What we listened to: 1976 - 1979My parents are visiting Britain this week, and I gave them a mix-CD for Henrik. A snapshot of life listening to G-98 and WMMS in the mid-to-late seventies.
It wasn't until I passed the disc off (to Dad - they will be visiting Hansens UK this week) that I realized the first song is London Town and the last is Cleveland Rocks, like that is supposed to be touching or something. Except it kind of is.
Looking at my children, I wonder what their memories of childhood will eventually be. I remember Watergate and the Bicentennial ... and really upsetting stuff like the "Hey You!" ad from Saturday Night Live (as well as all of those disturbing sketches with naked people in bed together - I never found them funny, only kind of sad) and the deep, troubling issues found in The Pina Colada Song which were parsed only too-well on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Growing up in a house of shame ("Don't do that - it's childish.") I dismissed my single-digit years almost as soon as I was through with them and never looked back. Ditto my teens years, my early-twenties, they were all mistakes. Not simply childhood embarrassments to be laughed at and shrugged off, but errors. I wasn't a child right.
Toni helped me get over a lot of this. And shortly before Calvin was born, I began revisiting these days with a vengeance. And then he died, and I was cut adrift. I had dreams, waking and otherwise. And in spite of the sorrow, I was grateful for that gift, another gift from him.
I wish I had at least one child with me I could say was born before 9/11, but I don't. They will both grow up knowing the Twin Towers were destroyed before they were even conceived. I don't know if that will be relevant to them (Kennedy was dead five years before I was born, b.f.d. and I wish people would stop talking about it) but it is to me.
Dynamite & Pizzazz
01. London Town - Paul McCartney & Wings; London Town
I can smell the petrol fumes.
02. Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra; Out of the Blue
Dorky Beatles knock-off, rendered retro cool thanks to Volkswagon.
03. Take A Chance On Me - ABBA; The Album
Their music always made me feel so mature.
04. Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder; Songs in the Key of Life
On one of the audio channels on our flight to London in '77. Who is 'Daisy Miller'?
05. Lonely Boy - Andrew Gold; What's Wrong With This Picture?
Yes, I actually like this song.
06. Heart Of Glass - Blondie; Parallel Lines
She said ass.
07. Pop Muzik - M; New York-London-Paris-Munich
One of those "it needs that wobbly 45 sound" tunes.
08. Just What I Needed - The Cars; The Cars
First Mom's-not-home party at the Curry's. How about a whiskey and TAB?
09. Is She Really Going Out With Him? - Joe Jackson; Look Sharp!
Riding our bikes on the wrong side of town.
10. Somebody To Love - Queen; A Day at the Races
No one sings like Freddie. Except George.
11. Doubleback Alley - The Rutles; The Rutles
Why the hell wasn't Neil Innes part of creating Spamalot?
12. Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty; City to City
Henrik thought this had to do with Sherlock Holmes. Makes me think of Captain America for some reason.
13. Black Cow - Steely Dan; Aja
This isn't about a rootbeer float?
14. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot; SummerTime Dream
I learned my Great Lakes from this ... and from Paddle to the Sea.
15. Year of the Cat - Al Stewart; Year of the Cat
Claugue Pool.
16. The Things We Do For Love - 10cc; Deceptive Bends
Backyard at the Hammonds.
17. Cleveland Rocks - Ian Hunter; You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic
"Wash up, punch out, come back and wrap things up." Thanks, Kid.
4 comments:
Oh my goodness. I was born in 1971 and I know almost all of them - from the beginning! Thank God my parents and the ol' AM/FM radio.
My niece is four and nephew nine. It's incredible what crap is being packaged and marketed to them (probably what our parents said). One day niece was doodling and I asked her what it was. She said - and her voice is mostly a mumble usually, but this was very distinct - 'Snoop Dogg.' Nephew looked at a Beatles album and declared that it sucked without even listening to it, until I explained that one of the guys wrote a theme song for a James Bond movie (he likes 007 because of the explosions and stuff). Then he said okay, but still refused to listen.
My husband - actual relation of said children - laments that these kids will have no memory of GOOD music from their childhood. Everyone will be dead. They MIGHT know Elton John from Disney movies, but that EJ is certainly not the EJ pounding the piano and yelling about drag queens fighting the cops on Saturday night. Yes I still love the same stuff I do when I was nephew's age, and for that I'm a dinosaur. Yes I buy new stuff occasionally, but will it stand the test of time? Probably not, because it's being outsold and outmarketed by the rest...
Every era has its garbage and its gems. And on that note, thank you for the warm feeling I got when I saw the Shaun Cassidy/Hulk cover. Something for everyone.
Mom and Dad delivered this with a card attached that said "Happy Birthday, Brenda." I was more than a little confused because I was sure you'd made it for me. We loved it from the first play and we will wear it out, I'm sure.
If you still have a Dynamite or Pizzazz I would kill to see it.
It is a very thoughtful gift and I love your notes on it. In marching band they did Sir Duke the year before I joined. The tuba solo was a killer.
Love you,
Henrik
Oh, uh ... at the risk of sounding churlish, if my uncle told me everything I listened to was crap, I would tell him his favorite band sucks without listening to it, too.
I think every age is predominantly crap, with one or two gems. Shakespeare's great, but you'll notice they don't produce his contemporaries much. And a lot of "classic" rock is really, really, really bad.
Three Dog Night sucks. The Guess Who sucks. The Moody Blues are terrible. Incense and Peppermints, Afternoon Delight, In Summertime, Seasons in the Sun (shudder.)
Oh, and I hate U2. Hate, hate, hate. Bono can blow me.
"American Idiot" is a modern classic, I will gratefully consume anything Benjamin Gibbard touches, and Kanye West cracks me up.
I guess the point of my little playlist wasn't that things were necessarily better when I was a child, just that that's it, that's all I get. When I was a pre-adolescent I was big into the 60s. I was the only eleven year-old who could name all the acts at Woodstock. I believed then that everything new just paled in comparison to the really great stuff that had come before, that I had missed the boat.
And as a result, I wasn't really paying attention to Bowie, The Police, The Clash - not until I was fourteen or fifteen.
I like The Beatles, too. But honestly, a lot of it is children's music.
shaun cassidy was my first tiger beat sort of crush. i imagined those soft lips touching mine...
but that's pretty much it. hey, i was 8.
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