother has done a lot of cool things in his life. He’s wrestled traditional warriors in an all-night brawl between rival clans in outer Mongolia, tamed an ornery horse he rode around a volcanic island on Lake Nicaragua, and dug his bare hands into hardpack snow to arrest his rapid slide down an ice field in the Teton mountains after he lost control of his ice axe. (I’m looking forward to his Substack someday!)
But way back when he was a sophomore in college, he did something else really cool. He made me this fantastic mix CD.
Just look at this thing! It still plays. It features so many incredible songs he had found on some early version of Napster—Bone Thugs and Harmony’s Tha Crossroads, The Distance and I Will Survive by Cake, Lauryn Hill’s Forgive Them Father, Gold to Me by Ben Harper. He cleverly burned both the Frank Wilson and the Pearl Jam versions of Last Kiss onto the disc. He even figured out how to print out a CD label displaying an ironic photo of David Hasselhoff in his Baywatch lifeguard suit, (a move almost cool enough to make me forgive him for including Wild Wild West by Will Smith.)
This CD introduced me to September by Earth, Wind and Fire. How had I made it through twenty-two years of life on this earth without knowing this song? I have no idea. I’m sure glad that my brother introduced me to it back then. It turns out September has special powers in palliative medicine.
Fast forward twenty-two years…
Ice Ice Baby played on the TV’s music channel when Dr. Wallingford, the doctor training me, first noticed Kelsey’s rhythmic hand movements. She’d been sedated and on a ventilator in the ICU for weeks, undergoing multiple surgeries on a painful tumor involving her brain and skull. She’d had some very close calls and had not been able to communicate much at all during that time.
At only 34 years old, her diagnosis and clinical situation were devastating. Her father, also battling cancer, kept vigil in the corner of the hospital room day after day, his walker always resting right in front of the vinyl recliner. At times we all felt overwhelmed trying to help her family navigate tough decisions in this dire situation.
But those hand movements that day…was Kelsey actually keeping the beat? Could she process the music, and was she actually dancing to it? Maybe so. I know I move a little every time I hear Ice Ice Baby. It’s Pavlovian. Like Vanilla Ice raps in the song, I go crazy when I hear a cymbal.
(Photo: Wikipedia)
The next day we came to see her again, like we did every day. Her surgeons had just performed a tracheotomy (creating a breathing hole in the neck) so they could remove the breathing tube from her throat. Kelsey now looked much more alert. The chorus of Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO boomed on the TV. Party rock is in the house tonight / everybody just have a good time.
“Good morning, Kelsey! You’re so much more awake today. It looks like you’re breathing great!” A big smile and a nod.
“Were you dancing to Ice Ice Baby yesterday?”
Another nod. No way!
“Is Ice Ice Baby your jam?”
A vigorous headshake ‘no’.
“Do you like this song, Party Rock Anthem?” I asked and pointed to the TV.
Another vigorous headshake ‘no’. Now she looked offended. She had far better taste than that.
“Well, let’s get you some music you like!” I couldn’t believe we were finally connecting after all this time!
In my excitement I goofed and asked her directly, “What’s your favorite song?” before realizing she was still unable to speak. Whoops. Kind of rude to ask open-ended questions to a patients who can’t talk!
OK, no time for feeling stupid, Jorgensen. Let’s regroup and figure this out. Finding Kelsey’s favorite song was suddenly the most important thing in the world. How are we going to find her song? We asked dad; he didn’t know. We silenced the TV and started a new line of questioning.
“OK, let’s go by categories, Kelsey. Is it hip-hop?” I asked with pressured speech.
She shook her head ‘no’.
“Pop?”
Headshake ‘no”.
“Country?”
She mouthed an emphatic no.
“R&B?”
A gentle nod and a grin. We were close.
“Is it old?”
Big nod. Now I made the leap.
“Is your favorite song September by Earth, Wind & Fire?”
Huge nod and a smile. Jackpot!
What are the odds? I’d say it was a lucky guess, but who doesn’t love September? I clumsily thumbed it up on my smartphone as fast as I could. There was an urgency now. She needed that song, and so did we. Anticipation built until I finally found it. I turned the volume as high as it would go and pushed play.
It started modestly, like it always does. The playful bass line under the rhythm guitar. Now the drums kicked in, still nice and easy. But in a few short seconds here came the horns, and there was no looking back. It was an explosion of joy and life and positivity and groove. The funky brass fanfare announced the arrival of fun and levity and exuberance into this dreary clinical space.
Kelsey beamed ear to ear. Still very limited physically, now she shrugged her shoulders up and down and moved her hands with a smoothness and a rhythm I could only dream of replicating. Dr. Wallingford and I started dancing, too, like middle-aged dads at a wedding reception, inhibitions gone, hands waving wildly in the air. There was a happiness in this room at last. Kelsey was back!
Ba-dee-ya, say, do you remember? / Ba-dee-ya, dancin’ in September! / Ba-dee-ya, never was a cloudy day!
(Photo: imdb)
Halfway through the song, her elderly father in the corner even got up and started dancing with his walker! He had to! Like I learned from my little brother over two decades ago, September cannot be denied. And on the road to recovery, Kelsey would not be denied either.
We played another Earth, Wind & Fire song, danced together, taught her father how to find good music on a smartphone, and made no apologies when another doctor came into the room and gave us a confused and concerned look. When we wrote our note that day we made a new recommendation. Music—Kelsey’s music—should now be a part of her daily treatment plan.
The bell was ringin’, oh, oh / Our souls were singin’ / Do you remember never a cloudy day?
Tell me Crash Cart Campfire friends:
What songs get you moving every time?
Can you name the 8 CDs in the background of my photo?
What’s on your mixtape?
Track 6, Side 1: September by Earth, Wind and Fire
I think the checkered CD is maybe REM Out of Time ( a similar little cheat because I think you can make out some of the letters). Strokes Is this It, was wondering if the rainbow was U2 and looks like Dan confirms with more confidence than me. The others really no idea Red maybe a Pearl Jam album? Really like the idea of this quiz though and similarly disappointed in my lack of knowledge here.
Songs that get me going: Safety Dance: Men Without Hats, Groove is in the Heart: Deee-Lite, Give It Away: RHCP (or anything from Blood Sugar Sex Magik), more recently Purple Hat and Best Friend: SOFI TUKKER
Also, not sure if inappropriate association but this makes me kind of think of the Tainted Love (Soft Shell) Levi's commercial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSlO6WhsczY
Here goes - top left, The Strokes, just didn’t blur enough into the background so that one is a gimme. Next to it, the purple disc, I don’t know why but my gut reaction was that is G Love & Special Sauce, I might be totally off on that. Bottom left has to be U2 - Pop, I played that CD a lot and remember it fondly. Bottom right I’m going to guess is The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, but that’s just based on the checkered pattern and I’m probably wrong. And I’m disappointed in myself for not even having a guess on the rest of them.
The song that always gets me to the dance floor at any reception: Billie Jean - Michael Jackson. Not my favorite song by a mile, but that bass line gets me moving.