Black Velvet

If you please: I have a strange relationship with this song.

A few years ago, after visiting my mother in the nursing home, I’d go for a walk on a nearby walking path. For entertainment, I found an app called “Zombies Run.” The object was to spur the listener on to run (or walk, I guess) and flee zombies. It would play dialogues of people dealing with the zombie apocalypse, state what objects I’d pick up along the way, and then play music in between.

The problem was, when getting my new phone, I stopped the download of all my music from iCloud to my phone. And so there was only one song there: yes, Alannah Miles’ “Black Velvet.” So every time the app would cut away for music, it was the same song.

I had also had a dream about the song years prior to that. I was crossing a multi-lane street on foot. The street reminded me of one in Huntington, WV, near Marshall University. As I was walking, a Cadillac convertible full of frat boys was crossing my path. As I came alongside of them, they all swiveled their heads and sang, “Black Velvet, if you please!” in a low-testosterone-fueled register. They drove on and I made it safely to the sidewalk.

I like the song, by the way, but my enjoyment of it is always supplemented by these crazy memories.