Preface: I’m quite aware what happened with Doha; I’ve been following it every second; but I thought we’d all just take a break from market talk until Monday’s regular open.
It’s obvious that music is a big part of the lives of Slopers, as it is one of the most frequently-shared and discussed items in the comments section. There is no shortage of posts specifically about music, and I thought I’d add another.
When I was in high school and college, a question I’d invariably ask a person I just met was what kind of music they liked. It was, for me, somewhat of a litmus test, just as effective as glancing at the contents of their bookshelves. The worst answer was along the lines of, “I like anything, as long as it’s got a good beat and I can dance to it.” Such an answer assured me I would never want to talk to this person again.
As a child of the 80s, I had considered myself quite loyal to the music spanning from about 1982 through 1993, but over the course of time, I’m finding myself increasingly drawn to the music of the early 1970s. I was just a little kid back then, and we really didn’t listen to pop music in the house, so I’m not quite sure why my fondness for this music is bubbling up lately. it probably has a lot to do with the melancholic mood of the era. It resonates with me.
One song that I barely remember from my childhood but is fascinating to me now is Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.” Here’s a live performance he did of it, which is superb:
An even sadder-sounding tune is “We’re All Alone”, sung by Rita Coolidge. This is an embarrassingly obvious lip synched performance, but at least you get to hear the production recording of the song.
For those of you on Netflix, you might want to check out a recent release called The Seventies, which is an 8-part series about various aspects of the decade, one of which is focused on its music. One of the commenters, a music critic, states that you could name just about any genre of music, the best-of-breed for that genre could be found in the 1970s. I’m starting to think he might just have a good point there.
