Meet our writers

 







Nostalgia July 2016

The Raven Lunatic

Getting Stuck in our Musical Favorites

By Amy Abbott

Take a look at the Top 30 Hits of 1955. The rock classic, “Rock Around the Clock,” grabs second place. Most of the top groups or artists are those I associate with my parents – Mitch Miller, Roger Williams, Les Baxter, the Four Aces, the McGuire Sisters, Pat Boone, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and old Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra.

When the musician Prince died recently, I could not name one of his songs. Have I lived under a rock for the past 30 years?

The world mourns Prince. I’m listening to CDs of Bob Seger and Billy Joel. I did not make the transition to MP3s. After long-playing albums, 8-tracks, cassettes, and compact disks, I had enough.

Researchers say we get “stuck” in our own music, the music of our youth. While Prince was younger than me, his fame didn’t rise until I was well into adulthood. A May 2015 study by Spotify, noted in the Guardian, backs up the claim that music tastes are influenced by what is popular during young adulthood.

My parents’ musical tastes froze in time around 1955. Long before the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly died in a plane crash in 1959. Long before Elvis went into Sun Records and wowed them with his voice and moves. Long before “Good Golly Miss Molly” and the Platters.

When my parents got stuck, Pat Boone and his white shoes headed the music charts. My parents listened to standards. Music filled my childhood home with albums by Andy Williams and Mantovani and the great Broadway musicals. Take a look at the Top 30 Hits of 1955. The rock classic, “Rock Around the Clock,” grabs second place. Most of the top groups or artists are those I associate with my parents – Mitch Miller, Roger Williams, Les Baxter, the Four Aces, the McGuire Sisters, Pat Boone, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and old Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra.

My parents were fixed in 1955 and before. Elvis and the new rockers were too out there, too foreign, too unintelligible for them.

In spite of my parent's white-bread tastes, some rock, and roll turned into standards and became favorites. My father often asked me to play Paul Maria's 1968 “Love is Blue” on the piano. Songs by Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles stood the test of time. Do we think of “The Sounds of Silence” or “Yesterday” as rock songs anymore?

As the oldest child, I didn’t have an older sibling to influence my musical tastes. My husband learned early about rock and roll from two older brothers. To this day, he maintains a collection of anthologies, and can name group, song, and the year. He hums a mean “Devil with the Blue Dress On.”

Nineteen seventy-one was a magical, musical year. The music of 1971 has stayed with me all of my life.

“Joy to the World,” “Maggie May,” ”It’s Too Late,” ”Me and Bobby McGee,” and “You’ve Got a Friend” were some of the year’s top hits. Also, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” and “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be.”

The early ‘70s brought us the Carpenters, the Eagles, America, and beloved albums, Tapestry by Carole King, Harmony by Three Dog Night, and Pearl by Janis Joplin. Other favorites by James Taylor and Carly Simon and Aretha Franklin and Elton John and Joan Baez. What excellent sublime music that fills me with joy to this day.

How many times did you play Tapestry on your turntable, until it scratched and whistled?

From 1971 on, music went downhill. And then I got stuck. Look at this Billboard Magazine list of number one songs from the ‘70s, and perhaps you will understand why.

1970 “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Simon and Garfunkel

1971 “Joy to the World,” Three Dog Night

1972 “The First Time I Saw Your Face,” Roberta Flack

1973 “Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Tree,” Tony Orlando and Dawn

1974 “The Way We Were,” Barbra Streisand

1975 “Love Will Keep Us Together,” Captain and Tennille

1976 “Silly Love Songs,” Wings

1977 “Tonight’s the Night,” Rod Stewart

1978 “Shadow Dancing,” Andy Gibb

1979 “My Sharona,” The Knack

How can you go from the ballads of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel to Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille in five short years? Even in 1979, Billy Joel is way down the list, a list filled with disco and mind-numbing, forehead-on-concrete, unintelligible music.

Like my parents, I found good music after 1979, but mostly my music died. I had Fleetwood Macs and the Eagles, but I fixed on a point and never moved on. Many of my heroes are icons. Carole King was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015. Aretha Franklin offered a dynamic tribute with “Natural Woman.”

At least, I still have jazz, but that’s another story.

 

Amy McVay Abbott is a Midwestern journalist and the author of three books, compilations of her popular newspaper column “The Raven Lunatic.” Her web site is: www.amyabbottwrites.com.

Meet Amy