We now return to ourregularly scheduled inanity

Remember this one? I bought a bunch of songs off it a few months ago while in the throes of my own personal Freaks & Geeks revival, and somehow, even though at the time the album came out I felt I was waaaay too cool to like it, the passage of nearly 30 years has managed to render it deeply nostalgic for me .... Mainly, I remember dancing to Come Sail Away in the dim early evening light of my junior high school cafeteria, and the overwhelming relief I felt when the song broke away from the slow start and started rocking out – which meant I was finally released from the trembling arms of the earnest, eager, and anxious 13-year-old boy who was sweatily clutching the back of my rust-colored velour v-neck sweater.

Those were the days!

I also remember the theme of that dance – Jungle Love (another great song from the 70s) – and I remember lying on a large expanse of butcher paper on the floor of the cafeteria several days before the dance, painting an enormous wall-sized mural that included palm trees, an ocean sunset, and a strangely asymetrical sailboat – all things I had never seen before in real life but felt qualified to draw due to my recent obsessive study of all things Fantasy Island. This would have been in 1978.

Strange to think that kids these days ("kids these days") have instantaneous access to such vast quantities of music. For me back then, just finding a 45 of a song I liked was a major accomplishment; I hardly ever bought any music, in fact, because I never seemed to have any money, and what money I had I preferred to spend on books.

Anyway. I'm working late, and gettin' down at my desk with some fine late 20th-century schlock rock. Thanks, iTunes!