Right on cue, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Not because of parties for hosting and marshmallows for toasting, but rather, Spotify Wrapped.
If you’re a music lover like I am, you eagerly await the results of your year-end Spotify recap with barely concealed glee. Top song, total minutes listened, favorite artist, it’s all there. I always enjoy seeing which music made the cut, and for me, 2024 held few surprises.
I’ve been listening to “Goin’ Against Your Mind” ever since it came out in 2006. After 18 years, it finally hit #1. Sweet! And, I raved about The Hold Steady when we saw them at Summerfest earlier this year. Like I said, no big surprises.
Tara, on the other hand? She was almost embarrassed to show me hers.
“I have no idea how this song ended up my most-played of the year,” she said before shamefully showing me her Wrapped. I couldn’t believe my eyes. My indie-and-alternative-rock-lovin’ wife’s most-played song in 2024?
“Dirty Work” by Steely Dan.
Holy yacht rock! I expected something from Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats or Kings of Leon, two of Tara’s favorite bands.
Don’t get me wrong, “Dirty Work” is a great song. But it’s also a 52-year-old song. I was practically still in pull-ups when Steely Dan was burning up the charts, and Tara wasn’t even born yet. Talk about reelin’ in the years! She chalks it up to pure randomness, as she would fire up classic rock playlists while toiling in the garden for hours, rather than some deep-rooted appreciation for Walter Becker and Donald Fagan, two dudes who sound like law firm partners instead of musicians known for blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin, R&B, and blues into sophisticated studio production with cryptic and ironic lyrics.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as Jerry would say.
“You know what this means, right?” I told Tara. “You listened to that song. And then you went back, Jack, and did it again.”
In retrospect, my wife’s Steely Dan love shouldn’t have been a surprise. The writing was on the wall all along. Literally.
I can’t say the weekend was particularly exciting, but I can’t say I’m too upset about that, either. Sometimes you just gotta do nada.
We’d planned on hitting our town’s annual Holiday Market, as we have in years past, but Tara had to work Saturday morning. By the time we left the house, the event was already winding down. We only had time to stop by one of the five locations before deciding to park it on a barstool at Paddy Coughlin’s for a few rounds. Priorities, man. Then we came home, played cards, ate shrimp tacos. But first, I queued up a Steely Dan record. Gotta keep the missus happy.
(I’m getting so much mileage out of this, huh?)
Then, so as not to break precedent, we skipped our town’s annual Holiday Parade Sunday night. We talked about going – we had a great time in 2022 – but that year’s parade was on a Saturday, which is so much more appealing. It was also almost a month earlier and cold AF. I feel badly not supporting our small town as much as we could have over the weekend, especially since it was about a thousand degrees warmer than last weekend, but at least our bar tab helped prop up the local economy.
Any surprises on your Spotify Wrapped? Steely Dan: yay or nay? Do you enjoy your town’s holiday festivities?
Mark My Words 
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