Dream along with me
I know a little bit about a lot of things. I am a sponge for factoids. That probably comes from my college years when I was a tourist guide and tips depended on coming up with fresh, interesting pieces of information about the District of Columbia and its monuments. Mostly I write about things I know about; every-so-often I don’t. Sometimes I write about things that just make me feel good. This is one of those times.
Every day, for blocks of times, a week, a month, I get in the car and shower myself with the music of my teens. I’m addicted to Sirius XM’s ’50’s on 5 and ’60’s on 6. I often do what I hated the only friend I had who had a car–switch channels. I don’t like the music of the ’60’s when the ’60’s were turning into the ’70’s. I don’t like some of the silly ’50’s music like, ” Does your chewing gum stick to your bedpost at night.” I can do without the Chipmunks and without space aliens tunes.
I became curious about what I did like and why. I’ll share it. I like music of groups. The girl groups like the Shirelles or the Supremes. I like the Platters, the Four Tops. The Rays, the Fleetwoods, The Platters, and the Drifters are a few more. While it was mostly transition music, I loved the Kingston Trio. The Black groups, Barry Gordy’s stable of groups, came out of the church. Most of the singers began singing in church. The music had a strong beat and lots of 7th chords which get the blood running. Neil Diamond, white and Jewish, had the uncanny ability to reproduce these sounds. The music was also soulful. Earth Angel, Soldier Boy tugged the heartstrings. One could hear the singers’ own heartbreaks of youth echoing through the radio or phonograph’s speakers.