Lovin' Me a Love Song

Okay, I'm a nerd from way back.  Let's just get that said right up front.  I know it.  I'm not ashamed of it (anymore).  And we true nerds can never be de-nerdified.  So, if you look in my car you're going to see the following compact discs:

1.  Trock On - a compilation of songs by bands named for Dr. Who things and about Dr. Who things;
2.  Chameleon Circuit - a super-terrific Dr. Who album, highly sing-able and very funny (to those in the know);
3.  Aaron Jeffrey - the c.d. replacement of my mid-90's cassette tape with one of the most awesome songs showing the harmony of God's word imaginable ("He Is" - it's the last track); and
4.  Any or all of the following:  something by Barry Manilow, something by Rod Stewart, a compilation of Love Songs by various artists from various eras, and Kenny Loggins.

The cooler c.d.s in my car belong to my husband. 

Being the oldest child in my family, I didn't have the benefit of learning to be cool by having an older sibling.  Kelly, my best friend and neighbor when we were little girls, had two teenaged brothers.  My family listened to Tanya Tucker and Willie Nelson, so I listened to Tanya Tucker and Willie Nelson.  Kelly listened to The Guess Who, watched Solid Gold, and followed a local band called Fool's Face.  In elementary school!

Aunt Joyce and Uncle Larry bought me my first "cool" record album (to me, they were just absolutely IT as far as cool - Larry had a fu-manchu [okay, I've never tried to spell that word before and I'm sure that's wrong] mustache and Joyce was always so pretty - they had college aged foreign exchange students living in their home, sponsored the youth group at church - they were just cool).  It was my tenth birthday party and they bought me Debbie Boone's You Light Up My Life album.  Okay, it wasn't The Guess Who, but still, it played on Top 40 radio stations and was NOT going to be heard at the KTTS Listener Appreciation shows I attended with my parents.

So, I got my first cool record album and what did I do?  I turned it into nerdy.  I followed it with an obsession with The Osmonds (remind me to blog sometime about seeing them in concert at the State Fair - I wore purple jeans because it was Donny's favorite color) and Barry Manilow.  The only 8-track I ever called my own was Donny Osmond's Disco Train.  I have a pretty complete collection of Manilow albums and a hefty number of Osmonds plus a few from later years including Dan Fogelberg and two Randy Travis representing a brief lapse into the country scene.  They're mixed in among Bruce's ELO and Deep Purple.  I've just always been a sucker for love songs! 

The best of the best for a nerd like me include:

1.  Weekend in New England (Manilow)
2.  The Old Songs (Manilow)
3.  Merry Christmas, Darling (The Carpenters)
4.  Hard to Say (Fogelberg)
5.  When October Goes (Manilow)
6.  She Should'a Been Mine (Manilow)
7.  Not What You See and I Miss You (Manilow)

Now, just to solidify your picture of me as a nerd, know that I also like soundtracks to musicals.  My favorites are The Sound of Music (because Christopher Plummer was one of my first crushes - what little girl doesn't want to grow up to be a nun in order to find her Captain Von Trapp?), Fiddler On the Roof (do you know the song Do You Love Me??  Awesome!), and, of course, Phantom of the Opera (favorite lyric:  "Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime.  Say one word and I will follow you. . . Anywhere you go let me go, too.  Love me, that's all I ask of you."  - Oh, can you just feel that orchestration swelling in your chest?!  This is one I sing off-key at the top of my lungs while driving, so if you ever see me at a stop light looking as if I'm having a heart attack, just know it's the Phantom.)

Now, I don't want you to think that as I grew I didn't expand my tastes.  I did.  Widely.  In fact, now I would consider my favorite artist to be Michael Franks.  He's a jazz vocalist who writes the most luxurious and sultry lyrics I've ever heard.  Really, really romantic.  Look him up.  I love jazz music and I find even the instrumentals to be deeply moving, satisfying.  But, the poetry, the lyric - ah.  Therein is romance. 

Sing it or say it, be it Shakespeare or Sinatra.  There's a world of knee-knocking, head-spinning, heart-palpitating, palm-sweating, breathlessness in the right turn of phrase.  I wonder what's on the radio right about now?

Shellie