Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Mellow Yellow and Dental Floss

I love the color yellow. Yellow makes me happy. It reminds me of springtime. It reminds me of being young and carefree. It reminds me of high school when I was hip and mellow for yellow!

When I was fifteen, I painted my bedroom sunshine yellow and added an orange throw rug and pillows.

The song "Mellow Yellow" was released by Donovan in October 1966, my senior year in high school. It was a friend's favorite song, thus the words were etched in my brain, even though I had no idea at the time what Saffron was.


But here is what's really funny. I always thought the lyrics said:

I'm just mad about Faultine
Faultine's mad about me
I'm-a just mad about Faultine
She's-a just mad about me. . .


I thought Saffron and Faultine were girls' names, so I just belted out the lyrics as I thought them to be. In looking up the lyrics, one web site has the following:

I'm just mad about Frontine.
A-Frontine's mad about me.
I'm-a just mad about-a Frontine.
A-She's just mad about me.

I'm not the only one who's confused, because another web site lists the lyrics as:

I'm just mad about Fourteen
Fourteen's mad about me
I'm just mad about Fourteen
She's just mad about me


So who's right? What do you think the correct lyrics are?

It doesn't really matter since the song doesn't really make much sense anyway. I mean, what's an electrical banana? We just liked the song.

Take a "trip" back to the Sixties and tell me what you think the lyrics are:



Donovan - Mellow Yellow
Video sent by danieldp

By the way, in the middle of the song the lyrics are mumbled and they supposed say:
Born-a high forever to fly.
Wind-a velocity nil.
Born-a high forever to fly.
If you want your cup, I will fill.
Whatever that means!
--------------------------------------------
What does any of this have to do with dental floss?

Today I spent two and a half hours in the dentist's chair. (Nice segue, huh? Yellow=My teeth.)

Seriously, sitting that long in a chair with two latexed hands and a squirting-sucking hose in your mouth gives you plenty of time to reminisce. At least when you're not gagging and choking on phlegm from your hay fever induced post-nasal drip or saliva and blood from the dental procedure.

My dentist has a very gentle, painless touch, especially compared to dentists I've known in my past. My current DDS is my neighbor and former Bishop. Even though my teeth are in terrible shape due to a life-long addiction to Diet Coke, dry-mouth syndrome due to R.A. and the drugs for R.A., my dentist is always complimentary and encouraging.

He must want me to come back, unlike one dentist who continually belittled me. "I could open a Portland Cement Company with all the plaque I chiseled off your teeth." (Not said jokingly. A direct quote.)

I grew up with constant auto-immune mouth sores which made flossing and brushing my least favorite duty. My mother would cancel my dentist appointments when my sores were too severe. Even as a child, I was told by dentists, I was lazy and irresponsible for not taking better care of my teeth. Little did I know that the floride treatments I was given also caused many of my mouth sores, as did the foaming agent in tooth paste.

Today as my dentist basically rebuilt three of my teeth, I went to far away places in my head and found myself singing "Mellow Yellow". Time travel is a good thing, but now it is time for my pain medicine---and get Mellow.

2 comments:

Kathleen said...

Talk about a flashback - it has been a long time since I heard this song.

Travelin'Oma said...

Donavan had just the attitude I envied back in the day. I sang along singing Fontine, thinking it was a girl's name, and I thought Saffron was some hippy name, too. (Saffron seems cooler than Apple as a girl's name.)

Sorry about your day at the dentist's office. I've managed to avoid that scene for a few years (it's easy when you're still paying off the last root canal.) But I've got a dull ache that pops up to remind me to call for an appt. It has to be the WORST way to spend money in the world!!