Reflections and Recollections.....

It's odd, isn't it? Music can evoke so many vivid memories. Music can evoke so many emotions. I can still, very very clearly holding my handheld Realistic (thanks radio shack) AM/FM radio "late" at night in my room listening surreptitiously to the music played by CKQR radio well after bed time. I can very clearly remember the slight crackle of the AM channel and the sound of Billy Joel singing "It's still rock and roll to me". I thought he was cool. I still love that song. FM was for the CBC.

My musical tastes swing throughout the spectrum, and having been exposed to everything as a child, a teenager and as an "adult" I still listen to it all. I have a digital copy of the cassette tape (if you don't know what a cassette tape is, read somewhere else please. No offence, just go.....away.) my dad had made of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, that just like my dad, I play with great relish on Saturday Mornings and frequently on long drives. It reminds me of him. And Saturday's. the smell of old books from "the den" and oddly an "ancient"set  of Encyclopedia Britannica's which provided dated, yet usable information for many essays, as did the rest of the largest collection of books I had seen as a child. I think I lost that tape on my father...I shall have to take him the CD...exactly the same version. Just.....harder to lose. Sunday's of course used to be reserved (and some days now too, but usually when it's raining)for the thunder of the Red Army Chorus. 'dem ruskies can sing!!!

Funny, but perhaps I'm a late catcher-oner, but I don't think I ever really started listening, actually listening to lyrics until my late teens. They can be pretty deep. Granted, the bubble-gum pop ,which was never really my scene tends not to be. But some can.

Road Trips home remind me of folk music. The Brother's Four. The Kingston Trio. Pete Seeger .It tended to be the only music you could play without headphones at any level a reasonable kid wanted. It's good to be the driver. Although I do play some going home, I tend to play and little more rock and roll now than when I was a backseat fixture (passenger side, behind my mother).

Punk music has it's charms. It is perfect for the teenager. Just the loud, assertive, angst of the music is an apt description for teenager itself. I hate symbolism, and yet it can very appropriate. I hate Ernest Hemingway's writing. I refused to read it in school....still had to do all the tests. Still passed. Symbolism can be so predictable. Anyway...not sure how that snuck in here.

Sometimes, nothing quite brings back the teenage years than I good dose of Bobby Darrin. No. I am not that old, but I did spend an inordinate amount of time in a Ford Thunderbird (TAUPE Ford Thunderbird!!! It was taupe and don't you forget it!!!) cruising the West Kootenay's. It had an ample supply of radio recorded cassettes featuring Danny Finkleman and Finkleman's 45's.. It also had a rogue copy, that somehow never seemed to find it's way home of Joan Jett. (Thanks Sally!).

I don't know why...but bagpipes remind me of my grandparents. No particular reason. I don't even remember them playing any music at all. Oh, except my grandmother on my father's side. She liked Roger Whittaker. I have none. I don't think I'm missing out. I have some Dean Martin and some Sinatra...nevermind, not even close.

Rock Music. Brings up memories of a LOT of booze, girls and the inevitable result of the combination of the two. 'nuf said.I still listen...over and over and over.

Of course, living in Canada's Cowboy Country, there is the country music. NOT the tear-in-my-beer stuff. I'm not struck on whasisname and his burning ring of fire. More the she's-hot-and-now-we-are-not-but geez-will ya-get-a-look-at her kind of country....it's entertaining and some of it is, despite being perhaps a tad melancholy at times, insightful.

I have no idea why I wrote this....I'm kinda lost. I'm gonna go spin some tunes and see if I can get more inspiration. It's still rock and roll to me.