That'll Learn Ya Redux

Back on January 24, 2008, a full 20 months ago, I wrote a post about a song I hadn't heard in over 20 years.

This weekend I heard the song.

To recap...

That'll Learn Ya was a Rhode Island band in the early/mid 1980's. They gained a big local following. I bought a cassette that they released. On it was the song 'Robert DeNiro Movies'. I loved the song. But lost the cassette.

Every time I've been home to my parents house in Rhode Island I've dug through boxes of old tapes, looking for that missing gem. Never found it.

But through the wonder of Facebook, I recognized the name of one of the guitar players, Al Valatka. Within 20 minutes of this I was listening to a copy of 'Robert DeNiro Movies'.

Even crazier? A mere 10 days earlier ANOTHER old fan of That'll Learn Ya (a guy I went to high school with) had convinced That'll Learn Ya to reunite. The day the songs were uploaded to the internet for the first time? My birthday.

What a grand old world. So I'm planning on attending a Thanksgiving reunion show of That'll Learn Ya.

Next time anyone rails about how the Internet has dehumanized us all and left us disconnected and disaffected, just remind them to come to Rhode Island in November to see a concert and listen to some songs that would have been lost forever to me if not for Facebook.

By the way, the song was as good as I remembered it and I had the melody perfectly.