Solid Old

Nostalgia earns its brain space when it helps us retrieve aspects of ourselves we have forgotten to express and explore. I can be pretty goofy, and am often such with my sons, but I’ve become oh so grown-up in the rest of my chores-and-flaws life. I found my comical persona in a memory from my late teens.

I was writhing on the floor, steaming up a phantom TV camera, doing a spoof-sexy floor dance with such twisted humor my friend Nolene slid off the sofa, laughing her head off. It was Solid Gold.

Remember the 1980’s TV program? The sultry dancers in skimpy costumes were risque back then. Their slinky moves electrified viewers. Embed coming up shortly, but I must first waffle a bit about this piece of history…

Cassette Players aka Tape Decks

The Solid Gold vibe brings back memories of listening to weekly top of the charts countdowns on the radio: waiting with athletic focus for favorites to feature so we could pounce on the tape deck and smash-press the play and record buttons simultaneously. Did you do the same?

I’d listen to the cassette until the tape was stretched and mangled from too many pauses, brief rewinds, stops, forwards, and multiple tape-overs i.e. deciding I’d had enough of a song and recording another one over it.

I did my homework and found a good sample of Solid Gold. The resolution is not great, but you can see what you need to see.

These days I am solid old, but still gratifyingly hilarious when I want to be, and dancing when I can. I am not going to give it up. How can we not be inspired by this turquoise crotch-prominent-pants sequence from KC & The Sunshine Band? It cracks me up. The steps make me think of line dancing. Yeeha, giddy-up Baby.

What got me searching for disco hits, which then lured me into the seductive clutches of Solid Gold, other than a bit of time on my hands and twitchy feet?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, which is a R&B song.

Specifically, a recording Aretha made with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It landed in my lap, so to speak, when the classic hit showed up on my Spotify account. I don’t agree with asking for just a little bit of it. You cannot partly respect someone. Apart from that mild whinge, what a great song.

And then there’s the new old…

Songs from the past that passed me by when they were big hits. We have a family playlist created by my youngest son with the puzzling title of Arthritic Amigos. I’m still trying to figure it out. Any-hoo, I love that I get to hear music I would not find, or sniff out, if left to my own devices.

I have to end this post with one of these new old songs, added to the playlist by said son. It is on the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack (a movie I am going to watch again). I found the best video to share with you. I love, love, love it (hear the pitch of my voice rise in operatic drama with each ‘love’). Are you ready? Yes? You’ve got your tight pants and sass on? OK, come and get your love…

Toodle-oo, and much stiff-hip-swinging love to you.

xxx ❤ TeaShell Michele