Originally posted on Facebook HERE
All I can see out there today is that I gotta mow the lawn… but I digress… so – I’ve been thinking a lot about music this week, specifically how we listen to it and what that experience is like these days. Growing up in the sixties was an awesome time for music – listening to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who in their infancies. Of course The Monkees and The Royal Guardsmen as well… and later Led Zeppelin… etc, etc, etc… I played music on an all in one stereo system, but for whatever reason I bought monophonic records back then. I still have most of them. It was an option – mono or stereo. Crazy how far we’ve come. In those days, getting an album was an experience – an awesome experience. Just even opening it up was a really great feeling, then pulling the 33rpm record out – seeing if the sleeve had any information, maybe there was a poster in there… just so cool. Put the record on and read the liner notes, look at the cover… and start a collection. I had my share of 45rpm singles back then as well, even wound up recording one in the 80s when I was with the Twistin’ Egyptians. I had my fathers collection of 78rpm records, too. He was a great musician. He had many 78s. One of the worst decisions of my life was when I threw them all out years ago. Man, I still kick myself over that one. Makes my heart very heavy. All big band stuff. But eventually – if you were buying albums – you’d get a collection. And you could also peruse your collection and look at the records while listening to music. Once in a while you’d find something you hadn’t listened to in a while and put it in the “on deck” circle. I miss that. I still have an album collection, as well as an insane amount of cassette recordings, too. I know people who to this day have extensive 8-track collections, and there’s just something – to me – that makes it better when you have a hard copy of something. I still buy CDs. I want the cover art. I want the information inside (like – who played bass on this?)… often I’ll download everything to my phone for ease of use, but – it’s not at all the same. I saw a great band live yesterday – Royal Bliss – and in five seconds I downloaded their entire collection on Apple Music. That’s pretty cool, but… it’s so easy to forget you even have music now. Perusing an album collection is a heart warming experience that puts you in touch with the music itself more than trying to find something digitally. You kind of have to be looking for something specific. I miss the old days. Everything changes. I’m gonna buy CDs until the day it all goes digital, which will be a very sad day (IMO). Most people growing up today will never know what it’s like to actually have hard copies of music you own. I’m so glad I was there to experience it. Life is an amazing journey. Make every moment count. Everything changes, you never know what can be taken away from you. Make tomorrow’s memories amazing by fully living today.
