My parents were pretty middle of the road Midwestern Americans. They were in the vanguard of Baby Boomers released on this country, and what that means is that they were more Beatnik and Folk Music, rather than Hippie and Rock and Roll, which is what most people associate with Boomers. They built a very normal and respectable middle-class life for themselves and me and my brothers. No complaints on my end. The older I get, the more appreciate that my folks were stable, dependable, and loving parents. No flying off the handle, or strange flights of fancy or obsession came out of them.
But they really loved disco music. They never went to a disco to dance to that music; just played the albums all the time. On the weekends, my folks like to put music on after lunch and throughout the afternoon until dinner. The one album they went back to often for their disco fix was the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I heard “Night on Disco Mountain” more times than I would like to remember.
As I am putting my Summer Playlist together, Disco is taking a big lead. And each time I go looking for a Barry White song, or for Alicia Bridges, I started getting the feeling for being seven or eight years old, laying in front of my parents stereo turntable and listening to these songs, and albums. That same driving drum beat, and funky bass jumping all over the place. I mean, everyone made a disco album; from the Stones to KISS. And I think my parents had quite a few of them… Except the KISS album. My mother hated KISS.
It’s been fun discovering all of these songs that have stuck with me, buried deep in the back of my head, after they were planted there close to forty years ago.
