The songs of our lives

3/4/01

By Paulette Tobin

This week was Mark's birthday, so I bought myself two CDs, or as we called them in the olden days, albums. Both were soundtracks, one to the Coen brothers movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" The other was for "Almost Famous," the semi-autobiographical Cameron Crowe movie about a teen-aged boy who went on the road with a '70s rock band and wrote about it for Rolling Stone magazine.

With its excellent old country/blue grass music, the "O Brother" soundtrack got better reviews than the movie. The "I am a Man of Constant Sorrows" video was playing the CMT channel every time I surfed by it on my way to HGTV. Then, a couple of Saturdays ago, Ralph Stanley - one of the artists featured on "O Brother" - sang for Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion." Mr. Stanley sounded like a man who had lived every country song imaginable. When he opened up his pipes to warble an a capella "O Death," chills went up and down my spine. "O Death" is like one those bluegrass songs that twings and twangs merrily along on the banjo, fiddle and guitar, while telling a story darker than the darkest night.

Mark has been teasing me about listening to (as he calls it) "Ozarkian music," but when I was a kid, we listened to the old country songs at home. Our radio dial was tuned to the stations where Hank Williams sang "Your Cheatin' Heart" and about poor old "Kaw-Liga" who never got a kiss. Kitty Wells told us "It Wasn't God who Made Honky-Tonk Angels," and Ferlin Husky sang about the "Wings of a Dove." So when the Soggy Bottom Boys started singing "In the Jailhouse Now" on the "O Brother" soundtrack, it was just like going home again for me.

"Almost Famous" was another nostalgia trip. Were there any more wonderful rock poets than Simon and Garfunkel, who open the soundtrack with their wonderful "America"? ("Let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together I've got some real estate here in my bag...") There are certain songs and artists from that era that will forever be linked in my mind to the people and events of my life. If I gave awards to the music of my youth, these are the awards I would give:

Best Junior High Party Sock-Hop Songs: "G-L-O-R-I-A, Gloria" and "Louie, Louie."

Best Song for Sweaty Freshmen in a Back-Seat Liplock: "I Think We're Alone Now," by Tommy James and the Shondells.

Best Bubblegum Ballad: "Sugar, Sugar," the Archies.

Best Instrumental Accompaniment for Trojans Basketball Team Pre-Game Warm-Up Drills: "The Horse" by Cliff Nobles & Co. (Or was it Booker T and the MGs?)

Saddest Country Song in the History of the World: "He Stopped Loving Her Today," by George Jones.

Best Song for Wayne Isaak and Thurn Hoffman to Lip Sync at a Pep Rally: "On the Cover of the Rolling Stone"

Best Party Bands for Keggers at the Sand Pits: Doobie Brothers ("Without Love," "China Grove," "Black Water," "Long Train Running," "What a Fool Believes") or Credence Clearwater Revival ("Proud Mary," "Bad Moon Rising," "Suzie Q")

Best Dance Till You Drop on the Dance Floor song: "Smoke on the Water."

Best Slow Dance at a Freeway Dance: "Color my World"

Best Air-Guitar Party Song: "Walk Away," The James Gang.

Best Brits: "Maggie May," by Rod Stewart; "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," Elton John.

Best Songs for Drill Team to Shake their Pom-Poms to at Half-Time: "25 or 6 to 4," by Chicago, or "School's Out" by Alice Cooper.

Best of Sweet Baby James: "You've Got a Friend," "Fire and Rain."

Best Chick-Power Music: Aretha Franklin. "R-E-S-P-E-C-T."

Best Class Song for the Class of 1973 (Disqualified by Mr. Diedtrich after he heard the first five seconds of it): "Keep the Faith," by Black Oak Arkansas.

Best Soundtracks for Indulging in Mind-Altering Substances: Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon," or "Led Zeppelin II" ("Misty Mountain Hop" - need I say more?)

Favorite Bands to Listen to in My College Dorm Room: Boston, Boz Scaggs, Aerosmith, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Seals & Crofts, Bette Midler, REO Speedwagon, Edgar Winter, Heart, Rollings Stones, Paul McCartney and Wings.

If you'd like to nominate a personal favorite, e-mail me: tobin@infi.net.

(Paulette Haupt Tobin graduated from EHS in 1973 and today lives in Grand Forks, N.D.)