OFF ON A LITTLE TANGENT ; AND MEMORIES OF MUSIC

                Yes , have written my blog rather infrequently as of the last few months. This generally due the fact that I have had a lack of inspiration .The urge to write has hit me . So here I sit in the early mourning hours of a Thursday with a chill still in the air and a pot of that ever important coffee brewing . Yes what a way to start a day the smell of coffee and the sound of music in the air waiting for the sun to arrive . You hear the occasional siren break the silence outside to let you know there is a world going on out there . This reminds us that the world does not stop at the front door .
               As was laying in my room when the urge to write came over me , feeling the mourning chill I turn on some music , I knew what it was that  what I wanted to write about . How music played a roll in my life , how it is some how attached to the memories in my life . Also how my taste in music changed in my life .
               One Christmas my parents got us kids a portable record player with the usual children's records . They nursery rhymes and the like . This for a time was our music except when dad would play his Big Band and country music . Remember this was in the lat 50's and early 60's .  Then came the the year I got my first transistor radio . My grandmother got it for me it looked like walkie talkie , it had a picture of Vic Morrow as Sarge from the show Combat on it . With this radio was my first intro to AM radio , I don't remember much about the music I listened to on it , but I do believe I remember the first song I heard on it . Petula Clark's Downtown . I think this song had a lot to do with what my vision of what being downtown should be like . To this day it is some what what think of downtown is all about . These days people do not call it that much any more its around here it is referred to as uptown .
               Isn't funny how music makes you see, feel about and remember things . Music somehow becomes an important part how you remember things , becomes a part of your emotional feelings of those memories . You could be riding down the road listening to the radio , then a song comes on that you may not have heard in some time . Then wham , a thought you haven't had in some time comes over you .
              We were living in Rhode Island when my old man was stationed there . Across the street form the housing we lived in The New Port Jazz Festival was happening . This was in the summer of 69 . My first exposure to hippies and the music . We could see all the long haired kids dressed in all manner dress . This was my first real exposure to the culture and the peace movement also the music that surrounded them . This was when I first heard of Bob Dylan . Heck my music teacher in school had said I sounded like him . Then my Dad got orders to Nam , we moved to Michigan . This where my musical growth sort of floundered for a while . We so far out in the corn fields that we were kind of sheltered form popular culture .
            That was until High School , I started working on the farm down the road . This where I learned about hard work and developed  my work ethic . But this is where I got the money for my eight track boom box . Yes , I was one of those that just had to invest in that dinosaur . It had a AM ,FM radio on . This was in the early seventies , I found the world of the underground radio , that came from the big colleges near bye . This where I heard ,progressive rock , some hard rock . All album oriented , they played whole albums at a time . My horizons where expanded . Zappa entered my sphere among others . All the while still listening to my fathers old 78's and the country he had on the car radio . We watched Don Kirchner's Rock Concert on Friday nights , And Wolfman Jack's Midnight Special . Oh yes I was waking up my musical tastes . My dad still tried to influence my musical taste , as I got older he had more influence than I realized . I find myself wanting to hear some Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin and the like .
             In 77 I went of to join the Air Force , my first duty station was in California I was introduced to disco , I even DJ"ed and worked the light show on base During the entire time I was there . We would find our selves on Saturday afternoons at the lake practicing our dance moves bare footed in the grass . Then that night we would try them out on the dance floor . It was a memorable two years . I found my self on my way to West Germany , That's when Rock and Roll came back into my life . I spent around five thousand dollars on what thought was the ultimate stereo . Every pay day I would spend around a hundred dollars on albums . Every chance I got I would buy concert tickets for shows around West Germany , my taste grew harder and blue influenced . While there I had seen many of the big named bands perform including some the big name German bands . I even got into polka at the beer tents at the beer fests around the area .
            I got out of the service and moved to Florida and listened to a lot glam rock , and the kind rock you would hear on Miami Vice . In the Nineties I moved to the Carolina's and found I was listening to Grunge all the long . Who new Neil Young was considered grunge . I would never have thought .
            Here I am now in the next century in my late fifties and my musical tastes are still growing , ever since I introduced a computer in my life and found Internet radio . I am even finding out about bands that I never heard of from the past that wish I knew of then and new music from present . It is amazing how far I came since that little record player in my child hood . The changes in music , technology , and memories I have gained through the years . Yes music is truly the sound track to our life's . So listen to what ever you like and build on your memories and enjoy .