Lately when I write I’ve asked Alexa to play seventies music. Some days she selects pop, other days, country, and still others, folk. I can’t decide which genre I enjoy the most, but I do have some favorites: Bob Seger, Gordon Lightfoot, Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, among others.
When Studly Doright chooses a station he always picks sixties music, and while I enjoy that decade’s offerings, there’s something about the 70’s tunes that speaks to me. Maybe it’s because I graduated high school in ‘75, and married Studly in ‘76. In the space of a year I went from childhood to adulthood with seventies music playing in the background.
The 63-year-old me often finds herself crying during certain songs. Today, John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High had me blubbering at my computer, and not long after that I completely lost it over Michael Martin Murphey’s Wildfire.
Am I mourning the loss of my youth? Surely not. That’s been gone for at least three decades. How about my close proximity to death. Naw. I’ve made my peace with the world.
Maybe it’s bigger than that. Maybe it’s the loss of our nation’s soul that’s gotten to me, and these songs remind me of a time that seemed so much simpler. Oh, I know the 70’s had their issues. They weren’t rosy by any means, but I was young enough to believe everything would turn out fine.
Science fiction/fantasy is my favorite genre by far. Nothing thrills me like blasting into hyper space or exploring the terrain of a new world from the safety of my own home.
I just finished the novel, The Three-Body Problem by China’s premier science fiction author, Cixin Liu. I’d love to tell you I read it in the original Chinese, but I only know how to say, not spell, “thank you” in Mandarin. The Three-Body Problem was not light reading, at least not for me. There was all this math-y and science-y stuff. I’m trying to decide if I’m woman enough to tackle the sequels. Three-Body provides a spectacularly different view into Chinese culture, so after a brain break I’m sure I’ll return to the impending Trisolarus invasion.
Before Liu’s book, I’d immersed myself in the works of John Scalzi whose Old Man’s War series is a must read for scifi fans. Scalzi’s wit, I suspect, could make a rewriting of the U.S. Tax Code into a pleasurable evening of reading, and I recommend it to everyone, not just those into the genre.
Hugh Howey is another scifi writer I’ve become attached to. Not literally because Howey might have me arrested, but his Wool Omnibus is incredibly entertaining, and deals with intriguing social issues. If you suffer from claustrophobia, be warned. The characters don’t get out much.
Now anyone who’s still with me might wonder what in heaven’s name all this has to do with the post’s title, “Saving the Cowsills.” As a preteen one of my all-time best friends who I’ll call LA, and I were obsessed with brothers John and Barry Cowsill of the family singing group the Cowsills, upon whom The Partridge Family TV series was based.
The Cowsills. before they were famous I saw them in a cafe in Las Vegas, NM, but couldnt figure out where I’d seen them before. I’ve always considered that my lost chance to impress John.
We could tell you darned near anything you wanted to know about the brothers: Eye color, height, birth dates, likes, dislikes, etc. One of the highlights of our young lives was getting to meet our idols after a concert in Canyon, Texas.
At a recent reunion LA gave me a book entitled, I Think I Love You, and insisted that I read it. Sure, I said, thinking it was the last thing a scifi fangirl like me wanted to read, but after tackling The Three-Body Problem my brain truly needed a rest. I picked up LA’s book and dove in. And began giggling like a preteen schoolgirl.
Written by Allison Pearson, of I Don’t Know How She Does It fame, I Think I Love You perfectly captures the mindset of a young teenaged girl infatuated with a rock idol, in this case David Cassidy of The Partridge Family. The book’s heroine, Petra, is obsessed with David Cassidy, whom I’d always assumed was an amalgam of John and Barry Cowsill. Ah ha!
The Partridge Family. That’s David standing in the back.
I’m not a particularly speedy reader, so I’m savoring the awkwardness and self-consciousness of Petra in something akin to a slow motion retro film. She’s me at 13. She’s pretty much every girl at 13, with the exception of those who somehow seemed to be in on the whole joke from the beginning.
I owe LA a big hug and a thank you for lending me I Think I Love You. It’s been more than a brain break. It’s been a refreshing swim in a pool of Cowsill-stocked memories. One thought goes out to my idol: John Cowsill, we’d have been so very good together.
I look forward to finding out just what becomes of Petra’s obsession with her hero. He’d best not disappoint her!
Teen-aged girls are prone to thoughts of romance and forbidden love. I was once a teen-aged girl, so I can say this with some authority. There were several songs from my youth that supported this romanticized notion of defying one’s parents to be with the man of one’s dreams. “Some Day Soon” by Judy Collins certainly fit the bill.
I recall sitting in the backseat of whatever second-hand vehicle my parents had at the time, staring longingly out the window and daringly singing along when this song played on the radio. After all, the word “damned” was right there in the lyrics! Damn! Heady stuff.
I could almost picture my non-existent young cowboy, tall and rugged, confidently striding in his tight Wranglers to sweep me into a passionate embrace. Then one of my younger brothers sitting next to me would burp or fart, and snap! Back to reality.
The video below isn’t one of my favorite arrangements of the song; however, the Smothers Brothers’ introduction is classic.
SomeDay Soon
Song by Judy Collins
There’s a young man that I know
His age is twenty-one
Comes from down
In southern Colorado
Just out of the service
And he’s looking for his fun
Someday soon, going with him
Someday soon
My parents can not stand him
Cause he rides the rodeo
My father says that
He will leave me crying
I would follow him right down
The toughest road I know
Someday soon, going with him
Someday soon
And when he comes to call
My pa ain’t got a good word to say
Guess it’s cause he’s just
As wild in the younger days
So blow, you old Blue Northern
Blow my love to me
He’s driving in tonight
From California
He loves his damned old rodeo
As much as he loves me
Someday soon, going with him
Someday soon
But when he comes to call
My pa ain’t got a word to say
Guess it’s cause he’s just
As wild in the younger days.
Praying for Eyebrowz 