Among the sea of ballads from my early teens is this lost classic by the diva who gave us Right Back Where We Started From, a song that was played at every single one of my junior high school dances. But that’s not the song I love best by Miss Maxine Nightingale. The one I love is Lead Me On. I remember hearing it on the radio in my room in the Poconos amid the Casey Kasem top 40 countdowns, and for whatever reason it just stuck to my skin. Anyone who knows me knows that I am still baffled why a period of time in my life that has been recorded as the most trying and most isolated is also the time period from which my most favorite music was born. I can close my eyes and hear it as if for the first time, in Roberta’s basement or in my wood-paneled bedroom.
From the historical writing archive. Original date: November 22, 2017. Recovered from local source material; editorial review is still in progress.
