Slap & Tickle

A Sixteen-Year Wait… Over.

When I was a kid, I saw the movie Earthquake with Charlton Heston wearing these really cool shoes. (I think back then, I called them ‘groovy’.) I searched high and low for them, but couldn’t find them—mostly, because they were out of style. Then, one day, I happened by MacDonald’s Department Store (not to be confused with the lowland Scot McDonald’s of French Fry fame…) and saw them. Yes, they were no longer in style, but they were good enough for Chuck to save greater Los Angeles, by gum, they were good enough for me!

Thus, started my rather unfortunate habit of wanting something and never letting it go, even when it would be better to move on. When I was a kid, I saw a picture of a castle in National Geographic and I was fascinated by it. Ten years later, my brother’s girlfriend was in my room, saw the image on my bulletin board and said she’d been there! Eventually, the questions get answered, one just needs to develop patience—a continually difficult lesson for me to learn.

Jump forward to 1991, where one of my favorite shows was Northern Exposure. I absolutely adored it. It was funny, quirky, and was supported by an amazing cast of characters and actors. Plus, I had a huge thing for John Corbett and developed my eternal love for the nice Jewish boy from Rob Morrow.*

One of my favorite episodes was in the second season, titled “Spring Break.” Yes, this was the infamous Running of the Bulls episode: all the men in town streaking. (Any chance to see young Mr. Corbett with his shirt off was a good episode in my book.)

In this final scene (the running of the bulls) there was this amazing song—sweet, mysterious, lovely. I’d never heard it before or since. I only heard it while watching this episode. Later, I bought the VHS tape of that episode, strictly to get the information on the name of the song. Neither the box nor the credits listed the songs.

So, for sixteen long years I’ve wondered about this song. It was so great, surely it will make an appearance somewhere else, right? Nope. Nada. Zilch.

However, today, I was reading the A.V. Club at The Onion and someone posed the question on Ask The A.V. Club regarding a song from another TV show. I thought about writing them, but then thought that maybe, just maybe it might be located somewhere on the great world wide web. Three clicks later, I found it.

Just like that. Click. Click. Click.

TV.com—which I’d never heard of until Google showed me the way—has extensive information on Northern Exposure. I found my episode and along with all the other details on this particular episode (writer, director, guest star, quotes) was music. I knew four of the eight songs, so I put the first one into iTunes, clicked to listen, and viola!

The song is by Lindsay Buckingham** (of Fleetwood Mac fame). I don’t know if it holds up for sixteen years, but listening to D.W. Suite brings a smile to my face—even after sixteen long years.

So, that’s one more off the list! Now I need to see if I can find that shirt Peter Gallagher wore in Summer Lovers…

[UPDATE: Well, I downloaded the entire song (I was only able to sample 30 seconds on iTunes) and it's a piece of shit. The part they played on Northern Exposure was the first minute of the SIX MINUTE-LONG SONG. Six friggin' minutes! The rest of the song completely sucks, it goes off in two other pointless directions. Awful. Just awful. Maybe some things are better left unfound...]


*Still crushing on Corbett... Morrow, not so much.
**Coincidentally, he is appearing at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA this Thursday night.