The Seekers "Georgy Girl" (Capitol)

I'm very glad this was my first randomly-generated item in my collection, because it goes way back into my past. In fact, I first heard this record on 8-track. My friend Ben and I had claimed a small room in his attic as our "clubhouse" type space, and had put a few of his parents discarded apparatus there for our use, including an 8-track machine. As far as I recall, the only 8-track we had was "Georgy Girl" by the Seekers. We didn't give monkeys about the music -- in fact, I think our shared interests at the time were limited to old stand-up comedy records -- but thought it was cool to switch from track to track in the middle of a song.

I should mention that I was a couple of years older than Ben, and pointlessly cruel to him. I honestly believed that since I was picked on so much by my peers I could legitimately pick on others. I still feel bad about that.

I really can't be bothered to go back to listen to this record. I consider myself something of an expert in 60's music (the bulk of my collection dates from 1965-1973) and to me the Seekers (or, at least, my memory thereof) represent everything that sucks about the path folk music took to arrive at what we now consider rock music. Folk made an uncomfortable transition from coffeehouse to fraternity house while it was simultaneously being reworked into folk-rock and psychedelic music. To my mind, the Seekers represent the former. Too upbeat, a la the New Christy Minstrels, not somber or self-aware enough as good folk music should be. What makes this all the worse is that the record acknowledges its awareness of the latter development -- it covers "Turn, Turn, Turn" (two years after the release of the Byrds's seminal version), and Tom Paxton's brilliant "The Last Thing on My Mind" (one of the most covered songs of the era, which I used to sing to my daughter Addison until I realized how depressing it was and replaced it with the even bleaker "Wild World" by Cat Stevens).

What's most surprising to me is that this record came out in 1967, which is long after I assumed that popular culture lost the naive innocence that the Seekers represent to me. I'm also glad to learn that the Seekers came from Australia, which I didn't know.