Paideia: Clouds in My Coffee

Carly Simon was born on June 25, 1945.

Music appeals to me on so many different levels. There are those pieces that I enjoy for their accessibility. For others, I appreciate them for intellectual reasons, compositional creativity or clever lyrics. And then there are those that bring back memories, regardless of whether or not I like the music.

For the most part, it is in the last category that I place Carly Simon. I've never been a great enthusiast of her music, but her voice and style comfort me. That warm and folksy quality, free-spirited and passionate, it echoes down through the decades, eternally young and full of the emotional intensity of youth. It takes me back in time, makes me reflect on where I was and where I am now going.

Although it is mainly her music from the 1970s that have this effect, her later works do, to a lesser extent, evoke the same nostalgia. And that's why I occasionally turn away from the classical music and the jazz, turning instead to Carly's introspective and vivacious songs.