June 30th, 2013

I am literally a child of the 60’s. Born during the waning days of the Eisenhower administration, my musical education began on June 6, 1967 when I bought my first record album. If you know your rock music history, I don’t have to tell you what album it was. From there I was hooked. I used to love spending time in record stores browsing through the stacks at the 12” vinyl LP’s and admiring the cover art, the liner notes and the look and smell and feel of records. New releases by favorite artists were events you looked forward to and the act of slipping off the plastic of a new album and sliding it out of its white protective sleeve and examining the grooves before you eased it on to the turntable and lowered the arm to that first groove was magical. In those days, we learned about new music from the radio. Where I grew up, there were only two stations of any interest. A top-40 hits type station where we were introduced to the likes of Don McLean, Three Dog Night, Mungo Jerry et al, and a cooler station that played more of the Doors, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Music was important and filled a place in me that nothing else could. I miss those days.

I was a purist when it came to LP’s and was resistant when the CD revolution began. I eventually succumbed and repurchased many of the classic rock albums I already owned in the CD format. When the iTunes revolution began, I was a little more adaptive and welcomed the technological changes. Once again, I repurchased many of the classic albums I had purchased twice before in the iTunes format. I didn’t care; I loved music and wouldn’t be denied. It’s funny to think about it now that at one time; I had a special closet built in my home to house my stereo equipment and record collection. Moving it was a pain in the ass and today, I carry around my entire record collection in my pocket ready in an instant to listen to anything my mind fixes on. Technology is pretty cool!

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