It was "One hit wonder day" at the local radio station. It's a classic rock station, so the selections skewed mostly towards hair band and hard rock of the 1980s and 90s, but they also played a few selections from the 1970s. The music of the 70s is a varied lot. Much of it is silly (Disco Duck, anyone?), danceable (more disco, sans ducks), wonderfully weird (Hocus Pocus, by Focus!), or ABBA. At least it was, until punk music came crashing in.
But there are a few songs from that decade that are just depressing. The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1972), by Bobby Russell (sung by his then-wife Vicki Lawrence) tells a sad story about a sister who kills the cheating wife of her brother, but her brother gets hanged for the crime. In a way, it's a commentary on the occasional injustice of the justice system. Another song by David Geddes, called Run Joey Run (1975), tells the tragic tale of a father killing his daughter. Told from the perspective of the daughter's boyfriend, who had come to her house after she and her father had a fight over what I presume to be a pregnancy by the narrator. Ah, it's the classic story of girl meets boy, boy impregnates girl, father finds out, father beats up girl, boy tries to come to girl's rescue, but girl takes the bullet intended for boy.
Then, to make you even more depressed, there is the 1975 song by Gordon Lightfoot that describes the sinking and death of all 29 crew of the bulk freighter the Edmund Fitzgerald (The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald). The freighter went down in bad weather on Lake Superior the night of November 10, 1975. And, if by now you don't already feel like burying your head in your pillow and sobbing, you can pop in a recording of Don McLean's ode to three freshly dead musicians: American Pie (1971). The three dead musicians in question were, of course, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper.
So, who needs a drink?
No comments:
Post a Comment