Olivia Newton-John

The last couple of days I've been on a nostalgia trip.

From about 1981 until about 1984 Olivia Newton-John was the most important person in my life. Like so many situations in my life...I conflated my sexuality with other burgeoning interests. I was a preteen and first discovering pop music...and also first discovering my sexuality. I'm sure there were plenty of men who found Olivia Newton-John good looking back in the day...but if she wasn't a lesbian icon (though not a lesbian herself) than I don't know who was.

Now the music is dated. It was mass produced country...then pop...in its day. And now that seems old and quaint. She wasn't cool then...and now she's kitsch-y.

But when I loved her I loved her with no sense of irony.

What IS ironic is that I've drifted far, far away from liking vocalist-centered music, particularly with female vocalists. I'm not a fan of bands that aren't bands...but are rather studio musicians backing a big name star.

But in the way that repeated listens in one's formative years will do...I still like the songs. I have every word memorized whether I want to or not.

I've always thought it was throw-away music...but last night I listened to it in a different way. The backing bands were high quality studio cats. They are right on the mark. They are so good that you don't notice them. They fade into the background. But without them the music doesn't exist.

Some of the drum parts are simple(Let Me Be There and If You Love Me Let Me Know)...




but some are more unexpected than you'd think (Heart Attack puts the crash on 2)...



and Make a Move on Me has an almost jazzy shuffle groove.


So much of this would be done with drum machines today (particularly the post Grease stuff). It is refreshing to know a real person was playing these drums even when they are machine precise.

There's actually a fair amount to be learned here. About serving the music. About dead on pocket playing. About how to make music interesting without being distracting. They were there for nothing more than to highlight the voice and to create hooks and grooves that would sell records. They did an excellent job at it.

For the record...my favorite ONJ lps (in chronological order), more here:

Clearly Love (1975)
Come On Over (1976)
Don't Stop Believin' (1976)
Making a Good Thing Better (1977)
Totally Hot (1978)
Xanadu (1980)
Physical (1981)