#338 What I Was Listening To ... 40 Years Ago: April 1973 Playlist, Part 2 of 2
I admit that these songs really take me back. They take me back to a time that is long gone. Back to a time when marijuana was as common as beer and everyone you knew - at least among the older kids - seemed stoned half the time. Hell, I knew what pot smelled like long before I knew what beer tasted like. And it still makes me laugh, even today, to think of how ignorant most adults and parents were of what was going on right below their noses. We would roar whenever an adult would get a whiff and then exclaim, in complete surprise: "Is something burning!?" Good times. And as much as I love to reminisce, it only makes me feel old.
I guess what bums me out the most is how many of these artists are dead or dying. It seems that every month, some rock star I grew up listening to has died. Very depressing. And, of course, you can only hear most of this music on oldies stations anymore, apart from the huge artists. Still, I find the music inspiring and I hope that I will be listening to it all for many, many years to come.
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I've been extraordinarily busy these past several weeks, but I've very much enjoyed listening to various playlists from the early 1970s. It's hard to remember life without iTunes. I've got playlists that are several hours long. And, thus, it's time to post the playlist from April 1973. The 1970s were a wonderful time for rock insofar as so many genres were screaming for your attention. I loved all of them, as you can probably tell from these usually eclectic selections. I tried to steer well clear of both gospel and country, but anything else was fair game.
And that's how it was with music as well: the weirder, the better. Screw the radio and its bubblegum dross! We were busy floating off into the stratosphere. But I wanted to go ever higher. And, in the process, as kids, we were turned on to some profoundly strange music: Can, Captain Beefheart, Hawkwind, Jade Warrior, Van Der Graaf Generator, and Frank Zappa are the ones that quickly come to mind. Art rock. Space rock. Acid rock. Kraut rock. Experimental rock. Post-rock. You name it, we listened to it. Truly mind-blowing stuff. Imagine debating the merits of a Frank Zappa tune at the ages of 8 and 9. Or of Captain Beefheart. Our parents considered this music to be outright trash; we thought it was brilliant beyond all reckoning!
As I recall, 1973 was a pretty amazing year for me academically. Teachers started to take notice and, suddenly, it seemed I was being fast-tracked. I can't remember whether or not my parents thought I was nuts or what, but I seem to recall having my IQ tested for some reason. One of the reasons for my apparent strangeness was that I had already read the World Book Encyclopedia that my parents had bought for us the summer before, from A through Z. I loved it so much that I would do it twice more. This, of course, was after I had already digested - from cover to cover - whatever dictionaries were laying around the house. I had this insatiable desire for inputting data into my mind. And more was never enough. And then I stumbled upon a "book" beyond my wildest imaginings: the Encyclopedia Britannica. Whoa! I was in heaven.
Perusing this month's selections, I, of course, had to break down and play most of them. And, among all these jewels is a true gem. Have a listen to Gentle Giant's 
Also, a quick note: I know many of the songs I cite are part of larger medleys. Yeah, I get it. However, me and my friends always used to consider the titles within a medley to be distinct parts in and among themselves (most of the time; I can't tell you how many hours we spent philosophizing over this!). Of course, bands like Jethro Tull really put that to the test with such album-spanning songs as "Thick As A Brick" and "A Passion Play". However, even there, we found a way to break them all down. It got to the point that we knew exactly what the grooves looked like, demarcating the parts of medleys. Yeah. As I have repeatedly stated, as kids, we had an enormous amount of time on our hands. Funny, as an adult, this is the part about childhood that I miss the most. Time.
Whether I'm having a bad day or I'm in a particularly reminiscent mood, I find I like the "old music" far more than I do the new. And I realize that it's all because the "old music" is a part of me and my memories in ways that any new music can likely never be. I also find it amusing when I turn on younger people to the amazing music of my youth. Many are blown away by it and then they suddenly realize that they have been missing out on a very great deal. Next thing I know, they are asking me to recommend all sorts of artists and albums. And so it begins. I remember those days of musical exploration very fondly. Which is why I post the songs here every month.
What can I say? I simply couldn't resist continuing this series, but in a more slimmed-down format. Today's music (for the most part) just doesn't measure up to the wonderful music I grew up on. And, today, with the advent of all sorts of amazing websites and technologies, I have the chance to gather together again all of those great songs from a lifetime ago. Some have aged well. Some ... not so much. But it's all good.
Going through old scrapbooks of mine, I stumbled upon something amazing: some sort of home-made charts of the music we used to listen to way back in the day. These particular charts happened to be a list - by consensus - of what we thought were the greatest songs of 1972 (and other years). I'm actually quite shocked at how prescient we were, way back then. It seems musical tastes do not so much change as they slowly mature and ferment, like an exceptionally good vintage.
Looking back, what I appreciate most about those innocent times was the amazing amount of time we had as kids to fill with whatever the heck we wanted. Endless afternoons; endless weekends; endless summers. Nothing was ever scheduled; everything was spur of the moment. And a huge chunk of that time was spent listening to music. Of course I'm biased, but I was lucky to come of age at a time when the greatest rock music of all time was being made. And it seems so quaint now to realize that all of our music was vinyl, played on a turntable, and at the mercy of the quality of the needle on the arm. Now, any music you want is merely a few mouseclicks away.
The funny thing about The Great Moments In Life is that you are almost never aware of them when they are actually happening to you. However, on those rare occasions when you can step back and realize that Something Very Special Is Happening, the memories of those times gets branded into your brain. That was exactly the way it was with me, when I stumbled onto a treasure trove of the most amazing music from the 1960s and 1970s, back when I was far too young to truly appreciate it. I knew it was important even then. Just hanging out with my best friend, taking the time to explore each and every album in the massive record collection of his older brother.
And here are the new artists and albums for the month of December:
So, this month will be the last in this series. It's been a ton of fun, but it's high time to get back to the enormous backlog of caselaw round-ups, which will be coming back with a vengeance very soon. I'll always be listening to as much music as I can get my hands and ears on, but it is just too time-consuming to keep track of it all here. All you have to do is tune in to 102.7 WEQX, out of Manchester, Vermont - or go visit them online at 
If I had to pick a favorite month, by default, it would have to be December, since it contains Christmas, my birthday, the end of the year, and - usually - lots of snow and, if you're particularly lucky, a snow day or two. December is the month of hearth and home. December is also a month of twin dichotomies: of biting cold and searing warmth, of marvelous kitchen smells and no smells at all, thanks to stuffy noses. It's the month that forces you inside for most of your daily life. And, when outside, it's a month that teaches you to respect nature. It's a month that can scare the bejesus out of you, if you're not careful. And how many teenagers that you know can be called "careful"?
