Song 560: This week the playlist comes around to Midnight at the Oasis by Maria Muldaur, written by David Nichtern, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Around the time my companion and I fled the fierce Chicago winter, moving to Atlanta, GA, in February of 1974, this single got a lot of attention as it climbed the charts, and for good reason. Back then I knew a bit about the history of the Even Dozen Jug Band, but I only learned of Maria's membership in that group a few years ago, mainly thanks to Wikipedia, so at the point when this hit stirred the airwaves, I did not have a clue about the dues MM had paid to set the stage for her stardom. Regardless of how she arrived, though, this jangle quickly got a bunch of us singing along, and according to what she hears from fans at her concerts in recent years, during its chart excursion, the piece inspired plenty of sexual encounters, loss of virginity, and pregnancy. Understandably, when we see heaven's holding a half-moon shining just for us, we might want to slip off to a sand dune real soon and kick up a little dust. Despite the current pandemic situation, at least some of us can still get to the place where we've got shadows painting our faces and traces of romance in our heads.
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