Hair like Lenny

Being a regular watcher of music videos on TV, only certain songs really caught my ears (or videos my eye.) If I located a spectacular video performance, a tune that I felt good about, or lyrics that I related to, I would buy the song as either a single or an album. I had a friend who was a pre-teen that stayed with her father some weekends. He lived next door to us. She would often visit me and listen to my collection of music along with my young son and I. One of the songs that seemed to connect with us all was Lenny Kravitz's Are You Gonna Go My Way.

I really enjoyed the semi-70's attitude of the music pounding out from the speakers into the lounge. It was a tune that you simply could not sit still to; you just had top move, dance, sway, bop, or toe-tap. My young son bounced about in time, merrily. It was a happy effect all round. My young friend from next door suddenly took a liking to Mr. Kravitz and wanted to talk of little else.

On one occasion, having spotted that I had segmented my hair into strands of tiny braids, she announced that I must be growing dreads just like Lenny. I later did wear my hair in such a style for a year or two, but at the time it was just in African-style braids. Seeing her pleasure, I offered to braid her hair likewise and she readily accepted. After talking about the performer, playing that song over and over, and having her hair fixed up, she returned home. A few days later, when encountering my neighbor, I was reprimanded in a friendly fashion for having messed up his daughter's hair and given her an obsession on Lenny Kravitz. However, the neighbor had to concede that Are You Gonna Go My Way was a catchy tune that caught hold of one, and forgive me our slight over-indulgence.