CRATE-DIG DUSTY: Carly Simon, "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be"

So over the weekend, I'm organizing my new den/music room, going through hundreds of CDs, LPs, even 45s, and I come across a few Carly Simon albums. I stop when I get to Carly, because just last week I profiled her son, "kung folk" singer-songwriter Ben Taylor. He's the star attraction at the third annual Sea Level Singer-Songwriter festival in Ghent, which starts Thursday.

It had been a long time, maybe a few years, since I had played any Carly Simon records. And because I had been digging on her son's music lately, I thought, "Why not check out his mama again?" So all day Saturday I had myself a little Carly Simon fest.

"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" was her first Top 10 smash in 1971. The ballad, which explores ambivalence toward marriage and romance with a sharp reporter's eye, is among her best songs. The story she weaves is made even more poignant by the details dotting the lyrics. Check the opening line: "My father sits at night with no lights on/His cigarette glows in the dark/The living room is still/I walk by/No remark ..." Can't you just see that? Can't you just feel the tension slowly building?

I guess folks are still writing songs like this, but I sure don't hear them pumping through the mainstream these days.

Do you?

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