Paying the Price of Love

Fate can be a funny thing. Sometimes people are placed in a situation that will change their lives forever. A lot of the time these events are extreme games of chance where the slightest change will cause a tremendously different outcome. This was the case one fateful day as a single act of chance managed to change my life dramatically.

It was a Wednesday afternoon and I was travelling home from school by car because I was playing in a special "under the lights" football game that night, opposed to our usual Thursday afternoon regulars. The game was away which meant that we had to travel to a neighboring school's stadium, requiring me to meet the rest of my team at school by four o'clock. This is where the problem comes in. My bus wouldn't get me home until around 3:40 which didn't give me enough time to eat, change clothes, and get back to the school in time. So, my mother came to pick me up with my sister also in the car, sis was enjoying having shotgun while I sat in the back.

To this point the ride has been the average one, nothing too terribly exciting so far. Until, of course, I hear this song come over the radio. I could barely hear the faint song, however, due not only to the low volume, but to the rather loud conversation my mom and my sister were having at the time as well. After being denied the request of turning up the volume, I was fearful that I would never be able to enjoy the song that appealed to me so greatly. Faced with no other option, I removed my seat belt, turned myself around, got up on the seat on knees, and placed my ear directly on the speaker in the back of the car. It was then that I finally heard the song clear enough to know it was the greatest song that I had ever listened to in my entire life. The falsetto vocals, the driving beat, the intensity that poured out of the speaker into my ear; it was the height of musical enjoyment. As soon as the song ended, I realized that I didn't have the slightest clue as to who sang the song. I found it difficult to think of anything else, let alone play a football game that night. Needless to say, it was not my finest athletic performance.

When I got home after the game the first thing I did was literally sprint to my stereo and sit there for the rest of the night in hopes of once again hearing this mysterious song. Luck was not on my side that night as I fell asleep without hearing it. The next day at school, I was equally focused on what I was supposed to be as the night prior during the football game. No teacher, class, or test could hold my attention as I spent most of the day either staring blankly into space or sharing my story with my friends. It was during the course of this day that I conceived the plan that I would use in attempt to gain knowledge of the song that eluded me. I planned to continuously monitor the airwaves by wearing a walkman at all times. When I heard the song, I would run to my stereo where I had a tape set up ready to record the song. The plan would go into effect that night and would proceed indefinitely or until I recorded the song, whichever came first.

That night would not be the night I was to record it, however. Once again another day passed, and with it some of my spirits diminished as well. Would I ever hear this song again, I thought to myself. What kind of cruel joke is being played on me? Morning came bringing more problems with it. I had fallen asleep with my walkman on and killed the batteries in the process. With no others in the house, I had to face the day in school without the ability to listen for the song. Miraculously I made it through that day of school, returning home to a waiting walkman and new batteries that my mom had bought me. So as I proceeded to once again subject myself to the repetitious monitoring, the unimaginable happened; they actually played the song. I hesitated as I was momentarily hypnotized by the beat, but then I took off, racing up the stairs to my room like a madman possessed. I hit the record button and began taping.

I later found out that the song was titled "Paying the Price of Love" by the group the BeeGees. It was their new release at that time, off their album " Size Isn't Everything." I remember thinking to myself, "You mean to tell me that those BeeGee disco freaks are the ones who made this song?" I shutter at those words today, but at the time, I was an ignorant punk of a kid who didn't know any better. So with my new found love of the song, I decided to put my prior accusations behind me and give the BeeGees a chance. I did some research and found that they did a lot much more than just disco, their careers started back in the early 60's. I had to respect a band that had been making music for nearly four decades. I began to by their records on album at a local flea market. It was inexpensive way to obtain these records which were also quite rare. It was a simple beginning that grew to be one of the biggest things in my life.
I found myself traveling to far off flea market searching through piles of records for BeeGees albums. I stood thumbing through stacks for hours at a time, finding record after record. Months pass as I gather as many things about the BeeGees as I can, buying everything I could put my hands on. But soon things would slow down. I had bought mostly all of the widely released albums and I had begun to run out of places to search. It seemed as if the "gold rush" was coming to an end.

So I was not happy with just that. Deep down it hurt me to see the BeeGees laughed at or criticized for disco, maybe because I did that before I was enlightened. So I had a mission, I would expose the BeeGees to every person that I could. I would make tapes and give them away, play their songs to all my friends, give speeches about them in school; I basically made it my ambition to not rest until everyone in the world loves the BeeGees. It is working to a certain extent; I have managed to reach a few of my friends. Some of them now listen to the BeeGees under their own will.

It has been about five years since that fateful day in the car, and since then a lot has changed. I've seen artists come and go who pale in comparison to the great BeeGees. I have bought every single official BeeGees album produced and am currently tracking down the rarities halfway around the world. I managed to get my hands on some memorabilia and items that are proud additions to my collections. So much that I have and know more than the day when I didn't have the slightest idea who sang a song that caught my attention during a chance happening. I can't help thinking of the different possible ways my life would be different right now had I not been listening to the radio that point in time in that car. I sometimes sit back and astonish myself while I think of how greatly the BeeGees have affected my life.



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