While doing some research for my recent Idol Familiarities post, I stumbled onto these pictures of Debbie Harry – Then and Now.
We are getting old folks.
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I Can Hear Music, Sweet Sweet Music
There is no doubt that music is a big part of my life.
I’m one of those people that while in conversation, when a random word or phrase is spoken, my brain will access a song lyric with those exact words. Depending on the setting, I often break into song right then. If it can’t be sung out loud, it’s always sung in my head. Although it’s never been admitted, I’m sure this drives my family crazy. I like to think that it’s something that my two boys (10 and 13) will always remember about their Dad. I just hope when they tell people about it, it’s not preceded with “One thing that drove me crazy about my Dad was…..” and if it is, I hope they add “I’ll never forget that about him”.
I grew up in the 70’s so I would have to say this is my favorite decade of music. There is something amazingly wonderful about the memories of youth that make music from that time extra special.
I’m not sure when exactly my musical button was pushed, but I imagine it was sometime in ’72 or ’73 around age 8. I have to thank my oldest brother Dennis (10 years my senior) for filling the house with some amazing early 70’s music. I smile when I think about his LPs and 8-track tapes of The Carpenters, Blood Sweat & Tears, Chase and especially Chicago. In fact, if I had to choose one album that really ignited my love (obsession) for music it would be Chicago II. To this day, I know every single drum, horn, and vocal part in my head of that album. I’ll bet I’ve heard it 300 times – and it was a double album! I recently got a DVD-Audio surround sound copy of it for my car – heaven! “Hey Mom, where’s Dad?”
“He’s out in the garage in his car again.”My first records were the ones that came on the back of cereal boxes. That was some pretty cool technology for back in the 70’s! I seem to remember having a record of “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies (which came on a box of Super Sugar Crisp – the cereal responsible for the birth of ADHD and a name they would NEVER use today), but “Sugar Sugar” came out in 1969 which means I was only 4 or 5 – perhaps it made another run in the early 70’s and made it onto the back of King Vitamin or Boo-Berry. I do remember the cereal box version of The Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You”, but the standout cereal box record for me was a wonderful pop masterpiece called “Heartbeat It’s A Lovebeat” by The “we are trying really hard to be the Osmonds” DeFranco Family featuring Tony DeFranco (as Donnie). I played that cardboard record until the hard paper grooves wore off, then talked my Mom into buying me the actual vinyl 45. I love that song to this day!
By the mid-70’s, I was old enough to have a paper route. I saved up all my paper route money to buy my first stereo from Radio Shack (my audiophile paradise in 1976). It was a Realistic Receiver/Cassette combo – a honking huge, heavy box with large dials and a built-in cassette player, 2 Radio Shack speakers, and a Technics turntable. I’m telling you, I was in 7th grade utopia with that setup. I can only imagine how many needles I went through … especially in the later 70’s playing many of my records backwards to listen for hidden Satanic messages. Unfortunately, all I ever heard, and just one time, was “Satan banana banana banana Satan” – it was pretty scary.
I remember my first record purchase. It was at Sears and I bought the following:
1. The Sweet (Featuring Blockbuster and Little Willy)
2. Van Halen – Self Titled
3. Barry Manilow – Even NowNo kidding. And I loved all three of those albums.
I still do.
Today, I have thousands of 70’s songs in my music collection and to single out favorites is difficult, but here are a few. I’ll add comments to these as I have time…
My Sharona – The Knack
It’s hard to believe that it will soon be 30 years since this song owned the #1 spot in the charts for what seemed like the entire summer of 1979. My fondest memory of My Sharona is it’s long run at #1. In Cleveland, Casey Kasem’s Top 40 Countdown radio show always started at 9am and ran until Noon on Sunday mornings. As soon as church was done on Sundays around 11:45 I would get the car keys from my Dad and run out to the car to see if My Sharona was still #1. Now that I know what My Sharona is about, how comical that I was running out of church to listen to it!
Midnight At The Oasis – Maria Muldaur
I have a very strong memory of riding in my brother’s car and hearing this song on the car radio. It was 1974 – I was 8 and my brother Dennis was 18. Green Pontiac Ventura.
Undercover Angel – Alan O’Day
Shakedown Cruise – Jay Ferguson
Lonely Boy – Andrew Gold
Daniel – Elton John
Heart of Glass – Blondie
Get Down – Gilbert O’Sullivan
Rock On – David Essex
Little Willy – The Sweet
Heartbeat It’s A Lovebeat – The Defranco Family
Nights In White Satin – The Moody Blues
I’m Not In Love – 10cc
Magic – Pilot
Shannon – Henry Gross
Frankenstein – Edgar Winter Group
Run To Me – Bee Gees
Make Me Smile – Chicago
Space Oddity – David Bowie
Help Me – Joni Mitchell
Hello It’s Me – Todd RundgrenMore soon…
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I’m Blogging
Fellow bloggers and blogger wannabes, ENJOY!
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Idol Familiarities
The first time I saw Taylor Hicks in last season’s American Idol, I said to myself, “Who does he look like?” I kept on saying that for 3 months. In fact, the season ended and I had forgotten about it, then last week while doing some random activity it hit me. He looks a lot like the lead guitarist from Blondie, Chris Stein. Here’s Hicks ….. and here’s Stein. More on Stein and Debbie Harry in an upcoming blog post.
Like a bad cold, the idol familiarities are already back for me.
Top 24 finalist Chris Richardson looks a lot like someone else that I’ve seen on television. This time, it didn’t take me months at all. Here is a picture of Chris and next to him is Bradley Cooper who starred on Alias, Jack & Bobby, and most recently Kitchen Confidential.
Scary eh?
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Teenage Boys & Music Choices
I recently got into a discussion with a friend about music and our sons. He was starting to get concerned about what his oldest son was listening to and after a nice chat, I shared with him this email:
Hi Steve,
My son Grant and I enjoy looking for new music groups and listening to them at home, in the car, out shooting baskets, etc. We have found a good selection of music that Grant likes and that doesn’t contain “garbage” lyrics. It’s been interesting to see some of his friends around the neighborhood even picking up on these groups and they have attended some concerts together.
Sometimes I don’t screen the music we listen to. That may sound bad, but it’s actually been a good exercise in choosing together what’s garbage and what’s not. Yes, he may hear something inappropriate, but I think it’s unrealistic to think I can protect him from everything….I had a few friends whose parents did that growing up and boy were they a mess once they got to their mid-teens and into college age. It’s worth the risk to me in order to have the discussion about what he should be filling his head with. We can stop a song half-way through and talk about what the song is about and talk about if it’s good for him or not. He’s a part of the decision that way and we get to reinforce how important these decisions are. In order for our boys to become good men, they have to learn to make good decisions before they leave the nest.
If your oldest son isn’t where you’d like him to be spiritually, he likely will not react well to suggestions of “Christian” or worship music. I suggest you try to find some groups that aren’t “preachy” or specifically worship music oriented, that have positive lyrics, and are the style of music he likes – there is plenty of this out there, you just have to look hard to find it. There actually are lots of bands that fit this category and you’ll be surprised how many are not in the “Christian” bin (for example, check out Tooth and Nail). What we’ve tried to do is find a good mix of both. I think this may help you find some middle ground with him.
Here are some potential music groups your son may enjoy:
Thousand Foot Krutch
Falling Up
POD
Cartel
All American Rejects
Family Force 5 (also see my blog post here)
Anberlin
Mae
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Babel Downer
Have you seen Babel yet?
If not, do yourself a favor and take a Prozac an hour before.
Trust me on this one.
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Blue Like Jazz – Free Chapter
I just finished Blue Like Jazz written by Donald Miller. There’s a summary of Blue Like Jazz on my Nightstand page and a link if you want to pick it up at Biblio.Miller has become one of my favorite authors and I especially enjoy his refreshing take on life and Christianity. It’s different than anything I’ve read in a very long time. I’ll write some more about this book in the coming weeks. Until then, click the link below if you’d like to read Chapter 1 of Blue Like Jazz:
Blue Like Jazz – Chapter 1 (PDF – Acrobat Reader required)
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I Feel Sorry For Morning Snow
This is an actual snippet from Weather.com for tomorrow.
Poor Morning Snow.
I bet she gets tired giving way to that bully Afternoon Snow.
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You Hear That? That’s Studio Silence
I think I may have dreamed this, but I would swear that someone told me there was something called “studio silence”.I asked Google if it new what it was … Yoo hoo, Yahoo? … and even MSN, but none of them could confirm what is in my brain. Was it all a strange dream?
Basically, it goes like this. There is actually something that studio musicians and people who work in recording studios call “Studio Silence” and it is the actual recording of silence from within a recording studio. Since that time, whenever a song like The Cars “You Might Think” is on and Ric Ocasek gets to the lyric:
But you kept it going
‘Til the sun fell down
You kept it…
GoingI’ll say with confidence, “You know that silence in between those lyrics? That’s what they call studio silence.”
And people look at me and seem impressed like I know what I’m talking about. They really do.
I’m somehow convinced that someone really knowledgable told me about this and I’m thinking it may be my friend and college roommate, Matt, so perhaps he’ll chime in and back me up or confirm that I’m losing my mind and have been lying to people for years about studio silence. He’s such a good friend, that he may be thinking the latter but say the former just to protect me.
I guess if it’s complete B.S., at least I looked really smart to a lot of people and that’s something, isn’t it?
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Trouble At Starbucks
Somewhere, behind this door, is my friend and colleague Sean, who while on the toilet is sending me text messages with sad-looking smiley faces.
Poor guy.
Too much cheese I suppose.