Nostalgia for 1972.

It's Friday night and the duties of this week have wound down and it's now "me time". I am sitting here in a peaceful, quiet house in my favorite chair just listening to music playing on my iPod, and the playlist that is on right now is entitled simply "1972". All of the songs on that playlist were released that year. At that particular point in my life, I was just about at the beginning of my high school days, a soon to be freshman. I remember so clearly how different that year seemed than the year before. It seems that music was changing a little bit and some new sounds (that were much more electronically based and a little less purely acoustic) were beginning to find their way into the music that we were all listening to. Less emphasis on the classic 'three guitars and a drummer' theme, and more tendencies toward more experimentation. Bands with larger instrumentation, and most importantly - very strong, bold, and unique sounding vocalists. Everything stopped sounding as homogenous. We were breaking out of the 60s and defining the music of a new decade. The early 70s were a great time to be listening. Bill Withers was a big favorite of mine at the time, but I also loved Nilsson, The J. Geils Band, The Moody Blues, early Elton John, Three Dog Night, Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Joe Walsh, The Allman Brothers... the list is really endless. I know I talk all the time about the love that I have for everything Beatles, but it is really a love of the music of the later 60s and early 70s overall. There were some clunkers on the radio to be sure, but mostly it really was an inspired time in music. Listen to "Whammer Jammer" sometime by the J. Geils Band. A bit of a throwback to harmonica based house rockers, but a great party starter if there ever was one!

Music is an integral part of the creative process for me. When I hear music, I think of colors, shapes, space, line and begin to access the more high level conceptual thinking that informs my best ideas. I love to create visual art with a set of headphones on and the year 1972 playing. It is the music of my youth, and everyone seems to have an affinity for the music that they loved during those years of their lives, no matter what age person we are talking about.

My son Tim, the drummer, who is now 22 years old, loves ska and reggae music, and it was PRECISELY at the age of 15 that he first started to listen to this type of music. He not only listened to it but he played with Designated Johnny, a local ska band, all throughout high school and into his post high school years. There will always be a soft spot for ska music in his heart. I know that Mr. Ruuska, our Media Tech teacher at DJCC tells me about all of the punk bands that he loved while in high school at JJ Pearce HS in the 80s. It is nearly foolproof. My parents grew up in the mid 1950s and still seem to know all of the doo-wop music and ballads of that time. My older son who is 25 grew up during the era of Incubus and Nickelback. He still knows their whole library. I guess my grandparents were fond of people who we probably wouldn't even know now. I wish they were still alive to tell me who it was that they loved and listened to at the age of 15. It would be great to know.

We all 'grow up' to a certain soundtrack. What is yours?