Great post Amp!
As a child of the 70's, I heard a lot of Leon Russell on my FM album rock stations growing up and my vinyl copy of Mad Dogs and Englishmen was well worn.
Music from that era just seemed so important to me. It was full of idealism and or realism, something that 80's era music besides punk did not. Music made us feel something, and it was magical.
Then we began abusing alcohol and drugs, in order not to feel. Why we choose to drown out feelings, instead of experiencing them, confounds me today.
From one of my favorite Leon Russell songs,
"I'm up on the tightrope
One side's hate and one is hope
But the tophat on my head is all you see
And the wire seems to be
The only place for me
A comedy of errors
And I'm falling...
I see the analogy with my life.