At the movies the other day, David Soul's 1976 hit single "Don't Give Up On Us" showed up as a plot point. Just before punk hit, I was going to Stockport College and I hated the song then and loath it now but I'm damned if I didn't feel a rush of immense nostalgia., doubly odd because I didn't much care for my life at that time anyway.
And I don't suffer from nostalgia.
I've always believed a childhood put into sharp relief by subsequent occurances lost that period of time as something I dwell on for pleasure. The result, along with a huge love of music that left me always both in touch with the zeitgeist and with the past, has freed me from the generational tug for the music of their youth that blinds so many of my friends.
But still, why David Soul?
Here is my thought.
The same year saw hits "Mama Mia", "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and "Love Hurts (Jim Capaldi's cover but still…) and I have heard these songs umpteen times since then. They fell out of a time warp for me. But I can't remember hearing David Soul in decades (I had never heard the album: absolutely ghastly, makes Telly Savalas sound like Emmylou Harris) and it completely sent me back.
It would seem to me that few people listen to the Beatles and miss the 1930s, they are too popular today. But how about Smokie? Or Arrow? Not the Clast but how about the Adverts?
The tug of the past is strongest the fewer times you return to it. I missed my years at a co-ed Boarding High School when I was in my 20s and life was something of a terrifying disaster; so I'd remember it and wore at the memories. The same happens with music: the nostalgia aspect wears off through repetition.
So here are the rules for nostagia in music
1. It has to be tied to youth or a very, very strong experience.
2. And it must be left alone for a long time.
But "Don't Give Up On Us"? Oh, no…