I drove up to the Big City today to bring my mom to an appointment and decided to listen to a playlist that our son had made entitled “70s, 80s.” As I drove, I sang along and thought about the songs. You would do the same, I’m sure.
Playlist Thoughts:
1. Footloose. Made me think of the movie with Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer. I loved that movie as a young ‘un. Then I watched it as an adult with my teenage daughter. Suddenly I realized I was more like the stuffy adults in the movie. It bugged me that the preacher father ended up kow-towing to the kids when they compared their dancing to the dancing that David did as he brought the ark into Jerusalem. NOT THE SAME, people!
2. Hooked on a Feeling. Permanently associated with “Guardians of the Galaxy” now. It’s a nice association. It’s best not to think too deeply about the lyrics.
3. Saturday in the Park. Chicago. When he sings “A man selling ice cream…singing Italian songs…” I realized for the first time that the words I’d never understood that came after that must be Italian. Got obsessed with wanting to know what those words are and contemplated looking it up on the internet later. Haven’t done it yet.
4. Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder. Actually listened to the lyrics for the first time and heard him give homage to “Basie, Miller, Satchmo, and the king of all, Sir Duke.” To be honest, I didn’t even realize that song was called “Sir Duke,” and I’d never noticed Sir Duke (Ellington, I presume) was even mentioned.
5 Thriller by Michael Jackson. I’ve always loved this one. There’s a line at the end spoken by Vincent Price in which he says, “The foulest stench is in the air, the funk of forty thousand years…” which was a line that I used to be fond of quoting when I walked into our boys’ bedrooms.
6. Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics. This one is so much fun to sing along with, but what the heck is it about? I don’t know. Maybe I don’t want to know.
7. Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I mentally changed this one to “Sweet Home Minnesota” while I was singing along. For some reason I always enjoy the dig at Neil Young in that song, too. Even though I like Neil Young. Mostly. This song also made me think of “Free Bird” by the same group, which made me want to watch the movie “Elizabethtown,” – the best scene in the movie is the “Free Bird” one. Check it out!
8. Dancing Queen. Boring.
9. The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. I guess I’ve never paid attention to the lyrics other than the chorus. Did you know that the gambler dies in his sleep?
10. Thank You for Being a Friend by Andrew Gold. What’s not to like? I think I might be the only person in the world who bought Andrew Gold’s album when it came out.
11. You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon. If you haven’t seen the video of this song with Chevy Chase and Paul Simon, do it right now. This short video has brought me much happiness over the years. It never fails to make me laugh. When I sing along, I pretend I’m Chevy Chase pretending he’s Paul Simon.
12. Lights by Journey. Fun to sing along with at the top of your lungs with your windows closed as you breeze down the freeway.
13. Africa by Toto. This is one of those songs that I don’t understand all the words for and when I sing along, I do a lot of winging it. Also I don’t actually understand why he is blessing the rains down in Africa, when the song appears to be sung by a guy who says he’ll never leave you. Aside from those murkinesses, this is a FAVORITE song.
14. Stayin’ Alive by the BeeGees. I don’t know…it’s kind of hard to take it seriously when a guy who’s singing about being a woman’s man is singing in falsetto.
15. Take on Me by a-ha. They get points for the name of their band. What does this song mean? Don’t know. Don’t care. I just sing along, but only on those three words “Take on Me.” Even now I couldn’t tell you if there are any other lyrics.
16. Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds. Pleasant enough. I’ve forgotten about them already though.
17. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John. Not a fan of this one and it’s also another one of those where it’s hard to understand some of the words so you have to fake your way through it when singing.
18. I’ve Had the Time of My Life. This was in the movie “Dirty Dancing,” but for me now, it’s delightfully associated with a short video that some genius made from the debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in which it looks like they’re singing this song to each other. As someone commented underneath that video, “This is what the internet was made for.” It’s the best!!!
19. Never Gonna Give You Up. You’ve been Rick Rolled!
Many kudos to Sam for making this playlist. And many kudos to you for reading this far. It was probably a tedium to read through, but I thoroughly enjoyed writing it.
I watched the Thriller music video when I got home. If I’d ever seen it before, I’d forgotten it – very creepy. I took this photo of an ice bubble in a river. It’s also very creepy.
I really must let you go now.
I’ll probably be sorry I went on so long about the playlist songs and then in a fit of guilt I’ll delete this in the morning.
Lynniebeemuseoday 