Well, d'ya, Cleveland?

Driving back from Cleveland on Friday night/Saturday morning, I was trying to find the right radio station for the drive home--something to comfort me, something to keep me awake, something to nourish my soul. In other words, nothing at all featuring the Top 40 hits of today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow.

Luckily, along the way, I discovered WCSB, the independent, alternative station broadcasting from Cleveland State University, via which I heard this fantastic, hilarious, and contemporary remake of Rod Stewart's semi-execrable-yet-perfectly-of-its-time "D'Ya Think I'm Sexy?" The group is the Hybrid Kids (sorta, maybe, kinda--or maybe it's just the musician Morgan Fisher--or his studio group, British Standard Unit?) and it's a contemporary song alright--1979 contemporary, released within a year of the original.

I was surprised to say the least to learn that this song wasn't new--although, admittedly, who but the very desperate or the very camp would do a remake of a top pop hit from 1978 at this late stage, nearly 35 years after the fact? Nevertheless, the biting humor and delivery, plus the industrial sound, make this cover version seem very current and relevant.

Maybe it's just that so much modern pop sounds so dreadful and synthetic. (Yes, I am old.) I couldn't help but wish this were some new, adventurous musical combo, attacking the "classics" and soon to set its sights on modern times, the usual suspects of Lady Gaga, Britney, Katy Perry, and whatever the boy band du jour is calling itself at the moment.

Alas, no. The late '70s and early '80s had it going on, and we're still utterly lost and hapless at critiquing pop culture, regressing almost to an early '60s let's-take-everything-at-face-value system--just with more tits and more asses.

Oh, but why be bitter? This little ditty sits so pretty in my consciousness now. It's just the brain food I needed to keep me going through the early daze of the holiday season.

Now if I could just do something about getting a decent flight out of Pittsburgh International. Or perhaps just up and move to Cleveland instead. This one little mindbender of a track gives me hope that there's some life out there after all in the Midwestern quadrant of American culture.

Even if the track's performed by a group of Brits.