TODAY AT MERLE'S: Thelma Houston

TODAY AT MERLE'S: Don't Leave Me This Way by Thelma Houston

Unable to contain my glee, I listened with rapt attention today as Fate smiled upon me once again and brought this disco classic wafting to my eardrums. Combined with the roar of jet engines as fighter planes from the Chicago Air & Water Show passed overhead, along with the strains of The Beatles' Let It Be emanating from a boom box within the hollow shell of Kitchen Chicago's back door loading dock, I was treated to a veritable Cageian symphony on the Francisco platform this afternoon. Thelma's words of triumphant desperation rang hollow, however, as we travellers inevitably boarded the Loop-bound Brown line train and abandoned her, our hearts definitely not full of love and desire for her.

Below, watch a classic Thelma Houston appearance on German television in 1977. You started this fire down in my soul...now can't you see it's burning out of control?