Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 114

Chart Week: August 5, 1978
Song: “Love Will Find A Way” – Pablo Cruise
Chart Position: #9, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #6 the week of August 26.

There are many factors that go into determining my favorite musical years. Clearly the songs are the biggest factor. It is a huge bonus if most of the best tracks of a given year were hits during the summer months. And then there is the personal side: if a lot of important things happened during a calendar year, odds are its music will stand out a little more.

1978 is one of my favorite music years. I have several, distinct musical memories from those 12 months. It is heavily rooted in the personal, though.

The biggest event in my life that year was my parents separating for the first time. When they split, my mom and I moved from Cape Girardeau, MO to Jackson, MO, about 30 minutes away. I don’t recall their disengagement being all that traumatic to me. However, with our move came a change in schools that March, which did distress me. I had a solid crew at Nell Holcomb Elementary who talked about Star Wars and CHiPs at every recess and lunch period. Starting over again, two-thirds of the way through the school year, was tough. I remember spending a lot of time in the nurse’s office because I was stressed and sad.

In retrospect I realize it was absolutely the uncertainty of my family life that created that angst, not just having to make new friends. By May, when I beat the alleged fastest kid in first grade in a gym class race – a contest that is still talked about in reverent tones in that part of the state, by the way – I had begun to build a new support system of dorks and doofuses.

Music memory one:
Initially my mom and I moved in with a neighbor of one of her co-workers, a woman who had just gotten divorced and kept the house in the settlement. We occupied a corner of her basement, with two beds set up on opposite walls, and shared the most basic of bathrooms. The shower was a concrete slab with a drain and a plastic curtain. The other side of the basement was a large family room. We did not have much privacy.

Upstairs was a piano. I had no idea how to play, but I remember sitting at it with American Top 40 playing in the background and attempting to match the notes of songs. Every so often I would get lucky and nail a few correctly. I was super impressed with myself. Never had one lesson!

Music memory two:
My mom still worked at the TV station in Cape. That summer she signed me up for a day camp that was near her office, so each day I rode with her. The radio was always on, usually tuned to KJAS.[1] I know my mom was thrilled the day I shared the joke I had picked up from older kids based on a popular song of the moment:

Q: What did Kenny Rogers say when his tire came off?
A: You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel!

Music memory three:
In August my mom drove me out to her parents’ home in central Kansas, a nine-hour trip. I spent several weeks visiting with them and my dad’s folks before he came to bring me home. On the way back we spent a couple days in Kansas City staying at his sister’s. When we returned to southeast Missouri he dropped me off at the new apartment my mom had moved into while I was away. Again, the radio was always on during these drives. When I hear any song from the Grease soundtrack, I think of the wind blowing in the open windows (no air conditioning) and my sweaty legs sticking to the vinyl seats.

As I listened to this countdown last weekend, I had clear recollections of so many of these songs from that chapter in my life: our months as basement renters, the trips to-and-from day camp, and the long hours on I–55 and I–70 for my summer vacation. Pablo Cruise’s “Love Will Find A Way” wasn’t the best song of that period, but for some reason it stood out from the others.

The proto-yacht rock record was a perfect song for the time. David Jenkins has a nice voice, he sounds like a less soulful, poor man’s Daryl Hall. The chorus and gorgeous backing harmonies (“Find your love again!”) were tailor-made for the tail end of the AM Radio Gold era. That was mostly how I heard the song, on AM radio through the tiny speakers in my parents’ respective Toyota Corollas. But the bottom end, that lovely bass line, and the mellow guitar licks were ideal for the FM dial, where album-oriented rock was drawing listeners over to the better-sounding side of the radio spectrum. There is a hint of Fleetwood Mac in there, too, if you try to hear it.

Pablo Cruise was part of another summer trip to central Kansas.

When I made my annual visit in the summer of 1981, my dad’s youngest brother was home from KU. Uncle D played in a local softball league with some buddies. One night my grandmother took me to watch the game. Rather than sit in the bleachers with her, I volunteered to be the team’s bat boy. It was a pretty awesome gig! I got to sit on the bench with a bunch of 20-year-old guys who were drinking beer, spitting, swearing, and playing softball. I tossed the ball with them as they warmed up before the game. I raced out and grabbed their bats after they made contact. My presence made them look like a much more professional operation than their opponents.[2]

The highlight of the night was when a player got hit in the head by an errant throw and began bleeding profusely. I grabbed a towel and leapt off the bench to assist. I got a few “Atta boys” from an umpire and a couple players as I shuffled back to the dugout. That might have been the proudest moment of my life to that point.

What does any of this have to do with Pablo Cruise? Well, my uncle had an awesome Pablo Cruise trucker hat in his closet. I thought its palm tree motif was super cool. Rather than wear my battered YMCA team hat, or a Royals cap, I donned it while I performed my batboy duties.

Any time I recall that moment, I start laughing. A skinny, 10-year old kid with tube socks pulled up to his knobby knees, who was also wearing two batting gloves and a Pablo Cruise trucker hat, running out to grab loose bats in a mediocre beer league game in Great Bend, KS. Absurd!³³

Pablo Cruise gets shit on a lot because of their laid back sound and the era they came from. There was nothing dynamic or very interesting about them. They were just there, filling space between Bob Seger and Foreigner. “Love Will Find A Way” is a pretty standard take on the “Hey, I know your heart got broken, but if you keep your chin up, you’ll meet someone new” song. That said, it was pleasant enough, reminds me of some good summers, and is a track that I will usually stop and listen to when it pops up. Plus they made cool hats. Keep your heart open, it’s a 7/10