“Lovely to See You” - The Moody Blues

When I was a kid, my parents had this album amongst a sprawling horizontal stack of dusty wonders. Abandoned in their transformation from Denver hippies to guilty Midwestern role models. I’d pull it out, set it on the player so tenderly, living in fear of my father’s terse warnings of the Immense Fragility of the needle. The DIAMOND needle, for crying out loud, Erica.  Then I’d lie down very still on the carpet next to giant speakers, eyes closed, for the first track - the trippy space oddessy-ish “In the Beginning.”  Half giddy, half terrified waiting for this “Rod, Todd, This is God” voice to bellow out at me from the dark.

After it was over, after I’d made it through that encounter, the album bloomed bizarrely into “Lovely to See You” and I was reborn. Galloping and shimmying around the living room just as enthusiastic and half as coordinated as I am today. Stubbing my toes and bashing my shins and loving the very guts out of this song.

Ba da da da da da da da…. It remains foot moving to say the least.