Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)

Song of the Day 07/21/2022

Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time) by The Delfonics

William Hart, the lead singer and lyricist of the Delfonics, died on July 14th at 77 years old. I knew of the Delfonics, and this song, of course, but had no idea who William Hart was until reading the news this morning. For whatever reason, his death was announced a week late. As part of the Delfonics, which in my opinion is a really bad name for a band, Hart (according to almost all of the obituaries) defined the sound and soul of Philadelphia during the 60s and the 70s. 

I’ve been to Philadelphia twice. The first time was for the premier of a two-person musical that my parents wrote. I was pretty young, probably nine or ten. I don’t remember anything from that trip other than a man yelling at us very loudly on the street, saying something along the lines of ‘This is fuckin’ Philadelphia,’ repeatedly. It was nice of him to introduce us to the city. I can’t recall whether or not the musical was well received. The second time I went was on a school or camp trip, no idea which one. We went to see the Liberty Bell, I didn’t care much at the time, but I remember being disappointed that it didn’t ring anymore. ‘All from one crack in 1846? Couldn’t someone have fixed it? I mean, we came all this way!’   

The great writer Wesley Morris is from Philadelphia. A few friends of mine have been recently and recommend the city as ‘fun,’ ‘cool’ and ‘chill’ although, yea. That’s all I have to say about Philadelphia, other than that I believe I enjoyed watching the movie with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. That was also a long time ago, though. There’s a good chance I might not like it anymore, that either me or the movie haven’t aged well. 

More than Philadelphia, the Delfonics make me think of Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, set in Los Angeles, a testament to how movies can successfully reappropriate another city’s sound. I guess this means almost all the songs in the world belong to New York and Los Angeles, those horrifically filmic cities. How can we delve deep into the subconscious minds of so many people and say, ‘Hey! This is the sound of Philadelphia, you morons.’ I actually remember driving around Los Angeles and listening to Didn’t I over and over again, thinking about how perfectly the song reflected the city’s bleak and desolate form of beauty. 

I was mad about something similar recently, the resurgence among Gen Z of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill. It was in a show called Stranger Things or some garbage of that ilk. And now, one of my favorite songs of all time is the Stranger Things song that belongs to the Tik Tok generation. I can never use it as a Song of the Day now, how fucking lame that would be! Reports have circulated that Kate Bush made two and a half million dollars in royalties in June alone from the song’s ‘revival.’ Well, there’s always a silver lining.