Deviant Audiophile: August 2014

We went to see the raccoon movie this weekend. Apparently it’s called “Guardians of the Galaxy” or some such nonsense, but really, I was in it for the raccoon with a machine gun. And it was totally worth the price of admission.

Music (on cassette tapes, no less) was a major plot point of the film, which made me super happy. And it was 70s era soft rock and a little R&B thrown in for good measure which…

This shit was the bane of my existence throughout my childhood, teen years, and early adulthood. Whenever I hung out with my friends, their parents frequently had this crap on the stereo.

It became the muzak that tortured me wherever I went. It was hell. It was so…fluffy. I was convinced that Lionel Richie was Satan (jury is still out). I was sure that this music was the soundtrack of every conversion-van driving child molester. It was the musical equivalent of a porn ‘stache. It was aural tight, high-waisted polyester bellbottoms that were flattering on no-one. It was Lawrence Welk for the wife-swapping generation. Toothless pap! Opium for the personality-less masses!

I’d hear the opening strains of Escape (The Pina Colada Song) and I’d start having massive fits. Out loud. In public. At work (where I found out I was not alone in my hatred of this song. see, bad behavior sometimes does reap rewards. I found a support group).

It’s not even that I was a proponent of the whole Disco Sucks movement. I have always had some appreciation for disco. I’m a huge fan of funk (sorry, y'all, Easy very nearly ruined the Commodores for me, for forever). I adore all hard rock and punk from that era. It really just was something about the pop rock/soft rock moment that set me off. Similarly, I hated the singer-songwriter musicians of the era.

And then…something happened. I can’t even pinpoint when, or what, it was. I think maybe I was kidnapped by aliens. Possibly it was the massive head wound I sustained in my mid-20s. But I started to really dig other 70s stuff.

(my inner teen is howling with rage right now, and is trying to force me to put on some punk to cleanse)

I KNOW! What is wrong with me? At least with my completely irrational love of shitty pop music, I can pretend that it’s irony. Or an appreciation of the surreal. Or something.

After we got home from the raccoon movie, I immediately looked up the soundtrack, discovered that it is number 1 on the Amazon charts (at least), and immediately set out to make myself a playlist, building off the songs I liked from the film.

A soundtrack hasn’t captured my imagination this much since Garden State.

For the purposes of this post, I'll stick to some of my absolute favorites. I may publish my full list on a page on the blog, eventually. You may recognize snippets of many of these songs, as they've been sampled half to death by contemporary rap and R&B artists, but I still love em.

Of course we have the awesome Shuggie Otis. Who I was lucky enough to see live last year in Brooklyn.

Here’s his Strawberry Letter 23:

Strawberry Letter 23 was covered by The Brothers Johnson, who did another favorite of mine, I'll Be Good To You:

Bobby Caldwell's, What You Won't Do For Love:

I first heard of Bill Withers, from his song Lean on Me, which was the title song for an 80s movie of the same name, but I much prefer Use Me:

And there's America (the band). Most people know A Horse With No Name, but I've always liked Ventura Highway:

Rickie Lee Jones, Chuck E's in Love:

War, Lowrider:

Earth, Wind & Fire, September:

Kool & The Gang, Summer Madness (seriously, this song has been in what feels like every 70s movie, every movie about the 70s, and used every time somebody just wants to evoke the 70s.):