What Were We Thinking (updated)

A friend on facebook posted Kenny Loggins, Danny's Song last night. It's a great song and it had been a while since I had heard it. I started to search for some other songs from the 1970's and it started to become all to clear, what were we thinking with some of our music choices. The fact that Muskrat Love was a hit for one band is evidence enough but when you realize that two bands had hits with it is astounding. Now there are songs that are recorded by multiple bands, for example, I Heard It Through The Grapevine was first recorded by Smokey Robinson in 1967, Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1967, a signature tune for Marvin Gaye in 1968 and Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1970 (oh yeah, the California Raisins in 1986) but this is one of Billboard Magazines greatest hits of rock and roll, I'm talking about Muskrat Love. The folk music revolution of the 1960's gave us great songs of war protest and civil rights. The folk music of the 1970's gave us songs of relationships. Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, Loggins & Messina, Seals & Croft, Dan Fogelberg, it was a decade of sappy love songs. For every Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and Your Mama Don't Dance there are three or more, Longer, Return To Pooh Corner and We May Never Pass This Way Again types. What were we smoking? In today's world of Red Bull and Five Hour Energy drinks it's hard to think that there was a time when people would take drugs to mellow them out, you never hear about quaaludes anymore. Look at the music and you will understand. Now that the high school students of the 1970's are in their fifties and less prone to loud heavy metal music (I still listen but not as often) we do spend more time with easy listening music. When you mix classic rock with easy listening you get 1975 all day long. So sit back, turn on your lava lamp and sing along with me, Muskrat Suzie, Muskrat Sam. Do the jitterbug out in muskrat land. And they shimmy, Sam is so skinny (Bahahahaha how long will that stay in your head).



Since I posted this the other day people have been going out of their way to add songs to the list of bad songs of the 1970's. Here are just a few, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Elton John and Kiki Dee; Saturday Night by The Baycity Rollers (remember the pants) anything by Barry Manilow, You Light Up My Life, Debbie Boone, ABBA, need I say more, Jim Stafford's I Don't Like Spiders and Snakes, Eric Carmen's All By Myself. You see, the list grows and grows and I haven't even mentioned the BeeGees and if you can remember who sang  Thunder Island you are doing better than me.