Love Hangover

Well, you are asking me to cast my mind back a long way. Teen angst you say ... I could write a list for 20s angst with the emphasis on the angst side, more easily in fact if anything ..they were worse .. but anyway, back in the early 70s ( yes that long ago)...I was a budding teenager.. and let me tell you music was EVERYTHING to me.

The little list here is but a tiny micro fraction of the many musical loves I had. Music went everywhere with me .. I carried a transistor radio to school so I could listen at recess. It was under my pillow at night time too. Little known fact...I actually dreamt up the precursor to the Sony Walkman.. telling my friends that there had to be a way we could carry our choice of music everywhere.. unfortunately I was only 15 and not an inventor or entrepreneur.

Did I have angst in my teens.. ? well yes of course ... but I still remember my time at high school very fondly. Music was front and centre ...with youth club discos, parties, radios in cars, at school ..and in my later teens clubs...( yeah I loved disco .. so I was going to pretend I was older and sneak in there of course! ) The Summer of 1976 was an outstanding memory .. with an endless perfect summer and my first boyfriend.

By Autumn that was defunct and 1977 was a very bleak year indeed .. the rise of ugly discordant punk music seemed to match my ongoing mood. It wasn’t for me and you won’t find that anywhere on my list.

My list isn’t really in any order but contains some music that I’d listen to over and over again.

Don’t Leave Me this way...

I prefer Thelma Houston’s version although a friend tried to insist it was a man’s song therefore Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes version wins.. not for me. Thelma was on repeat after my first ever break up. An event so traumatic that I have strenuously avoided dating and short term relationships ever since. Who knows what I may have missed out on?

I’m not in Love 1Occ

Smootchy slow dancing. A snog under the mistletoe. That is all.

Coz I Luv you Slade

Bit of a cheat this as I actually wasn’t quite 13 when this different innovative ear worm was first released. But it was the first 7” single I bought with my own money.

Love Hangover Diana Ross

If burgeoning interest in sex could be put into music, this is how it would sound..

Sir Duke Stevie Wonder

Ubiquitous track from songs in the key of life. Very enjoyable upbeat and positive track useful for cheering fed up self up.

Bad Motor Scooter Montrose

Played on repeat in that first boyfriend’s car. Obviously perfect driving music yes driving music...in case you thought otherwise...

Seven Seas of Rhye Queen

There had to be a Queen song.. this one sounded great in headphones flying from ear to ear and wasn’t Bohemian Rhapsody.. which good though it is ... kind of overstayed it’s welcome for me. (9 weeks at number 1 in the charts in the UK)

Ipi tombi - musical 1974

My parents had the soundtrack to the musical which they played often and loud. Joyous

Amourouse Kiki Dee

Soft ballad about first love or first sex or something. Another nice slow dance , beautifully sung. I believe I’m interpreting it correctly

Fool to Cry Rolling Stones

My first boyfriend loved the Rolling Stones. I had like some of their stuff, my favourite from that time would probably be Tumbling Dice. So why is Fool to Cry on the list? Because on hearing the first few bars.. it can literally make me cry right now .. decades later.

That sums up the power of music better than anything else I could write or say.