Road Trip, Part 2: The Soundtrack

One of the great things about driving solo is there’s nobody in the car to protest your choice of radio channel – not that there’s a whole lot to choose from out here in the wild West, but I do prefer the local playlists over my own pop-centric iPod. 

The airwaves are, not unexpectedly, full of country music, and I find that their melancholy lyrics of regret and remorse often fit my mood perfectly: when the heartache of missing my children has me bawling so hard I can’t see the road… when it’s time to say goodbye to new friends and depart from what was home for a while…when my current state of rootlessness feels really scary rather than liberating…. 

There’s also a lot of classic rock being played, and this is especially great tuneage to some of the more dramatic landscapes.  The screaming vocals of Mick, Steve Tyler, Angus, Joan Jett, Bruce, Debbie Harry, Robert Plant, and the attendant electric guitar riffs are the ideal accompaniment to those mind-blowing rock formations (see “Eyegasms” entry).  It feels so right to howl along at the top of my lungs as a response to the OMG geology in these parts. 

And then recently I discovered a station playing Sounds of the Seventies -- what a bop down memory lane!  This was the music I listened to in high school and, oddly enough, has not been remixed to suit the ears of my kids (let me know if it has).  There are some bands we may still hear now and then, such as the Bee Gees, the Eagles, Supertramp, Foreigner, maybe Chicago, but do you remember these?

ELO (“Don’t Bring Me Down”)
Doobie Brothers (“Takin’ it to the Streeets”)
Three Dog Night (“Joy to the World”)
Bread (“Baby I’m-a Want You”)
Yes (“Owner of a Lonely Heart”)
Peaches and Herb (“Reunited”)
Carpenters (“Close to You”)
Captain and Tenille (“Love Will Keep Us Together”)
Gerry Rafferty (“Baker Street”)
Isley Bros (“Fight the Power”)
Grand Funk Railroad (“Some Kinda Wonderful”)
Todd Rundgren ("Hello It's Me")

If you’re my generation, I bet you do now, and I’ll bet the words would come back to you, too, just as they do to me (amazing what the mind retains, isn’t it), and I’d also bet you’d dig the groovy nostalgia as well.  Do ya copy that?  Right on!