So last night while we were watching “Titanic” (with limited commercial interruption), Razor and Tie Records advertised one of their latest offerings, a 4-CD collection of pop tunes from the 1970s. The songs they listed on this collection were titles I remember hearing from the back seat of my Dad’s ’71 Heavy Chevy while listening to 62 WHEN. The CD set was notably devoid of disco tracks and seemed to focus on what I call “AM Gold” records.
One track featured on the collection is “Lotta Love” by Nicolette Larson. I have a remix of this track from the “What Is Hip? The Remix Project” on my iPhone that I listen to once in a while, I had forgotten how much I loved the original version, especially the 12-inch extended mix that was released on vinyl back when the original was popular. The song is relatively simple but one that I find enjoyable nonetheless.
I was a little surprised to see a CD offering advertised on television a la the days of K-Tel, but I really liked what I saw and am considering looking into buying a downloadable version of the CD set1. I hope to find that available online when we get back home2.
What I like about the “AM Gold” music is that the instruments are real, the vocalists are really on pitch without a technological assist and more importantly, they are not trying to wow a judgmental audience with an attempt at Mariah-like mediocrity.
As a club and freelance DJ I can easily entertain the masses by playing the latest house tracks with a smattering of disco and 80s classics thrown into my mix, but to be honest I can easily shun that for the stuff such as what we featured on the Razor and Tie collection.
When it comes to pop music I am happiest listening to what I heard from the back seat of my Dad’s Heavy Chevy.
1 Back in the late 1990s I was very guilty of the whole Napster thing, especially when I was looking for music for the radio station I used to program. I fully believe that people should pay a fair price for their music, and once purchased, be able to do whatever they wish with that track. I avoid ‘crippled’ tracks laden with DRM, but I will certainly pay a fee for songs that I can enjoy on multiple devices. I make every effort possible to obtain a track legally.
2 This is the second version of this blog entry. I tried writing it on my iPhone from the back seat of the Durango as we make our way up the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but when I hit “save”, my iPhone and/or the WordPress app crashed, taking the brilliance of my original draft along with it. I will be looking into finding this collection for download when I have internet access when we get home, as naturally Apple doesn’t let us pair the iPhone with our computer so that we can use the 3G on the phone for our computer’s network access. I find this irritating.
