The Association
The songs recorded by The Association are linked in my mind with having fun, taking it easy, laughing.
I had a friend, Iris Wells, and when we were 16 we spent a lot of time together. I came often to her home after school. Iris’ mother was a very large lady, very funny and good-tempered, and was welcoming to young people. She knew I was always on a diet so when she’d see me she’d always say: “Leslie, you’re getting thinner and thinner and thinner…”
Iris and I loved The Association. I have a recording of their greatest hits. First of all, Along Comes Mary being one their most popular, I used as a title for a story I wrote. We would lay on Iris’ bed, listen to the music over and over, and try to figure out what the words meant. Most of them we couldn’t make out but we loved the phrase “…the gassed and flaccid kids flung across stars.” Iris was quite open about our classmates who were what she called “Squirrel Hill Jews.” She hated them. I was not comfortable about being around these people–all the well-dressed, confident girls and boys–but I was too timid to say the things Iris said about them. But her honesty was refreshing and her denigrating names for these people satisfied something in me.
“Never My Love” was another song that had meaning. All of this group’s songs were mellow and kind of soft with no hard metal sounds. A friend I had was in a very
close relationship with one of my cousins. This boy gave my friend a record with this song on it and it got played over and over and over…
lgmwriting 