STRAWBS "Hero And Heroine"

What makes people, when they get older, lose interest in the things they love(d)? I mean REALLY loved. I can feel myself changing every day and yes, I don't listen to Minor Threat or Bad Brains as much as I used to, but every once and a while, I do get in a mood where I need to rock out. Sometimes I even pogo at Sloan shows like Beatle Bob. I'm not ever going to lose that feeling. I so desperately want to be 80 and reach for a Stereolab elpee.

My father had impeccable taste in music when I was a kid. His record collection littered the house with musically complicated, lyrically simple prog-rock. Yes' Fragile, In The Court Of The Crimson King, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway...at least he wasn't listening to Englebert Humperdinck or Richard Clayderman or some shit. One record I vividly remember was 1974's Hero & Heroine by the Strawbs. I didn't realize how obscure it was until I grew older.

The Strawbs were British. So my father was a Britpopper? Hmmm. I really just loved looking at the bizarre album covers (post about Fleetwood Mac's Mystery To Me forthcoming) and hearing the funny blips and bleeps, the long division drumming, the classic arena rock guitar riffs. "Round And Round" had all of this and more and probably should've been a hit here in America, not sure why it wasn't.

I don't know where my father is right now. Last time I'd heard or seen from him he was waist deep into an unhealthy diet of Jimmy Buffett and Yanni. So sad. How does THAT happen? Really, I want to know. Because I never want that to happen to me.

ROUND AND ROUND