Music

I have been a music fan since before I hit double digits in age. I remember my Mom playing Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra records on the giant console record player. It was the biggest piece of furniture in our living room. Of course, that is completely understandable since the console also played 78, 33 & 45 rpm vinyl plus had a built-in radio. I'll confess, I don't remember if it had FM radio, I would guess not. But not to worry, it did have built-in storage for maybe 10 or 15 LP albums. I also don't remember if it had stereo capabilities. I again guess not. 

That old hunk of furniture, AM radio, a 45rpm record player, and jukeboxes were my instruments of music in my youth. I did get a transistor radio, AM only, in my early teens. It had a one ear earphone which was fine in the pre-stereo days. A battery-powered, small, portable radio was quite a breakthrough in the early '60s. That transistor radio lasted well over 10 years. My dad used it for years after I left home for college and work. 

OK, those real early years of music were probably the Elvis years. I was never a big fan. He was OK but I liked many of the early rock no-white artists more. Of course, I was also exposed to the Sinatra, Como, Crosby stuff my folks listened to. In the early '60s, it was all Beach Boys and surf music. That was mixed with the folk revival somewhat. A shoutout to the Kingston Trio and the local Coachmen. Again I was not a huge Beatles fan although I did enjoy much of the British invasion. The Zombies, Stones, Animals, Dave Clark 5, etc. more than the Beatles. There were also some American bands besides the Beach Boys at that time. A couple that stick out are Jan & Dean, The Sir Douglas Quintet, and a great Mississippi garage band, the Gants.  Motown had a few stars too. 

I didn't listen to a lot of music during my college days at USF. I don't think I even had a radio plus I was busy with other activities. We did have campus concerts and frat parties so some music seeped in. Pet Sounds during the first year or so sticks in my feeble brain. 

When I left college and moved to Atlanta, my only music came via radio. Atlanta had a couple of great new FM stations. This was at the infancy of FM and there were few if any commercials. The DJs were laid back and low keyed and would play whole albums, deep cuts, and very long songs. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was played every night when the DJ needed a break. Those were the mellow psychedelic music years.

After that, I was caught up in work, marriage, and parenthood. That pattern pretty much continued for 10 or 15 years. Hardly any proactive music consumption, just what I heard passively on the car radio, TV, or a few live events. 

In the mid-'80s, I found myself single and living alone. I also discovered CDs. I bought a good CD player and then spent a couple of thousand dollars on music. There were reissue CDs of much of the music of the past. I bought the music of my youth, the surf stuff, the British Invasion, the folk revival stuff, plus some old classics like Nat King Cole, Dave Brubeck, and others. Whenever I was home, the music was playing. I listened to enough music outside my home to find other stuff I liked and would add those CDs. 

Somewhere in the early '90s, I found a partner who was also a music fan. We combined our music libraries, homes, and a few other things. We wound up with hundreds of CDs which were almost always playing. We took CDs and a player when we traveled. Our tastes were not identical but we could mostly at least tolerate the other's music. 

After that, I went through another fallow music period when I took care of my elderly parents. I spent a lot of time at their place and they had no music equipment. They did have a TV and faithfully watched The Lawrence Welk Show. 

After Mom died and dad moved in with me, I still didn't have much free time. When dad passed, I began to rebuild my music library and listening habits. 

I have ripped all my old CDs plus those of my Ex to MP3s It was a pile of Cds consisting of hundreds of songs, I loaded them to Google Play Music and/or USB drives for the interested parties. I just checked I have over 13,000 songs uploaded to Google. I also have A YouTube Music subscription plus Pandora, Spotify, and Amazon Prime Music accounts. I can listen to almost anything. 

For the last several years, I have my music playing almost constantly. I watch sports with the sound muted and music playing. I listen to music on my phone when I walk and sometimes when I bike ride. Tom Petty is playing right now as I write this. 

So, what kind of music do I like? The answer is probably yes. Mostly '60s stuff is at the top. You can't beat the Beach Boys, Motown, and British Invasion. But, I also like the early '60s folk stuff, some of the big hair/glam rock of the '70s and '80s. Think Journey, Heart, and Fleetwood Mac. The Eagles were pretty good too. Being raised in the South .and living in Texas, I have to like at least some country. I'm a big fan of Dwight Yokum. 

Bottom line is I like good music. Good songs and good singers come in all genres, Good musicians too. I can appreciate good stuff from the big band era through today. I'll admit, I do have somewhat of a disconnect with Hip Hop and Rap. Some are OK, much is not. I also have a problem with the overuse of  Auto-Tune. It was originally intended to smooth out a few rough spots. Now singers completely depend on it and purposely use it to change their sound. Think horrible singers like Taylor Swift. 

What is your music preference?

That is how I got to my current eclectic music taste. Glad I did, because it sure is enjoyable. 

wjh