A music lover with limited resources has to make choices; prioritize. As a 12 year old music lover with limited resources you also have to take in to account factors such as what your friends think and what will you parents allow in the house.
The time to make these important decisions is not while surrounded by other stupid 12 year olds in the checkout isle of Market Time Drug minutes before closing time.
But, that was the position I found myself in… two LPs in hand, enough money to buy just one and my jury of peers favoring the lessor of the two.
In one hand I had the megasuperhit You Light Up My Life from Debby Boone, in the other was Little Criminals from Randy Newman.
I was in favor of the Boone record. You Light Up My Life was a monster hit, it was the theme song for many a school dance and the girls loved it! My mom loved it. We couldn’t loose if we had that record to play! Plus, she was cute! Randy Newman was just some weird looking guy…
My friends were in favor of the Newman record, the song Short People was popular too and it was funny! The rest of the record must be funny, right?
Peer pressure won the day and I came home with a shiny new Randy Newman record. Short People is song one side one and we played it over and over until we knew every word! Moving on, the rest of the record wasn’t funny at all!
It was slow and boring and some songs are just him and the piano! I was right, I should’ve stuck with the Debby Boone record…
Exiled to the closet and eventually the back of a milk crate in various dank basements of my life Little Criminals recently got paroled and the spit and polish treatment and a fresh listen with older ears. What a joy! Quirky character driven story songs, gorgeous arrangements, and a cynicism that was totally lost on 12 year old me.
I never did buy You Light Up My Life but maybe I should just to see if it holds up as well as Little Criminals…
Mark's 365 Days of Vinyl 