My mention of “Burnin’ for You” in Sunday’s post reminded me that several weeks ago I’d picked out one of its lines for the title of my occasional series on flip sides from the late 70s that I came to enjoy. Today, it’s the B to Boston’s “Long Time” in the spotlight.
During the long, cold winter of 77 I’d gained familiarity with and admiration for “Smokin’” after I had purchased “More Than a Feeling” in late 76. Thus, there was no hesitation in giving “Let Me Take You Home Tonight” a listen after ponying up the cash for “Long Time.” I wasn’t disappointed (and in knowing what I know about Boston now, how could I have been?).
Sometime that spring the junior high students at Walton-Verona were given the opportunity to hold a dance in the “old gym” (a newer facility having been built about four years earlier–I wonder how many years passed before they stopped calling where basketball games were now being played the “new gym”). It was to be DJ-ed in-house, so you can well imagine who might have been anxious to sign up for a shift. That evening, I lugged a number of my 45s over to the stage of the old gym, primed to give my classmates a chance to boogie down.
I managed to be hovering around the stereo at the end of the festivities–I guess I’d drawn the last shift? Wanna take a guess as to the final song of the night? I’m certain that, as a 13-year-old, I wasn’t thinking through (or likely even fully aware of) the meaning of the lyrics.
The Music of My Life 