My office is hosting a party to celebrate a beloved faculty member’s tenure as Dean, and I got assigned the lovely task of putting together a playlist of his favorite songs to play at the event. As a consequence, I have spent most of the day listening to such delightful bands as Asia, Ambrosia, Gov’t Mule, Widespread Panic, and the Strawbs. Until a few weeks ago, I was blissfully unaware of these bands (especially the Strawbs… good Lord!). With prolonged exposure to these bands, I have been able to determine that (1) I don’t mind psychedelic rock from the 60s, but I really hate it from the 70s; (2) at some point in a man’s life, it is no longer OK to have long, stringy hair…the boys from Metalica and Bon Jovi had it right when they cut theirs off to a respectable length; (3) I am exceedingly grateful that my dad never listened to this stuff while I was growing up!
Not sure what sort of music I’m talking about?
It’s classy stuff, and, yes, I do believe that is a mullet.
You might also be wondering why I have these album covers easily at my disposal. That’s part two of my random project: compile the music into a playlist and create a slideshow from images of the bands’ cover art, concert posters, and concert photos. It’s possible that I wouldn’t be so bitter about listening to this stuff all day if I didn’t have to be looking at (after searching for) pictures of them as well. To put all of this in the proper perspective, however, I do have to point out that I would rather listen to Ambrosia’s “Biggest Part of Me” all day on a never-ending loop than listen to 10 minutes of KISS FM…