Listening to Music

Like most everyone, I’d guess, I can’t remember when I first started enjoying listening to music, but it could easily have been when my father, Dale Sr., would sing my late brother Mead and me to sleep with cowboy ballads and pop songs from his youth, like Carolina Moon or When it’s Round Up Time in Texas. He’d also sing working in the yard or driving us to school in our ’49 Ford Coupe.

Later, like most of my generation, I have really fond memories of those little record players that folded into a cube with a handle. They played only 45s and created an instant party plugged into the nearest outlet (with the parents hopefully somewhere else).

In the early 60s LPs became the big thing. By the mid 60s the LP was an art form in itself, with gorgeous packaging and intensely thought out programming of each side. The release of a new LP by the Beatles or Dylan became a major event, with listeners gathered around in awe - “Wow, did you hear that? ‘The Ghost of Electricity Howls in the Bones of her Face’! Heavy.”

(Late adolescence and early adulthood also ushered in going to live concerts, coffee houses and bars with live music. This got me wanting to play on stage, but that’s a whole other story. For now I’m going to to continue to concentrate on home listening.)

The CD revolution caught me by surprise. I should have guessed when Kicking Mule Records contacted me with a very special deal to buy out my inventory of LPs sometime in the 1980s. Before I knew it people were putting their LPs in the basement and going over to CDs. It was a shock for me, but I rolled with it, playing both LPs and CDs into the 1990s. 

I had mixed feelings about shuffling tracks. Artists (including myself) had agonized for hours over programming LPs, and now anyone could punch a button and rearrange the whole recording. However, I can relate to the power-to-the-consumer ideal. I began shuffling myself, and even contemplated buying a fancy player that could shuffle six CDs.

I didn’t buy a first generation iPod, but I got the second generation one (2002 or so) and jumped head first into that technology. Within a year I had transferred my CDs and joined iTunes and purchased new music that way. Eventually, some company offered a turntable that could plug into a USB port and transfer directly from LP to digital on the computer and from there to my iPod. Currently, I have over 12 days of music on this amazing device (now a IV Generation iPod Classic) doubled on the computer.

When I first got my iPod I carefully created categories that weren’t already on iTunes, like Flamenco, Opera, Solo Guitar and African. I’d choose one (Previously mentioned or Jazz, Rock, Experimental, Classical etc.) and listen on shuffle. Then, about four years ago, I made a mistake and started playing in the root position on shuffle. I’ve never gone back. Now, when I listen to my iPod or streaming from iTunes, I’m in the root position on shuffle. I never know what is coming next from my 12+ days of music. There are some jarring juxtapositions, but mostly it’s great. In my current situation, I’m listening to music intensely with eyes closed four or more hours a day. I don’t know what I’d do without it.

Many of my “sitters” leave with a “I should listen to more music” comment.

What I have on iTunes and my iPod  - Video posted since my last entry