On Senator Clinton's website you can find the poll that allows you, the voter, to select the Senator's campaign song. I voted for The Tempations' "Get Ready" because not only is it a classic, but it is also the only song on the list I can stand the thought of hearing repeatedly for the next year+.This brings me to a question a friend asked me the other day: "Does your dissertation have a theme song?" After pausing to consider the possibility of opening my defense with a song, I told him that there are three songs that run repeatedly through my head as I research. Occassionally, I also hum/sing them quietly, much to the annoyance of others in various reading rooms. So, here they are in no particular order:
- "I Happen to Like New York": In my head, I always hear the Bobby Short version of this Cole Porter song. Woody Allen used it in the opening sequences of Manhattan Murder Mystery as the camera lovingly pans New York from above. The line that gets me: "I like the sight and the sound and even the stink of it." I never fail to hear that and think, "It's true! It's true! I do!"
- "Summer in the City": This choice may be the result of waiting to do all of my research in the summer or it may be the fact that I am stuck in the decade of long hot summers, in which the least of anyone's worries was the actual temperature. And, since the Lovin Spoonful version dates from 1966, it is completely of the period. I find the hopeful chorus pretty reassuring: "Despite the heat it'll be alright..."
- The Barney Miller Opening Music: Really, this doesn't need any explanation, does it? The bass line! The cast (Fish, Chano, Wojciehowicz/Wojo, Yemana and his coffee, Dietrich, etc.)! The 12th Precinct! The squad room! The finest of New York's finest! The show even looks like I imagine my topic looks, if that makes any sense, and just hearing the opening theme brings that all to life for me.
Alas, there is no poll to pick my dissertation theme, but I'll seriously think about bringing a bass to my defense.
[Update: The official theme song of the Clinton campaign has been chosen: Celine Dion's "You and I." No comment.]
