One thing that has happened during me physical rehabilitation is my rediscovery of my music collection. I have been able to hear a lot of music that I haven’t listened to for a while. Man, the 60’s were great when it came to innovative and creative music. I have been excited about the music that guided my life during the “early” days. It was a great time.
A good friend of mine recently on his website pasted a list of his top 20 songs from the 1960s. He invited me to respond about my list, and also indicate what factors I used in making my choices. I am really having trouble doing that exercise. There are a number of reasons why. When I grew up as a teenager, it was during that turbulent decade of the 60’s. For me, that decade holds a fascination of who we are as a country and how I got where I am as a person.
The decade of the 60’s was a decade of newness, new ideas, new approaches to solving problems. It was also a war decade, a decade of protests and cities on fire. It was a decade of achievement (man first went into space and landed on the moon). At times I feel we have been so mediocre since then.
Music was no less exciting. The decade started with the Elvis Presley phenomenon and ended with Abbey Road and the breakup of the Beatles. Great music was made in that decade. It moved many people. For me, it is impossible to first separate out a 20 top ten list and not include the Beatles. The Beatles helped define the decade the musical landscape like no other group. Of course, the Beatles were not the decade and there was great music made by others.
Secondly, for me personally sometimes it is impossible to separate the single from the Album. For instance, the Beatles Abbey Road has so many connections to me on a deep emotional level. I would go to sleep listening to the second side of that beautiful album. On my mission, I would sing those songs to myself as I rode the Chinese countryside in Taiwan and suffered heat, rain, typhoon, and other challenges. The missionary experience was about more than music and weather though.
There are many great songs from the 60’s, and many great albums. It is hard to separate those two out. I dare not rank the songs that I love from that era. They include such songs as Hey Jude by the Beatles, Legend of a Mind by the Moody Blues, and Suite Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby Stills, and Nash. Not to be forgotten are such songs as Monday, Monday by the Mama and Papas, Creque Alley by the same group. Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin was another song that connects with me, Voices in the Sky by the Moody Blues, and many, many more.
There was so much diversity and creativity then. There has been great music since then, but I have trouble separating out the music I love from the experiences that have defined me.
Here I sit, listening to an easy listening piece sung by Olivia Newton-John called “Hopelessly Devoted to You”. I am sure that it is not a piece of deep meaning, or one that a whole lot of people love, or one that may find its place in someone’s top 20 lists. However, what I do believe is that it represents how much listening to music has changed.
When I first became interested in music, it was on a transistor radio that I had just received for Christmas. I was at the mercy of some DJ that was playing the top 40. Of course, it exposed me to a lot of different artists, and the early 60’s (there, you know how old I am) were rich with an incredible variety of artists and types of music. So much then was new and different and exciting.
You only had three ways to listen. Being a poor teenager, it was either listening on the transistor radio or buying a 45 rpm record (with Side A and Side B) songs. Going to an actual concert was something I could only dream of, so I had to wait on change to come. Of course, you were at the mercy of mom and dad because of money issues, or sometime, someone might actually buy you your own stereo for a birthday present. I finally convinced mom and dad that they should do that and then I was in listening heaven. I could put on a whole album of music from my favorite artist of the moment. I went to sleep at night listening to records.
Of course, there could be problems or accidents. One time I was really sick and listening to a record on my parent’s stereo and fell asleep because I was so sick and drugged up. While asleep, something fell on the needle and wore a big groove into my Sgt. Peppers record. I was sick; there was a deep rut in the middle of “A Day in the Life”.
Overall, it was great. Getting together with buddies to view their collections influenced my tastes in music through the discovery of brand new artists and different types of music. Now I am a lover of rock music, classical music, folk music, western and modern western, pop music, Jazz, Blues, or new age, and the list goes on and on.
What has made it even greater is the revolution in listening technologies. First, the records gave way to 8 tracks and you could listen in your car. Then, tape decks became the rage and you could have a whole collection of cassette tapes that could make your music collection mobile. You could also listen to more, because most cassettes could be bought in times of 60, 90, or even 120 minutes. My heavens, two or three albums could go on one tape and it was stereo no less. You could buy the music prepackaged, or even better most of us started recording our own collections onto tapes and individualize our collections.
In the mid 80’s I started hearing about CD’s. Of course, my first thought was that those marketers were just thinking up new ways to get you to spend your money (and they were of course) but oh how it opened up the horizons. You could get even more music on one disk, could carry them more easy, and the offerings multiplied.
That takes us to today. I-tunes, or MP3 players, or whatever you want are now the rage. It has given us the ability to carry your whole music library with you. You can tabulate how many times you listen to a particular selection. I have spent the whole weekend listening to just a wide variety of everything. On my IPOD I can listen to any CD I have ever bought, or I can even download music and not have to purchase a hard copy of anything. I have my faith’s scriptures on my IPOD and also every conference the church has ever conducted and put on CD. I keep hoping they will make available a lot of talks and older conferences on CD so I can rip them to my IPOD.
I can listen to books, and now I have college courses produced by the The Teaching Company as part of their Great Courses series. I can listen and learn while driving. I have learned ancient Egyptian History, about the weather, about our climate, modern European History, and the list goes on and on. It is all there in one electronic gadget. I can make greatest hits lists, genre lists, and lists by artists. It is great. It is easy, and it is making music even more of a pleasure to listen too. What a blessing modern technology can be.
One of the blessings of the technological age is the availability of just great music. I have an IPOD, and I can instantly tune into my entire music collection. I am constantly adding to my collection of great music. Music speaks to my soul. It brings back such great memories, communicates to my thinking on such a fundamental level. I believe that is one of the blessings of being alive is to communicate with each other, and this is one great way to do so.
Music identifies us on generational level. It can also help us bridge the gap between the generations. Great music is great music. Some of the best of it is Classical music, but rock music speaks to me as much as The Moldau and the New World Symphony. I love to celebrate music.
I loved the movie Paint Your Wagon. It of course is about the gold rush times and about how a tent city sprung up at the near mention of gold. Well, recently I had the chance to pan for gold and decided in a hurry it wasn’t worth it, even though we found a few speckles of gold dust. I guess what was even more interesting was the kind of cities the sprung up around the near mention of gold. It was interesting recently to see Skagway, the entrance to the gold fields of the early 1900s and which had such things as general stores, brothels, bars, and associated stuff. What a different world.
It has been interesting watching Entertainment programs on the ocean. These people must be incredibly talented. First, they are performing on a deck that is moving to and fro. Secondly, they are away from the land for a significant amount of time, away from family, friends, and the rest of civilization. Third, they all seem to be very talented. It must be a great challenge, and very rewarding to be an entertainer, let alone an entertainer on the seas. They do such a good job at keeping people entertained and happy.
One thing that sets apart The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is our building of Temples, and Temple Worship. I had the opportunity tonight to be a part of the dedication of the Draper Temple. It was a wonderful experience. The sacredness of this structure and what happens there is peculiar to our religion, but I believe is beautiful.
Contrast that to a recent episode of Big Love, which portrayed for the whole world something which we consider to be sacred. That portrayal in my opinion was unnecessary to and added nothing to the story that show was trying to tell. It was included because the “Mormons” are considered a peculiar people. I was offended by the insensitivity of the producers of that show. What incredible differences there were from the dedication which was a high light, and a crass portrayal on network TV.
I watched the Series finale to Battlestar Galactica tonight. A lot of people didn’t like the turn this show took after it’s second season. I have my own doubts about that, but the one thing that I did like about this finale was the fact that sometimes we just need to start over. That was one of the main messages that I came away with from this show. Sometimes despite all that we want for keeping the status quo, we just need to give up the old ways and try something new.
I liked the Series Finale for Battlestar Galactica. I think in my family I may have been the only who did like it.
In the Star Wars universe, you had Jedi Masters who had learned the discipline of the Jedi and who understood the Jedi universe and all that was part of that. When you go on a cruise, you sometimes meet someone who has been in 50, 60, or even a 100 cruises. To those of us who have only been on 2 or 3, they are a Cruise Master. The first thing one does is ask which cruise line they like the best. You next ask which was their most favorite cruise, and deep inside, you vow to become a cruise master yourself. After all, you want to become a Cruise Master like them, sailing the seven seas and becoming a master of all the water that you can see.
Recently I stood on the bow of the Crown Princess. I was doing my Leonardo DiCapprio stunt of standing on the bow of the ship, looking to the horizon. It was cool looking over the waves, seeing the oncoming horizon and feeling the ship go up and down, cutting through the water. It was a sight I won’t forget for a while. It is incredible.