There are a few songs that make me feel inexplicable. As if I am exactly the person I always wanted to be, as intriguing and beautiful and special as I should be. As if I am the absolute center of the universe, all eyes on me... and with good reason. The kinds of songs that take you away, make you more than you think you are, sweep you into a scenario that seems like it just sauntered out of the television or out of a book.
"Walking in Memphis" does this to me. I don't have any idea why. The first time I ever heard it, I was perched in Erin's basement with Rachel, waiting for Erin and Tiffa to bring down the pizza. It was on the stereo upstairs, and we could hear it through the floor. To me, it seemed like the most beautiful song in the world.
Even to this day, I can't hear it without wanting to be on a back road, driving in a car and listening to the song with the person I love best in the world, the person who won't speak because they know that this isn't the kind of song that you can really talk through. You just have to let it be.
A few years ago, on a Sunday night, I watched a black-and-white episode of The X-Files. The end scene was of Mulder and Scully driving down a long, straight back road, with "Walking in Memphis" playing in the background. It just placed the song and the show both even higher on my esteemed list... if that was possible.
That is what I love about Chris Carter.
He gets it.