Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Because it's summer: smooth song(s) of the day #6

I'm not in love by 10CC and At Seventeen by Janis Ian
The temptation to change history to something more like you wish it was is always a strong one and that goes quadruple with casual history like this. These are the first tunes I'd rather leave out. I think I actually liked them the very first time I heard they but they wore thin really quickly. But the smooth clean girls in Indian cotton I'm talking about loved them

And the very first record smooth, clean girls in Indian cotton of my generation actually bought was more than likely one of these two. Most of the time, they didn't buy music they liked but counted on the radio to play it as often as they wanted to hear it, which hope was usually fulfilled. Typically their entire record collection might run to 15 albums and often they'd own only two or three.

In any case, these two were very often first purchases. They saved up their money at age thirteen to fifteen and bought one or the other. If they got the 10CC tune, they bought the 45 RPM version and carried it on their thumb to parties with their friends. I think the irony was lost on them and that is okay. Missing this sort of irony is an essential stage of growing up.



If they bought the Janis Ian song they generally got the LP and sat in their rooms playing it over and over again while thinking about and luxuriating over the tragedy that awaited them when they would turn seventeen. And that too is okay.


The series starts here.

The next song is here.

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