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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Paul Myers <paulm@shaw.ca> |
| Subject | Cheezy Philly Soul....Yum Yum... |
| Date | Mon, 23 Jun 2003 18:53:48 -0700 |
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With regard to that Philadelphonica thread...
I recall with great warmth, my youth in Toronto listening to 1050
CHUM AM and sitting by my open apartment window in the winter time,
snow blowing in, and dreaming that I would one day ask Maria Rossi
out. I was listening to Betcha By Golly Wow and there were pre
teenage tears in my eyes, I felt such strong emotions (what I would
later find out was called "unrequited love") but was probably just a
crush, and I've always wondered if it wasn't the music that pushed me
over the top vis a vis the tears.
In my adult life there have been times when that song, or You Make Me
Feel Brand New, Have You Seen Her? or La La La Means I Love You or
even Ooh Child , will come on the radio or be used in a movie as
"instant nostalgia" and sure enough I get a little lump in my throat.
(Quentin Tarantino used one of these in Jackie Brown to great effect.)
Somebody else on this list pointed out that the seventies were an
unusual time in radio, I quite agree. CHUM AM used to play rock,
soul, pop folk and novelty songs all in the same sweep. You had the
morbid weirdness of The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia a Bobby
Russell tune (he wrote Watching Scotty Grow as well) and I remember a
song called Timothy about three boys trapped in a mine with no food,
except the flesh of their buddy Timothy, sample lyric "Joe was lookin
at you / God what did we do?"
I'm 42 now, and I'm already starting to say things like "Kids today
don't understand..." even though every week there's a reason to be
optimistic, a Rooney here, a Sloan there, the odd New Radical
moment, the true hook is a dying art. Guess that's why I like
Power Pop so much, the euphoric innocence of the three minute
treatise on immediate wonderfulness...with a kickin backbeat and few
big guitar hooks. Yessiree that's the ticket.
And right you are, whoever said that thing about it not only being
about Rock, some of my favourite songs were by wimpy poppers like
Gilbert O'Sullivan or Dionne Warwick singing Walk On By....
Rambling on in bliss....
Paul Myers...
<<<I totally love the slightly cheesy, less ballsy than Motown and Stax soul
of the 70's that preceded disco. The Chi-Lites (Have You Seen Her?)and
Stylistics (Betcha By Golly Wow) are a couple of my faves from the era.>>>
>> Add to that list, "La La
La Means I Love You" by the Delphonics (is that the right # of La's?), You
Make Me Feel Brand New, also by the Stylistics (?), and many many others...
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