When I was a boy I wanted to be a Temptation. Back then the Temptations were, to my young mind, the coolest, most stylish, sexiest cats on the planet. They danced like they were floating on smooth gossamer wings and they sang like you hoped the angels in the heavens could sing.
As Nanci Griffith wrote, "I was a child of the 60's; when dreams could be had through T.V. With Disney and Cronkite and Martin Luther; and I believed...I believed...I believed..."
And I believed. I believed in Bobby Kennedy and the Beatles; in Superman and Star Trek and Adam West as Batman; in giving peace a chance and that all you needed was love. I believed in my mother and my cousin Vernon and that my brother Guy wouldn't always be such a pain in my butt. I believed in the power of ideas and the power of music; I believed that your soul could be lifted and your life made brighter with the magic pouring through the speakers of a phonograph or an AM radio station.
When I was a boy, sometimes I wanted to be a Rolling Stone...or another Jackson brother...or a member of the Family Stone...or even a Monkee...but most times, in my child's heart of hearts, I wanted to belong on the streets of Motown, the breathing soul of young America...most times, I wanted to be a Temptation.
Most of the real Temptations have passed on now...but that sweet fire they stoked in me has never completely gone away. And I pray it never does.
I close my eyes as the bass line slides in, sweet and silky, and the music sweeps me in..."I've got sunshine on a cloudy day"...and, three glorious minutes at a time, everything is right with the world.
*****
recommended listening:
"My Girl: The Very Best of The Temptations" (2 magical discs of pure uptown, life affirming soul music)
2 comments:
I was a child of the 80's. Reagonomics. Plastic synthetic pop music. the MTV-fueled super-commercialization of mass media.
My mom was a child of the 60's and 70's, and the biggest Beatles fan I know. Others may know more about the technical aspects of the music, or about the history of the band, but nobody matches her enthusiasm for the sounds.
I remembering playing with matchbox cars on the living room carpet while my mom knitted in her chair, after dad had gone to bed so that he could get up for work early the next morning, while John and Paul told me about how much I should cherish all the good things "In My Life" and how John could "Imagine" a better world.
There is nothing like a great song to remind you of what one man or woman is capable of creating. No matter how messed up the world seems to be (and I learned to be very cynical in the 80's), it just takes one great work from Mr. Dylan or Mr. Cobain or Mr. Muddy Waters to remind me that it's not such a bad world after all.
MCL
Well said, Michael. Thanks!
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