Music from Feels Like the First Time, Part Deux

    I suppose that if you haven't read Feels Like the First Time, this post won't make too much sense to you. So go buy it! (I kid, I kid.) Suffice it to say that it is a book about falling in love in the 70's, and there is a lot of 70's music written about in the book.      I wrote earlier this week about the songs I used as Chapter Titles in Feels Like the First Time, but about halfway through I realized I was creating the blog equivalent of War and Peace. If you missed that post, you can find it: here.  Now, here are the rest of the songs, along with the "why...".
Chapter Fifteen - Every Time I Think of You by The Babys. This chapter dealt with starting college at the University of Washington, and this song was everywhere in the fall of 1978. I initially used it for the quote "People say our love affair will surely pass, but I know a love like ours will last and last." That was in doubt for a long time, but not anymore.
Chapter Sixteen - How Deep is Your Love? by The Bee Gees. I know it became passe to like or even acknowledge the Bee Gees a long time ago, but I don't care. I believe they were just victims of their own incredible success. For this chapter, I wasn't asking the title question of Dawn - I already knew how she felt. I was asking myself: Did I really care enough about her to let her go?
Chapter Seventeen - Feels So Good by Chuck Mangione. If you've never heard the first 1:30 of the long version of this song, please click the link and give a listen. I think that is 90 seconds of musical perfection. And, as it turned out, it was a pretty good soundtrack for what happened in this chapter. 
Chapter Eighteen - More Than a Feeling by Boston. Often denigrated as "corporate rock," I couldn't have cared less, then or now. When I was 16 years old, my car had an 8 Track player. The problem was, I only had three eight tracks: KISS's Dressed to Kill, The Bay City Rollers' Greatest Hits (Thanks for the Christmas present, Grams) and Boston's debut album. I listened to a lot of Boston. I desperately wanted to use the lyric "I closed my eyes and she slipped away" because it was so perfect. 
Chapter Nineteen - Lost Without Your Love by Bread. I guess I might as well get all my Guilty Pleasures out of the way right up front (I love Barry Manilow and The Carpenters as much as I do Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin) and that includes Bread. I didn't need a lyric here, the title said it all for me. 
Chapter Twenty - Please Don't Let me be Misunderstood - Yusuf Islam. I know this song has been recorded many times, notably by Eric Burdon and The Animals, Nina Simone and a disco version (!) by Santo Esmerelda. Ultimately, it was the slow, soulful version from the former Cat Stevens that I had in mind as I was writing this chapter. 
Chapter Twenty One - Against The Wind by Bob Seger. As the story moved closer to present day, I originally intended to use all newer songs, just to show that I didn't stop listening to new music in 1979. It was more like 1995, I think. (Just kidding, I still like new music.) When I started looking for song titles that fit the mood of what was going on in the chapters, I found my attention kept wandering back to my favorite artists, which absolutely includes Bob Seger.
Chapter Twenty Two - Time Passages by Al Stewart. There are so many appropriate lyrics from this song I wouldn't know where to start. And how can you not love Al Stewart's voice?
Chapter Twenty Two - Reminiscing by The Little River Band. "I want to make you understand, I'm talking about a lifetime plan."
Chapter Twenty Three - And You, My Love by Chris Rea. I think Chris Rea is a genius. His albums Auberge and The Road to Hell are two of my 100 Favorite Albums of All Time. You had to know I had a list, right? To me, this is his most haunting song, and I listened to it on constant repeat as the events of this chapter unfolded.
Chapter Twenty Four - My Angel Baby by Toby Beau. An overlooked gem of the 70's. Could have easily been featured on K-BILLY's Super Sounds of the Seventies weekend on Reservoir Dogs. Here's a little trivia for you: Toby Beau is the name of the band, not a person. And, they are still together and playing today, which leads me to wonder, can vocalist Rennetta Dennet still hit that spleen-busting final note?
Chapter Twenty Five - And I Love You So by Don Mclean. Perry Como and Elvis Presley recorded well known versions of this song, but it was always Don Mclean's voice that haunted me. "But life began again, the day you took my hand."
Chapter Twenty Six - Breathe (In the Air) by Pink Floyd. Lying on the floor in the Seattle Center Laserium listening to this song with Dawn was one of the most emotional experiences of my life. I did my best to capture that moment in the book, but I know I fell short there.
Chapter Twenty Seven - God of Thunder by KISS. Is it possible to reunite a lip-syncing KISS Tribute band more than thirty years after their last performance? You would think not. Thus the saying "The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense."
Chapter Twenty Eight - At Last by Etta James. What else could our final chapter be?
Afterword - Get It Right The Next Time by Gerry Rafferty. I guess this song by one of my most-beloved artists has turned out to be my theme song. I keep getting things wrong, but there's no shame in that. There's only shame in giving up. I was devastated the day Gerry Rafferty died because I knew there would never be any more songs like this one.