Long live love

When life gets to be too much, as it often does these days, I choose to "Walk on By." I keep "Wishin' and Hopin'." I want you "Back in My Arms Again." I want love to live on and on and on.

I return to the 1960s and 1970s, my childhood, when I was generally unperturbed by much of anything--except perhaps disturbing images of angry segregationists, race riots, the civil war in Biafra, and the Vietnam War. But what did I know then? They were just flat images on a black-and-white screen.

I return to the music of the 1960s and '70s, the Burt Bacharach-Hal David songbook, the Kenny Gamble-Leon Huff songbook, and to a host of lesser known (to me) songwriters, musicians, and singers from that era. Simple, melodic, hummable, singable pop that reminds me of the other images from my childhood--The Ed Sullivan Show, Where the Action Is, Hullabaloo, Shindig, evening variety shows, and Saturday afternoons with American Bandstand and Soul Train.

Here are a few songs that help me get through the day--some I remember from the time, some I've only discovered in adulthood. I hope they help you cope and persevere in trying, confusing, and frustrating times.