Remember when you were a kid in the '70's and the music was so... groovy? When hits like Delta Dawn and One Tin Soldier were playing on the radio. Remember when the war protest songs were hot. Tell Laura I Love Her, Billy Don't Be A Hero, Happy Xmas (War Is Over), Fortunate Son, Daniel, American Woman, Blowin' In The Wind, Imagine, Lucky Man, Turn Turn Turn, Us and Them, War, Tie a Yellow Ribbon, and so many more.
Were you old enough to understand what the words you were singing meant? I wasn't. I loved the music and sang it along to the radio and my sister's 45's. The TV had variety shows on that showed the bands playing and singing. Music was BIG back then. It was all over the place. Specials on TV had the entire family gathered in the living room to watch Barry Manilow, Sonny and Cher, The Osmond's, John Denver and so many more. It was special. It was a time to stay up late and eat popcorn and watch stars playing their songs; the ones we listened to on the radio, the ones we heard down at the soda shop or the drug store.
American Top 40 was a show hosted by dreamy Casey Kasem and no kid in their right mind didn't tune into at least the top 10 and the close of the show with Kasem's classic sign off, "Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars."
Music in the 70's expressed who we were and what society was doing to us as kids. Every song had a meaning. Sex, Drugs and War were top on the charts. Songs like Dark Lady, 50 ways to Leave Your Lover, Ain't No Sunshine (When She's Gone), Baby Come Back, Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me, Can't Smile Without You, Don't Cry Out loud, If I Can't Have You, I will Survive, Killing Me Softly With His Song, The Most Beautiful Girl, Seasons in the Sun, Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, My Eyes Adored You, You Don't Bring Me Flowers...The list goes on and on.
I still know the words to these songs. They are the songs I grew up on and they will forever be in my heart. List YOUR childhood songs. Do you remember the lyrics? Do you remember freely singing them in the backyard while playing with the hose on a hot summer day? Or humming them as you set the table for the family dinner that happened every night at 6pm, don't you dare be late! Those great, no worry days went perfectly with those great songs. Sometimes it seems a pity that we had to move on from that time. Sometimes I wish we were all in Neverland, never growing up, just playing in the yard and listening to the magic music...waiting for specials to come on TV. Watching for the porch light to flash telling us it's time to come home.
Remember the music of your youth? Go back and blissfully listen and soak in the memories of a time when responsibilities were almost nothing. Remember...It's good for the soul.
