I've had this record since I was 8 when I used to spin it on my tan Fisher Price portable record player. It showed the scratches and the love. That record is 31 years old! It's probably the oldest disc in my collection, as far as ownership is concerned. Somehow I've toted it along over many decades, multiple players and even more homes.
Riley has been grabbing that particular album cover out of my stack for a while now. It depicts Olivia in her cropped bleached, spiky hair look รก la Physical video. I remember bringing this album cover to my hairdresser at age 9 or so and saying I wanted that cut. It didn't quite work out that way. See below...
My husband said, "I had the biggest crush on Olivia Newton-John."
To which I replied, "So did I! Everyone loved her then."
"I wonder what ever happened to her..."
"Oh, she's still around. (I left out the part that I follow her on Facebook) But I think with everyone big in the industry, she got overexposed and then it's hard to come back from that." I replied.
I remembered ALL the words and ALL the vocal inflections. I sang them with gusto while dancing with my girl. She was boogie-ing down and smiling with glee the entire time. I promised her when she was older that I would introduce her to the movie Xanadu, which I own on VHS and still keep a video player in my garage to someday re-watch it. (Interesting article on Xanadu obsession here)
It was a fun morning. I got to thinking, can a parent's LOVE of something transfer to his or her child? It's a leap of scientific faith to try and equate eye color or cleft chins to an emotional love for a song like "Hopelessly Devoted to You," or "Xanadu," or even lesser known cuts like "Make a Move on Me." (Check out this AWESOME "Solid Gold" (with Marilyn McCoo) performance, and yes, that was the haircut I wanted!) But I thought it would be interesting to ponder.
I tested the idea further when I found yet another album I'd forgotten I owned. One that I wore out on cassette when I originally had it. 1998's The Smithereens "Green Thoughts."(You can check out the video for "House that We Used to Live In" here) I was pleasantly surprised to see her throw her arms in the air and rock out to the distorted guitar intro of one of Side One's tunes. I hadn't remembered all those words. But it spoke to me in that nostalgic way that music does. I remember that record was the pre-cursor to grunge, and I was in the transition between 8th grade at my Catholic school to 9th grade in public middle school. I chose to leave the last school and made a deal with my parents at the time to get my Confirmation and then get out. REM's "Green" was the hot record of the year in that 60s throwback style, but I preferred the Smithereens as a garage rock Beatles type of band. They strike me as very midwestern, like a Chicago band, but after a quick Wiki search, I learned they were from New Jersey.
So, Friday's here with a good kick-off soundtrack and I'm steeped in a bit of nostalgia to start the weekend. I'm glad to tap into a bit more past in the blog. I want it to be a place to "get to know ya" of sorts--past, present and look ahead to the future.
NEW: A fun discovery on YouTube. Olivia Newton-John's first interview on Mike Douglas 1979.
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