Wrapping Up '70-'72 Eugene & KEED

If I am covering a few people here that I already did in previous posts, you will have to forgive me. I may have not crossed off a few with my pen on my list I made out before I started this blog.
Arlo Guthrie-"The City of New Orleans": If I could think of one song from this period which could have possibly set me up for my later love of Bruce Springsteen (which would come in 1978), it would be this one. Why? Because Arlo's sense of characterization in an almost cinematic sense in this song was so vivid to me when I first heard it. I never tired of hearing it. Plus, I noticed something different about how some people reacted to this song. I noticed that my Dad and some older people like himself seemed to take a liking to this song. That image has always stayed with me.
Paul Simon-"Mother and Child Reunion", "Duncan", & "Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard": There was no getting around the fact that the impact which was left behind in the wake of "Bridge Over Troubled Water", the aforementioned album and the breakup of Paul and Art was huge in the minds of music fans everywhere at this time. And when Paul Simon came out with "Mother and Child Reunion" song, I got my first big challenge in regards of thinking about how I viewed spiritual matters. This is a heavy thing for a 4th Grade kid to handle. Nonetheless, it was there for me to deal with. I dearly loved the song except that I had a hard time grasping what it was about. Strangely enough, as if I needed any more reason to do so, this song made me start thinking of my bond to my Mom in much greater terms than in the literal sense. Many years later, as an adult, I read somebody who once wrote that it was a song where the idea of reincarnation was being introduced. I wonder if this same person realizes, in his or her's interpretation, that Paul got the title from a Chinese resteraunt menu. The big line, for me at least, which made me ponder a lot a few years back, was "Though it seems strange to say/ I know they say Let It Be/but it just don't work out that way/and the course of a lifetime runs over and over again". I can't recall where I read this, but I read recently that it may not really be so much about reincarnation as about not losing hope. The course of a lifetime runs over and over again in the lessons we learn and the love that we cultivate to deeper levels. This is what I ultimately get out of the song. The thing that always threw me, and I'm sure it did others, is the "I know they say Let It Be" line which may or may not reference The Beatles and the philosophy being shared in that song.
The other thing about "Mother and Child Reunion" that was very important to me is that Simon was also introducing me to Caribbean rhythms in the same importance that Dave and Ansel Collins did with "Double Barrel" at the same time.
The song which I really took an immediate liking to was "Duncan" and the use of Andean flute instrument (whose name escapes me at the moment). I also was very much drawn to sense of one on one conversational tone in the song. The girl he sang about in the song really intrigued me too. Obviously, it was going to take for me to become a little older before I realize what it was meant when Paul sang, at the beginning of the song, "Couple in the next room bound to win a prize/ They've been going at it all night long". This makes me chuckle a bit. However, it's appropriate. Paul was talking about losing his innocense in more ways than one. I was certainly going to have that happen to me as time went on.
And in yet another example of a song that I was going to have to be a little older to understand, there was "Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard". At the time, I thought it was about smoking cigarettes. Well, I was half-right. I was just off on what exactly the type of cigarette they were smoking. LOL! Plus, I didn't know what the Queen of Corona line was either. For those of you who don't know, it's not beer. It was a brand of condom.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (both as a band as individual artists with solo works): Over at the Fir Acres house, both of my brothers stocked up on their CSN & CSNY albums to go with the Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash albums. Between those two and KEED, there was no way of getting around them. I got exposed to the first CSN album, the CSNY album, Neil Young's After The Gold Rush & Harvest albums, Stephen Stills self titled first album (even over at my friends over at the Freitas house along with the second album with "Change Partners" on it) and Graham Nash's Songs For Beginners.
This was to be a huge stash of songs which would influence me greatly and producing a lot of reactions. When I listened to KEED, I was getting a huge dose of "Teach Your Children", "Our House", "Woodstock" "Ohio", "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", "Love The One You're With", "Change Partners", "Chicago", "I Used To Be A King", "Southern Man", "Heart of Gold" & "Old Man". I had no idea whatsoever that Jerry Garcia had played the pedal steel on "Teach Your Children". All of these releases had a profound impact on me.
I have to make mention of a single from a little outfit called Matthew's Southern Comfort and their version of "Woodstock". You don't know how many times I have carried privately to myself how much I love this version of the song. I love this thing equally to the one that CSNY borrowed from Joni Mitchell. It's weird, when I think of the CSNY version, I think of it as being the outwardly sociallly/politically active version of the song while the Matthew's Southern Comfort one is the one that we all carried within us in our internal hurt and wishing that the '60s had turned out to have realized more of its ideal intentions.
The Guess Who-"No Time", "Undun", "Share The Land" & "American Woman". My oldest brother had a copy of The Guess Who-Greatest Hits that he bought in Santa Clara and hauled up with him to Eugene. There was a period in late 1970 and into very early 1971 where it was rare that John was not playing one side of that album or another at any given point when he was at home. All three of these songs really hit me in the sweet spot, but I have to make special mention of "American Woman" because I was beginning to make it my own in a sense whenever I either had girls not paying attention to me or when I saw girls being mean to guys. I really loved the rebellion of the song. At the time, I didn't realize that they were Canadians. They would go on to have a couple of more songs of theirs really hit me when I moved back to Santa Clara and time progressed.
I may have mentioned him before, but I'm going to take a chance and mention him again just in case I missed.
Gordon Lightfoot-"If You Could Read My Mind" & "Don Quixote": This man has had a major impact upon my musical life. I am so incredibly thankful that he came in and took me to places I had never been to before. Both of these songs are huge to me. He was to continue to leave an even bigger imprint on me as time wore on. I heard such great musicality and sophistication in "If You Could Read My Mind". With "Don Quixote", there was description of the horse rider that stayed so vivid in my mind's eye. It made me forget about my bad experiences with horses I had at the old Lorane ranch.
People, I believe I'm done with the '70-'72 Eugene period. I may do a summation of this period and an introduction to the return to Santa Clara period. I am still trying to figure out how I am going to approach the '72-'74 period or if I should just lop the whole '72-'78 period altogether and not try to stay linear. The '72-'74 period was just so huge to me. At the same time, the changes that I saw from '75-'78 were huge as well and made the '72-'74 period that much more precious to me. I'm just going to have to see where it takes me. It is going to be incredibly detailed.