The Summer of 1979

This is one of my favorite songs.



Cruel To Be Kind, by Nick Lowe.  I've heard it a lot on the radio lately and always have to listen through.  You don't always know why a song means something to you, but sometimes you figure it out.  The other day, it was bright and sunny and I was driving down near the beach, the song comes on and suddenly I remember all the beach trips with my uncle Greg.  He was about 10 years older than me and would take me down to the beach to hang with his friends.  We had a lot of fun back then.

I'm not in touch with him anymore, since we had a falling out when I was 16 or 17.  I've seen him since, but I've given up trying.  We were very close and I didn't want to keep hoping, so I just stopped hoping and stopped trying.

When I looked up the song to see what year it was on the charts, I found lists of top hits of that year.  Here's one.

There are a lot of songs that are big for me, but the weird thing is that it seems impossible that they can all be from the same year.




I think this was a biggie for a lot of people. My whole neighborhood had this album and we all played it to death. My friends next door had big speakers that played out at the pool. I remember running home wet to get my album when Mark's copy wouldn't stop skipping.




Unlike Cheap Trick at Budokon, no one else on the block liked Supertramp, so I listened at home. Three years later, this would be my first concert. My older friend Paul had an extra ticket and couldn't find another Senior who wanted to go with him, so I got to go. I dug out my old copy of Breakfast in America to get ready in the days before. The concert was great. The Band opened up for them, and Paul, who had a beard, took care of buying the beer at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater.




Another one that we all had. Back to not knowing the "why" about a song... When I hear any song from The Game I smell strawberry bubble gum. Why? What happened to me and strawberry gum?




I have no idea why I know this one. Vague feeling that it's from hearing it at my next door neighbor's (not the pool neighbor, but the other side), but who knows... I'd never even heard of the Stranglers until Gal sent me a youtube link to Golden Brown about six months ago.

1979 is also the year I got hooked on my favorite band, Pink Floyd.  Although, it was from hearing The Wall, which is now my least favorite Floyd album.  It's the only one that I never listen to, so I won't be posting any depressing videos today.

I also got introduced to ELO and Deep Purple that year.  BOC was a favorite, too.  I'm almost embarrassed about that one. 

I'll end on The Knack.



It's hard to believe all of these are the same year. 1979 was a good one, I guess.