Spring has finally begun to show itself around these parts and I have been struck with a sudden wave of nostalgia. Yesterday I was driving around with my windows down (allergies and gawkers be damned), singing along with the Ronette’s Be My Baby at the top of my lungs and thinking about my mother. Mom and I waged endless war over the car radio station. She asserted that since she was the driver that she got control of the dial. This worked up until I learned to drive at which point, in between prayers for our safety, she claimed that my station would only distract me from the road. Being a child of the early days of Rock and Roll her station was always the Oldies station that played music from the early fifties and sixties which caused great eye rolling and muttering from my side of the car. Even though I grumbled then some of my best memories are of my mother and “her” music. She taught my sister and me to dance the Twist and the Bop to Chubby Checker and the Beach Boys. Whenever she’d hear The Duke of Earl she’d tell us stories about her old boyfriend Earl, who was a DJ in her hometown of Jackson, MS. She wanted to be a DJ herself, and I have no doubt she would have been a good one, she had a terrific speaking voice, a wonderful sense of humor, and though my fifteen year old self would never admit it, she had pretty great musical taste too. Her joy in good music was infectious and she passed it on to me.
I like to think I’m passing that love on. The other night Spawn was getting ready for the radio show he does at school when he yelled to me, “Mom, you’ve got to see this”. “This” was a Youtube video of Chuck Berry and John Lennon doing Johnny B. Goode. Mom would have been proud.
With this in mind,family tradition compels me to share this little springtime oldies playlist with you…
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