Bargain bin music

Growing older has one big advantage. We can afford to buy more of the music we loved growing up because it’s been thrown into the bargain bin.

The music I love[d] — tunes from the Bee Gees, Boston, The Cars, Chicago, ELO, Foreigner and Billy Joel — have been out of Billboard’s Top 40 for many years now. But hearing the intro to “More Than a Feeling”, my favorite rock song, still soothes my soul. I can still “lose myself in [that] familiar song; I close my eyes and I slip away. I slip away, away…“

I want to ask Billy to “play me a melody; I’m not really sure how it goes, but it’s sad and it’s sweet and I knew it complete when I wore a younger [wo]man’s clothes …”

Chicago is hardly “the biggest part of me”, but “If You Leave Me Now” is still my favorite pop song.

When I was in high school, I didn’t think I could be “Stayin’ Alive” if I wasn’t listening to my music. If the day went badly, my music would start me “sailin’ away on the crest of a wave. It’s like magic.” Magic that was “Just What I Needed”, that put me “Back Where [I] Belong[ed]”.

Finding treasures in the bargain bin is pure pleasure. They take me back to the days before Walkmans and iPods, to the days where I had a black tape recorder with horrible audio quality and didn’t know what I was missing.

Now that my mental jukebox is cranked, I’ll get some “Peace of Mind” as I slip away, away!