During the years of full-time childhood, last days of school are as magical in their way as Christmas mornings. Both dangle delicious promises. The specifics vary depending on who we are, but in my world, anything could happen, during my annual visit to my grandparents for a week, or during our cousin’s visit to our farm, and when we’d return the visit to him. Our family would always go on an overnight trip; when we were very little, we weren’t told where until we were on the way. We’d spend five days at the county fair. On more mundane mornings, my brother and I would take off for the back of beyond after breakfast with no rules other than “don’t get hurt” and “be back for lunch.” Every day seemed positively pregnant with possibilities.
But full-time childhood ends. The summer I turned 12, I was no longer permitted to laze around all day; I had to start doing farm work or other tasks around home to earn my allowance. The visits and the vacations went on; so did the adventures my brother and I shared. But the sense that somebody else had a claim on my time—even if it was just my parents—made summer feel different. The season still had plenty of room for possibility, but it never felt quite so rich again.
So come back with me now to the first week in June 1972 for the songs of the last days of school and the first days of summer. Many of them come echoing back to me from my seat on a tractor, driving some farm implement against my will. There was no radio on the tractor, but the songs played in my head anyhow, because that’s the way it was. (And still is.) We’ll take ‘em from the chart at WCUE in Akron, Ohio, dated June 2, 1972. I could pick several, but here are five.
“Oh Girl”/Chi-Lites. An incomparable soul record that doesn’t get nearly the praise it deserves as one of the most gorgeous emotional expressions in all of American popular culture. I mean it.
“Nice to Be With You”/Gallery. Another 70s essential and a perfect sound for summer days. I used to know a woman who said her mother was in Gallery, although I think it was after their hitmaking days were over.
“I Need You”/America. Although it’s loaded with cliches—”like a flower needs the rain” and “like a winter needs the spring”—”I Need You” also contains a marvelous description of what being in love is like: “And every day I’d laugh the hours away/Just knowing you were thinking of me.” I wouldn’t have known it in 1972, of course, but damn—that’s precisely it.
“Too Late to Turn Back Now”/Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose. From the first second of one of the great intros of all time, this settles into a sweet summertime groove that’s still an absolute thrill every time I hear it. Although Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose was a trio on its first hit, “Treat Her Like a Lady,” on this record, they’re a quartet. A second sister, Billie Jo, joined the group but didn’t get billed.
“I Saw the Light”/Todd Rundgren. Good on Rundgren for his long and varied career, but to me, he’s never surpassed his first hit single. It’s June sky and the smell of new-mown hay and riding home from baseball practice wondering why I was such a bad player and driving that damned tractor and the way the fireflies flickered over the farm fields as night fell and the surprises that could happen to a kid in the summertime, distilled to two minutes and 59 seconds of AM radio glory.
Get ‘em all in the zip file below, but get ‘em by the end of the weekend because I’ll be taking them down after that. Before the end of the weekend, we’ll dig deeper into the WCUE survey for some of the obscurities within.
The Hits Just Keep on Comin’ June 1972 (.rar file)
(Buy the Chi-Lites, Gallery, and other great 1972 hits here; buy America here; buy Todd Rundgren here; buy everything you need by Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose for a ridiculous $3.99 here)
At WNEW.com: The Rise of the CD.
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May 12th,1972….it was a Friday night and I listened to all 21 innings of a suspended game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Minnesota Twins. The score was tied tied after 21 innings and the game was called on account of American League curfew at 1am and was to be resumed the following day. I don’t remember what radio station I was listening to for the game, but following the broadcast, the DJ played “I Saw The Light” by Todd Rundgren before signing off. That was a great song to finish the day…and night as it was WAAAY past my bedtime. (The Brewers eventutally won it, 5-4 in 22 innings.)
Bob Heise batted 10 times in that game.
Wow. You truly captured that last summer before quasi-responsibility came crashing down. Although my friends and I had a lot of fun, we also bellyached a ot about there being “nothing to do.” Ah, for such “boredom” now.
You wrote: “Whiteray . . . will probably beat me at the topic, too.” Well, having read this post three times, I’d be glad if I could make it a draw. This is one sweet post!
1972 signaled true adulthood for me with the end of my Army days, my first place of my own and a summer wedding to my first wife. 1972 was also when I finally started buying more albums than 45s.