We’ve had our new record player for a little over a month now, and I am smitten. Yes, the record player does technically belong to RollerReggie (it was his birthday present after all) but what can I say - records are fun.

I’m now on the hunt to find new seventies (and eighties) gems to add to our collection. So far I have hunted for records at Georgetown Records, Value Village, and the Goodwill.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot (1974)

Rainbow by Neil Diamond (1973)

Come on Over by Olivia Newton-John (1976)

It’s Impossible by Perry Como (1970)

Ten years ago my college roommate, Shelly, and I went on a little adventure. We piled into her big old boat of a car and drove to Long Beach, Washington, where her family owns a summer cottage. Long Beach became our home for the next week, as we whiled away spring break hanging out on the beach and patronizing Marsh’s Free Museum - home of Jake, the half-human half-alligator proudly on display in a glass case.

Lucky for us, the summer cottage came equipped with an 8-track player and an assortment of 8-tracks for our listening pleasure. The Gordon Lightfoot 8-track became the anthem of our trip. We listened to it obsessively, revelling in that smooth seventies folk music sound. I particularly remember the songs “If You Could Read My Mind” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald“.

The Gordon Lightfoot Good Times did not end at the summer cottage that year. A few months later Gordon Lightfoot came through Seattle on tour, so naturally Shelly and I went to see him perform. That was an unforgettable experience. I don’t remember much about the concert, but I do remember the crowds middle-aged women who attended the concert with us. I believe that we were the only people in the entire auditorium that were under 40 years of age (which, when you are 20, seems really old).

I haven’t listened to a Gordon Lightfoot song ever since… until today. Now that brings me back…

Jake the Alligator Man sez: I Love Gordon Lightfoot!