Before I dive into anymore stories from the '70-'72 period up here in Eugene, I am going to be spending some amount of time on some posts that I'm referring to as my Playlist. When my classmates, fellow baseball teammates and others were or were not interacting with me during the course of an average day up here during that two year stretch, this was the music that was on my mind the whole time. It occupied me when I was alone or when I was hanging out with you. Please bear in mind that this incredible list of music I'm about to spew forth here is stuff that I remember. There were only a couple of times when I had to look something up either in my music collection or online. I've been carrying this stuff in my heart all of these years and I will continue to do so. What I did was that I spent about an hour or so rapidly writing down song titles and groups/artists who came up with the songs. And then, over a period of about a little over a week or so, songs would pop up in my head that I would remember and then I would jot them down on the legal paper I was writing the stuff down on. I will comment on the majority of the songs that I have listed. I am not listing these songs in any chronological order. The 1970-1972 period was one continuous classroom as far as I'm concerned. I may have passed my way through 3rd and 4th Grade during this time period, but I was really learning from the music I was listening to. I only have a few minutes to write about some for my first posting.
-"Precious and Few"-Climax: What a marvelous ballad single. It really had feeling. Did you know that the lead singer, Sonny Geraci, also sang the lead vocal on the great '60's single from The Outsiders "Time Won't Let Me"?
-"Lola"-The Kinks-I loved the drive of this song. It was also my first Kinks song that I got exposed to. I would later really fall in love with Dave Davies' song "Victoria". Though I never knew about what the song was about (a guy falling for a transvestite), it would take for me to become a latter aged teenager and young adult before I fully came to appreciate the Englishness and worldview that Ray Davis' songwriting was respected for.
-George Harrison-"What Is Life?"-This was the next big one after "My Sweet Lord". I dearly loved the guitar and the Phil Spector production. The whole All Things Must Pass album was on heavy rotation in both of my brother's rooms-espcially my oldest brother.
-Frederick Knight-"I've Been Lonely For So Long"-I absolutely dug this little Soul gem. It taught me that it was possible to merge Soul with Country.
-Luther Ingram-"If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right)"-Deep Soul. Deep feeling. It's a flat-out great vocal performance about love outside of marriage. This gem set me up for an incredibly special song later in '72 when I moved back to Santa Clara.
-Delaney & Bonnie-"Never Ending Song of Love"-What can I say about this? I wanted to meet a girl and be able to sing along to it to her face. That's how much I loved this song. I had no idea that Eric Clapton had an association with Delaney & Bonnie. I would learn about it later on in life and more fully appreciate it.
-Derek & the Dominos-"Layla"-This was a massive song for all of the younger generation. Again, a song about an affair that just sears the heart. It includes what may be the most famous piano break in Rock history. And let's own up to the fact that Eric Clapton and Duane Allman left everybody slackjawed on not just this song. They left us that way for the whole album. I wouldn't discover the full album until later on in life.
Well, I have to run for now. It's going to take a long while to finish the list that I've created for this time period. Please enjoy this in the meantime. And for God's sake, if you have copies of this stuff, dig 'em out and play 'em. You'll feel better.
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