Album 2: Saturday Night Fever (by various artists)
Picture it. Springfield. 1978. Me, sitting on the edge of my parent's bed, turning the dial on my dad's clock radio back and forth until suddenly...
Emerging from the crackling waves, a disco beat...nn-ttsss nn-ttsss nn-ttsss nn-ttsss nn-ttsss...
Then at 20 seconds...BAM! The falsetto proclamation from angels on high:
"Listen to the ground
There is movement all around
There is something goin' down
And I can feel it
On the waves of the air
There is dancin' out there
If it's somethin' we can share
We can steal it..."
The Saturday Night Fever sound track album, actually, this particular song, Night Fever, by the Bee Gees, stands out as the first time I can recall in my life having had such a visceral reaction to music. Okay, I know. Joe Morello, (see yesterday's post), other than that, I mean.
It also marks the first time that there was something called, "My Music" - as opposed to "My Parent's Music" or "My Carpool Mom's Music". This was the first crack in childhood, my adolescent identity dancing now just beneath the surface; and by God, I liked it! (Crikey, getting chills right now just thinking about it!)
This memory underscores the power of music. The right song at the right time is electric! It has the ability to pierce your walls and hit straight to your core with a magic that is transcendent. It can draw out dormant emotions or aspects of your personality that don't exist in the world of spoken language alone and let this part of your soul fly! (Wow, just realizing that this is a wellness tool seriously missing from my daily life, and I intend to sow it back in.)
Occasionally these days, I do come back to this album. It's great to cook to and for dancing around the house while cleaning. Aaaanndd - in an emergency, it can even help you perform CPR properly if you do chest compressions while singing the refrain from Stayin' Alive! (See the American Heart Association for guidance and training.)
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| RSO Records, 1977 |
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