November 19 – Tuesday – Grass Roots – Leaving It All Behind

To those of you who are snickering – stop that right now. This was a most important record in my life and holds a special place in my collection. It was my first cry for independence from my brother’s taste in music. I was a junior high school girl and he was a high school boy, so it was time for me to veer off. Not that we had disagreements about music at that time, but I do remember that summer he played Carole King’s Tapestry album over and over and over again. It was crazy-making. I would say that it drove my mother to drink if she wasn’t already there. But the Grass Roots were pivotal for me, and besides, singer Rob Grill had a mustache. Crush.

It’s a bouncy record and made for a very good workout. Who knew I could still pony. I can’t do it for long, but at least I got the moves down and am not shaking the floor as I pony across it. By the time junior high school rolled around, the pony was no longer the dance to do. The vivacity of this album just brought it out in me. But I do remember doing a wicked pony in elementary school. And while I may not have the stamina now, when I was 9 or 10, I wasn’t dancing around with a 3lb weight in each hand.

The one song I remember from this album is “Wait a Million Years,” but I probably had more singles of the other popular Grass Roots songs. Unfortunately, my single collection is not in tact as at the age of about 14, my friend and I, in a giddy frenzy, cut up most of my 45s. We weren’t high, but with each disc we cut, we seemed to get giddier. I did save the Beatles and some Motown, plus “A Symphony for Susan” by The Arbors, which was written by Bill Stegmeyer, whose daughter I went through elementary school with, even played with as she lived just on the other side of my neighborhood. His son was the one-time bassist for Billy Joel.