If you were of a certain age in the early 70′s - and a guy - you likely had two music crushes. Linda Ronstadt because she was so damned cute in those roller skates and Joni Mitchell.

The second crush was much more complicated because it was tied to real emotions - something a guy of a certain age usually avoids. The depth and personal feelings attached to her music set Joni Mitchell apart from most of the other singer/songwriters of that era. And, it still resonates today.

Here’s hoping she recovers quickly from whatever caused her recent hospitalization.

One of the problems with getting older is that you tend to forget more music than you remember. Often it takes an outside poke to bring back a group you once were “in” to.

Such was my experience this morning. While waiting for my car to be serviced I heard an old Alan Parsons Project in the waiting room. While it was one of their big hits - Games People Play - and not one of the “deep tracks” I love, it was still refreshing to hear.

That’s the thing about the music we have absorbed. So many great songs are stuffed in there that we sometimes need assistance in reacquiring them. Sadly, radio is usually of little help in this area. I hear more stuff I forgot in gas stations and grocery stores than I ever hear on the radio. But I digress.

This tune made it all the way to #16 in 1980. That was when it was on the radio. You youngsters out there might remember it from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. 

I absolutely fell in love with Bonnie Raitt when I heard her second album Give It Up. She was a rare combination of sweetness and grit and I became an instant fan. Though she - deservedly - received Top 40 success later in her career I still find her earlier music the most compelling.

While I had the fortune - or, rather mis-fortune - to meet Ms. Raitt about 10-12 years ago, I remain a fan of her music.

This cover of Chris Smithers' Love Me Like A Man will rock your back like it has no bone. 

If stranded on a desert isle, Steely Dan is one of the catalogs I would have to have. Of course, being stranded on a desert isle would mean I’d quickly exhaust all battery life and be left staring at a useless electronic device. Unless I could rig up some Professor-esque battery array using coconuts. 

But that’s just crazy talk. If I were stranded on a desert isle I’d have greater concerns than getting my electronics to work. 

In the end, I would be forced to mine the library of songs in my head. They would never play in their entirety, though. I’d just get random snippets, A chorus or bridge that would repeat endlessly like some sort of demonic audio gif.

Fortunately, I am not planning on any of three-hour-tours or Christmas Eve flights in the South Pacific so I’ll be free to listen to songs like this.

From their album Can’t But A Thrill, Steely Dan and Midnight Cruiser…

When the roll call of great rock groups of the 60’s & 70’s is read Traffic is often omitted. This is a pity. The combined talents of Steve Winwood, Dave Mason and Jim Capaldi yielded some of the best music of that era.

While better known for the title track Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, the song bouncing around my head is Rock And Roll Stew (Pt. 1). 

Good luck hearing this - or any Traffic song on Classic rock radio today. I guess that’s why we have the Internet.