Bright Lights and Great Music

Music is magic to me. Like many people, I can hear a song and immediately be transported to another time or place. I’m a disco girl – my mother taught me to jitterbug so when disco came around I was ready. In the ’70s there were clubs for teens specifically – under 21 clubs – where I would go with friends almost every weekend. One of these in the San Fernando Valley where I grew up was the Sugar Shack on Whitsett and Magnolia.

One of my best friends, Terri, and I could be found every weekend at the Sugar Shack – if not on both Friday and Saturday nights, then definitely on one. Ditto jeans and peasant blouses, polyester wrap-around skirts and platform heels were all the rage and I rocked the look. And don’t forget the Farrah Fawcett hairstyle. Though I didn’t have her natural curls, I gave it my best effort by sleeping in foam curlers almost every night. (That is one aspect of my youth that I don’t miss.)

(A side note: have you seen the commercial for the app that you can buy and sell stuff on? I love the ad of the two girls driving through town toting a giant disco ball – it reminds me of my disco days. I absolutely understand her reluctance of letting go of that ball.)

Thanks to a CV Weekly reader, the days of disco are not outside my field of vision when I’m at my desk at the paper. Dee was kind enough to give me a signed poster of Donna Summer, the queen of disco, that I hung on my office wall. And Mary O’Keefe gave me a mini disco light that sits on my desktop. It operates on batteries and I can it switch on when the disco mood grips me.

But disco was just one component of the music scene back then. Rock music was evolving as well. Bands like Fleetwood Mac, Aerosmith, Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan and Electric Light Orchestra – ELO – dominated radio stations. I didn’t go to many concerts when I was a kid but as an adult I have had a chance to see many of the bands that I listened to growing up. I’ve seen The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and Steely Dan in the last couple of years. This Saturday night, thanks to our son, Steve and I are heading to the Hollywood Bowl to see ELO.

Described as a fusion of Beatlesque pop, classical arrangements, and futuristic iconography, ELO brought strong vocals that rounded out near perfect performances. It’s a celebration of music on Saturday that I can’t wait to wrap my ears around.

  robin goldsworthy