Note: The author works at an Off-Broadway theater where the sound man has been playing Led Zeppelin every Friday for five years.

Dear Dave,
I thought I would write you this letter in the hopes that this will be a more expressive form in which to describe how you make me feel.

It didn’t work when you passed by and I winced and said, “Again?”

It didn’t work when I inquired if you owned any other CDs. You turned upwards to God and shared a laugh while you air-guitared.

It didn’t work when I made a funny bucktooth face and called you "Freedom Rock."

Then, on the 10,000th listening of LED ZEPPLIN IV, I started thinking about the other songs that follow me around never giving me a chance to catch my breath; songs booming in Jeeps, background songs in convenience stores, songs sung by tired buskers.

Some of these songs I like or liked until the very last nuance, riff and idea had been sucked dry leaving a seven minute long nursery rhyme. Paul McCartney saddles up to Jude and a little chunk of my life is gone.

Once in a while a song like this pops up fresh and relevant. The most physical pain I ever experienced was a throbbing, searing toothache that suddenly appeared on a Saturday. I ran to the local bar and ordered a whiskey, then another. I would hold the booze in my mouth as long as possible, trying in vain to numb the agony. I started playing pinball, in an attempt to seem normal. I got into a streak, racking up the high score, extra balls and a replay. Then “Rocket Man” came on--a song I have always known, and yeahyeahyeahed away as soon as it came on. My wrists froze and I watched the ball slowly slip into the gutter. I retreated to a corner to cry. What a beautiful song!

Sure, there are songs that whisper to me, demanding to be heard over and over. But unlike you, this in an intensely private moment for me in which I furtively press repeat on “My Pal Foot Foot”. I know it’s shameful and I know you wouldn’t like it.

Dave, maybe you are trying to show me that the “song remains the same” and we are the ones who change; that every Friday at 9 I am a different person bringing new perspectives to the same mantra.