Living in the COVID World ...and Beyond #76: The Soundtrack of Our Lives
I love music. I like listening to music in the background while I do desk work. I like listening while I read or exercise. I often put music on in the background when I’m planning to take a nap. I find music both relaxing and inspiring.
I remember that my parents had a stereo system in the family room when I was growing up. I can’t say that I ever remember them using it. They had a bunch of classical music albums, and I don’t remember what else. My sister had a turntable in her room … I don’t remember what music she listened to either. But when she went away to school, I inherited her turntable. I had albums and 45’s. I remember that I had a full collection of Allan Sherman albums (maybe some my parents had bought for themselves first) and I had Bill Cosby comedy albums. If you don’t know Allan Sherman, he was a Jewish comedian/songwriter – he would take popular songs and re-write the lyrics in a funny way. His most famous song is: Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduhwhich is about a child’s experience at sleepaway camp. I had more typical music albums. I think the 1stmusic album that I purchased with my own money was Simon and Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence in 1966. Another album that I got a few years later was Jethro Tull’s Aqualung (remembering this now, I listened to Jethro Tull as I typed this paragraph, 1st time in probably 50 years). I would play the few albums that I had over and over. I was never able to remember lyrics but when the song played, I could sing along to some degree.
My taste in music has changed and widened over the years. I have gone through phases, maybe we all do. In my 20’s, I listened almost exclusively to movement music – the women’s movement, the men’s movement, gay liberation, anti-nuclear and anti-war music. I probably remembered more of those lyrics since they were most consistent with what I was thinking and feeling at the time. Chris Williamson, Holly Near, Geoff Morgan, Charlie Murphy, and Fred Small were all favorites. As time went on, some of my good friends were musicians and they produced their own cassettes and CD’s. None of them ever became big-time famous, and I love the songs that my friends - like Rick Goldin, Eliot Pilshaw, and Ginny Frazier – wrote and performed. Rick has been thoughtful to write original words to songs for my birthday and wedding anniversary.
I don’t have any of my albums anymore, I think they were given away several moves ago and when we did not own a record player. But I have the tape cassettes and CD’s that I accumulated over 30+ years. And I bought a tape and CD player this summer that is now right next to my desk so that I can play music easily whenever I want. Over these last few months, I have re-discovered some early favorites that I had completely forgotten about. CD’s that were buried in my collection included Harry Chapin, Jim Croce, Sheena Easton, Lionel Ritchie and Jane Oliver.
I have never really been attracted to any particular genre of music; I would just listen to what I enjoyed listening to. You might be surprised that I now consider myself a Swiftie. I was encouraged by a friend to watch a documentary about her, and I was inspired by her courageous actions as a young woman to fight against sexism. So now I listen to Taylor Swift albums.
And I have never really gone to music concerts. I did when I was at Oberlin College. I had friends in the Conservatory, and I would go to listen to their performances. And I still remember when a good friend opened for Holly Near at Oberlin, that was thrilling. I probably have not been to a concert in 30 years. That is, until good friends invited me to join them at a concert in Minneapolis. I flew to Minnesota to join them and heard a live performance of Jelly Roll. Everyone who knows me has been surprised that I went to this concert. But Jelly Roll’s music moves me. I have never been an addict, really have never even been close to either alcohol or drugs. But Jelly Roll’s music I think speaks to everyone, and certainly it does to me.
As I write this now, I’m listening to soft rock ballads of the 70’s and 80’s.
What are you listening to? What is the soundtrack of your life?