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Me at 14 or 15 yrs. old
I was working in an art gallery/tea house on Sundays and I’m going to say this was taken at the end of a really long day.
(btw, why were all our photos so badly cropped in the 70′s? just wondering…)
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Today I’m taking a stroll, or rather a drive, back to the 70′s
to celebrate the release of my dear friend Rita Wilson’s brand new CD
” Rita Wilson AM/FM“
The album is a fab collection of Rita covering some of her favourite songs from the 60′s & 70′s.
You must get it- it’s fantastic!
and I’m SO not saying that because she’s my friend!
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Now we all know Rita as a super talented actor and producer, but I bet it might surprise you to learn she is also a really great singer.
I know, right? (but I’ll let you in on a little secret- she bites her thumbnails. Quite a lot.)
Don’t we all feel a little better now?!
Just check her version of “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues” out here;
Link:
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Photo Steven Sebring
..Rita’s song choices will resonate with anyone who grew up, or shall we say ‘passed through’ this era and I can guarantee you’ll be singing along with every song.
This is a definite ‘Embarrass Yourself in the Car’ CD.
Bring it on. Hell, hang some Pukka shells from your dashboard.
Will you ever see those people driving beside you again? Chances are slim.
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I love the premise of the album;
The 60′s “AM” songs are the ones you listened to from the back of the car while your parents were driving;
songs filled with an innocence about what the future held in store for you.
As the 70′s arrived, you’ve shifted to the front seat. You’re driving and controlling the FM station now-and did we work those dials, ladies, or what??!
The songs become more poignant, the message that love doesn’t always work out begins to resonate because, damn it, HE still hasn’t called…
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Me and my friends in the 70′s. Names will be omitted to spare the not-so-innocent 
I’m on the far left. I always stuck my tongue out to cover my big bottom lip & overbite.
Man, I loved that long denim jeans skirt.
While we’re on the subject of the 70′s and driving …
I”ll share the story of my mom picking my friends and I up from school and us begging, as usual, to be driven past the house where several of the Cute Older Boys we swooned over all lived together. The regular drill of course, for any of the ‘Normal’ parents was to drive slowly BY the house, usually throbbing with the bass of Led Zepplin or Pink Floyd, in hopes we might catch a glimpse of a truck being worked on in the drive, perhaps some corkscrew curls haloed in the blue glow of a TV through a open window…
No ‘Normal’ for my mom.
She pulled INTO the driveway and started honking the horn.
Honestly, we were so traumatised that to this day I don’t remember exactly what happened after that.
Funny Mom.
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Watch Rita talking about her first album
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and then we’ll drive a little farther, shall we?
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Did you steal splashes from your Mom’s “Jean Nate’”?
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Did you cry because you were too puny to wear “Big Boy Lees” with the leather patch & have to suffer the humiliation of VINYL patch “Little Boy Lees” like me?
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Did you imagine you would look just like Christie Brinkley after a summer weekend of using
“Lemon Go Lightly”
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only to go back to school on Monday with hair the actual COLOUR of a lemon??
Snap.
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Did you swoon over your first pot of Yardley’s “Pot O’ Gloss” and can’t you recall that delicious scent even now?
How many pots did you leave in your cut-offs and find melted to the pockets
and how in the hell did we forget so many incriminating things in our cut-offs when the actual pockets hung down longer than the shorts?!)
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Remember what appears now (at least to me) the wildly inappropriate ”Love’s Baby Soft” ad.
Was that girl 9 or 19?? But we LOVED our “Love’s Baby Soft”!
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And may we have just a moment
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or two,
or three, for our Robert Plant posters??
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Gosh..
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My favourite models were Lena Kansbod
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And Lisa Taylor
How iconic this photo became. She just looked so…wonderfully American.
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Just like Rita!
Photo Steven Sebring
I think this song might be my favourite.
Seriously, how can lyrics about a telephone repair man be this romantic and beautiful??!
“And I need you more than want you…and I want you for all time…” sigh.
Jimmy Webb, the composer of the song is playing the piano on this track-just gorgeous.
Link:
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Well, I certainly had fun putting this post together. I could have gone on and on.
Do you remember the 70′s as fondly as I do?
I might have to go for a ‘Part II’ in the near future…I mean we didn’t even touch on Disco!
Find “Rita Wilson AM/FM” on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and lots of other places.
It would make a great little Mother’s Day gift- have I ever steered you wrong?
and please, don’t forget I’m still in the damn contest so VOTE people! It’s ONE click HERE
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Peace Out
xx
