It’s all about the music.
I had never heard of Big Star until the other day.
Check that. I had, but just as one of those old chain grocery stores…I think there’s an old paper bag from there underneath my house.
But this Big Star was a band from the 70s, and one of their songs, “Thirteen,” was the backbone of the best scene of the season on network television which occurred Monday night on How I Met Your Mother.
The scene (embedded above) was at the end of the episode, in which Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) had been trying to woo special guest star Sarah Chalke (Stella, a doctor who was trying to remove a “tramp stamp” from Ted’s back.) And yes, this was the Britney Spears episode.
I’m a guy, and I’m not supposed to get emotional about these things, but I’ve had goosebumps each time I’ve watched this scene. But I’m sure the effect would not have been so deep if this song was not playing in the background. If there was no music, the scene might have been an afterthought. If there was a different song, I might have felt the same way, but probably not as much.
This was one of those times where the song just captured the mood perfectly. I compare it to the bus ride scene in Almost Famous, where Tiny Dancer is playing in the background.
