WOW! What a past month-and-a-half I’ve had! Electronic devices are a wonderful thing, but when you health depends on one and it’s not working well, those things can sure mess you up. Now that it is cleared up, hopefully I can get back into a routine writing about music. For better or worse, my life circumstances have made me a bit nostalgic lately, as my mom lies in her nursing home bed making a slow exit from this life to the next, while attempting to celebrate my latest birthday, all I can think about is the music that entered my life that made me happy.
When you are a physically awkward teenager, even though some friends might say that I was blessed with some athletic abilities that would automatically disqualify me from being a nerd, I was an academic nerd first. And, although I have always played something of a “paid extrovert,” my students were always amazed by my quietness whenever they saw me in public. And, although I was blessed with absolutely ZERO musical abilities, I have always loved a great pop song. One of the first songs I remember loving was Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson.” My mom would talk about me “dancing” in my playpen every time Paul Revere & the Raiders would come on the television or radio.
Today, I would love to honor all of those great pop songs that few love yet have always meant something to me. The Seventies were full of cheesy songs, still some are considered great by me. I’m talking about such so-called schlock to many but nirvana to me like “Mandy” by Barry Manilow or “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” by Edison Lighthouse or anything by Tommy James & the Shondells. And, who else finds The Cowsills’ “The Rain, the Park & Other Things” just a little irresistible?
For every “God Save the Queen,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “Friend of the Devil,” I still found Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again,” “Jive Talkin'” by Bee Gees and “You’re the One That I Want” by Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta just as important. Tom Petty may be one of my favorite artists, but Cheap Trick is just as important to me.
I simply want to get off my chest that I love these silly little pop songs as much as the so-called classics that I tend to write about. My tastes in music are not as cool as the articles as I write. Abba’s Gold is every bit the equal to my beloved Elton John’s first Greatest Hits album to me.
So, here’s to the nerdy side of my music tastes. By the way, if push were to come to shove, there’s not an album set as my new wave pop song 15-CD set by Rhino entitled Just Can’t Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80s or a CD as good as my Billboard Pop Hits 1983 disc.
Let’s hear for the disposable hits of the 70s, 80s and 90s!
If My Records Could Talk 