"1973!"

In the middle of my first song, “Feels Like Spring”, a woman came up to me and shouted “1973”!

I don’t think she meant to be unfriendly.

Perhaps she thought that the song was from 1973? (I wrote it in 2004, but perhaps it’s sort of retro?)

Or maybe she was requesting a song from 1973?

In 1973, I was nine-going-on-ten years old. My parents had given me a clock radio for Christmas, thus exposing me for the first time to popular music. I spent the next several months glued to the radio, and late at night I painstakingly tweaked the dial to tune in exotic faraway stations such as Chicago and Detroit.

Even without checking the CHUM chart for the third week of March, 1973 (which probably reflects what was also being played in Winnipeg at the time), I thought of songs such as “Killing Me Softly” by Roberta Flack (#1), “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” by Vicki Lawrence (#10) and “Last Song” by Edward Bear (#26). (Roger Ellis, the busker I've been mentioning, was in the band Edward Bear.)

Other songs on the chart come as an interesting surprise, making me think that perhaps I was more influenced by that clock radio than I realized. The Carpenters “Sing”, for instance, could be practically my songwriting and busking anthem: “Sing out loud, sing out strong/sing it simple to last your whole life long…” etc. And then there’s Anne Murray’s “Danny’s Song” (written by Kenny Loggins, who recently guested as a judge on American Idol): “Even though we ain't got money/ I'm so in love with ya, honey/ everything will bring a chain of love…”

Maybe the part of the brain that defines musical taste is programmed when you’re ten. It’s reasonable to assume that I was influenced by the other songs on the list too, such “Dead Skunk” (Loudon Wainwright III), “Cover of the Rolling Stone” (Dr. Hook) and “Do It Again” (Steely Dan).

Anyway, I didn’t have time to ask the woman what she meant, because she immediately turned and headed down the stairs.