Day 30 - Your favorite song at this time last year

by Dick Mac

The 30 Day Song Challenge has been presented to me by my friend Beff. The month of April will be dedicated to those thirty songs.

And so we come to the end: Day 30.

The older I get, the more I think about my past. Never with regrets, but sometimes with disappointments.

I once heard that drinking and using drugs affects your memory, that it is becomes difficult to remember the past. I have not found that to be the case. i can remember detailed accounts of events that took place decades ago. Sadly, I have difficulty remembering yesterday!

I am a big fan of music and the older I get, the broader my tastes become.

If you knew me in 1977, you would find it hard to believe that in 2011 I would own quite a few Joni Mitchell albums, and almost all of The Beatles. In 1977, I scoffed at country music unless it was Johnny Cash or Bobbie Gentry. I knew nothing about opera except that I didn't like it.

I just realized that "You favorite aria" is missing from this 30-Day Challenge.

Although I listen to new music, and am exposed to the poppiest and most bubble-gummiest of all new releases thanks to a 7-year0old daughter with a television, I tend to listen to a lot of music from the past. The Music Of My Life, if you will; or, as I referred to it when my mother was my age: "The Music Of My Death"!

I have grown deeper appreciation for songs from all genres of my past: folk, disco, country, and other forms of pop. Today, I know that The Mamas & The Papas and The 5th Dimension were much more sophisticated singing groups than I realized in the late-60s and early-70s. I get it now why people like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young (and although I won many records of the former, I have not yet developed a real appreciation for the latter). I can't get enough country music to satisfy me . . .

But back to the singers. Harmonies. Harmonization.

Well, let's just cut to the chase! Grazing In The Grass, by The Friends of Distinction was my fave song last spring: