Another them?

Christmas Eve. This is the day I normally do my Christmas shopping.

Not that I have that much shopping to do. Tony takes care of most of it, but I still need to get presents for him and the cats, which I always do on Christmas Eve.

You wouldn't believe how easy it is. I go to the Petco. I go to the record store. I get some fancy marmalade at the deli. I'm usually done in about 45 minutes.

This year, though, I promised Tony I'd drive up to Sebastopol on Christmas Eve and drop off the presents that he got for my family, so I had to do my shopping early. Yesterday afternoon, to be precise.

It was hell.

I mean, the pet presents were no problem. I just went to the Long's Drugs down the street. There were only two people ahead of me in line.

But Tony's present that was another story. See, I decided months ago I was going to give him a Seekers CD.

OK, younger kurttrue.com fans might not be immediately familiar with the Seekers. They were kind of a folksy-rocksy band from Australia. They were popular in the '60's. They did "Georgie Girl."

"Hey there, Georgie Girl, doodee doodee doodee doodee doo."

Remember? Sure. Everybody's heard "Georgie Girl." I sing it to my cat all the time.

But it wasn't "Georgie Girl" I was after. I was looking for another one of their hits, "Another You," written by Tom Springfield, the brother and one-time band mate of Dusty Springfield.

So I go down to the record store on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. I figure they're going to have the Seekers in stock, right? I mean, the Seekers were huge! They were bigger than Peter, Paul and Mary!

Well, they have one seekers CD. One! In the whole store. And it says on it "The Seekers Today."

Well, what in the heck is The Seekers Today? Is that like when they got the Mamas and Papas back together, except Cass Elliot had been dead for fifteen years, and Michelle Phillips didn't need the money, so it was more like the Papas and a couple of out-of-work in-laws?

I mean, I realize bands go through personnel changes over the years, but sometimes it just gets ridiculous. Have you ever noticed that when you go to Las Vegas, the Coasters are usually playing in five different casinos simultaneously? That's because there have been so many different versions of the Coasters in the past 50 years, they've actually morphed into separate bands. Seriously. They've replicated themselves. It's like they're a protoplasm or something.

But anyway, the CD has "Another You" on it, and that sure does look like Judith Durham, the original Seekers vocalist, on the cover.

OK, does anybody need me to explain who Dusty Springfield is?

Kurt "big daddy" True
24 december 2005