Malcolm GauldI said to Laura, “Come listen to this song I just downloaded off iTunes.” She raised her eyebrows in feigned interest, having long ago resigned herself to my music addiction. She took a seat on the couch and gave me a look that said, “Move it! Let’s get this over with.”
I had a hunch that this number would stop her in her tracks. I was right. As the vocalist leaned into the chorus – “Reinvent yourself, reinvent yourself….” – I could see that she was hooked. She observed, “Sounds like a Hyde song.”
I replied, “It ought to. The singer (and writer) is a Hyde graduate.” Clearly surprised, she tried to guess but couldn’t identify the singer. I asked, “Give up?” She did. I said, “Chris Chickering ’88.” She responded with surprise, “Wow!” (“Wow!” is the stuff of Why I Do What I Do moments.)
Now, on one level, it’s not surprising. Chris was a capable young man as a Hyde student and went on to meet with success in college and beyond. He and I have been in sporadic contact, even running into each other once on the street in his native San Francisco. However, on another level, it is surprising as I didn’t know he was doing music at all, let alone producing outstanding songs like this one. (Neither Laura nor I remember him doing music at Hyde.)
In the e-mails that Chris and I have exchanged during the last few days, I learned that Deepak Chopra has been using this song at the close of his presentations, a sign suggesting that Chris is on to something. Download “Reinvent Yourself” and the EP of the same name and hear for yourself.
Onward, Malcolm Gauld
