Musicmagic

Music's always bn magic 4 me, but less so as I've gotten older. Now more & more often it's nostalgia:
...Waking up each morning during highschool 2 an alarm-clock set 2 Boise, Idaho's KFXD-AM, by far the best local Top 40 station when I was growing up.
...Hearing the radio when I was 2 young 2 know what music was or what it could B. Hearing albums like DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED and MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR when I was 2 young 2 pay attention.
...Singing "Ticket to Ride" with my cousins Jim & Anna on a camping trip when I must've been all of 6 years old. Wandering down the street in the fog of Boise Winter '65 with the chorus of "Eight Days a Week" playing over & over in my head.
...Finally discovering music & what a radio was in 6th grade -- listening 2 my classmates play great 45's at the back of class during lunchbreak: "Joy to the World" & "One Toke Over the Line" & "Put Your Hand in the Hand" & "Spirit in the Sky" & "Brown Sugar" & "Honky Tonk Women" & (yeesh) "American Woman," "No Sugar Tonight," "Knock Three Times," "American Pie," & so many more.
...Sleeping-out in the backyard in Tacoma with my old buddy Gene Goodell in the Summer of '71, us bundled up in sleeping bags & nothing but the clear starry skies overhead & the radio tuned to KTAC-AM, with the echoed sounds of "Draggin' the Line" & "I Just Want to Celebrate" & "Rocket Man" bouncing off the hillside & up in2 the sky. Camping out again later with Gene & next-door neighbor Jim Yusko -- Gene hadda flashlight with a "strobe" setting, which worked uncomfortably well during the orangutang-howling middle-section of "Whole Lotta Love," a song which STILL creeps me out ... when I'm not laffing at it....
...Me staying over at writer-friend Barry Anderson's house, where we & Paul Fritts & Mike Harvey & the Gault Gazelle would listen 2 the 1st 3 Partridge Family albums & stay up late 2 catch the horrors on "Nightmare Theatre" & moan & groan about all the cute girls we wished we were brave enuf 2 talk 2....
...Playing football in Mike Fisher's yard with Gene & Jim & Buddy Pitts & Fred & Ernie Paul & 1/2adozen others whose names I 4get, with KTAC playing in the background while we crashed in2 each other -- the 1st place I ever heard the Moodies' "Ride My See-Saw" & Iron Butterfly's "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" & George Carlin's AM & FM....
...Nagging my parents 4 $$$ 2 buy 45rpm singles. Nagging them MORE 4 more $$$ 4 albums....
...Having radio stations that were willing 2 play off-the-wall stuff that might not catch on: El Chicano, Mal, Casey Kelly, Chris Hodge, later Raiders singles, Johnathon King, Kracker, The Wackers, Billy Lee Riley, anything by the 5-Man Electrical Band, Poco, early 10 C.C., Steely Dan album trax, The English Congregation, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Royal Guardsmen....
...Listening 2 KFXD's weekly Boise Valley Music Survey countdown & ALWAYS getting distracted 1/2way thru it... & when I was old enuf & had time enuf 2 listen thru the 3 hours, I was 2 bored with the music 2 care who was #1....
...Meeting & falling 4 my highschool sweetheart Allison & discovering R mutual adoration 4 The Moody Blues & Gentle Giant & Janis Ian & Simon & Garfunkel & Harry Nillsson & Paul Simon. ... Hanging out alone with her on a rainy afternoon, playing the "core 7" Moodies albums all the way thru as we talked & kissed & held each other....
...Cruising thru Boise & Nampa with highschool wildman Jeff Mann as we screamed along with homemade mix-cassettes of The Best Of The Beatles & Elton John & Wings & Queen & others....
...Years of making homemade tapes -- 1st of my fave songs off the radio, then my fave trax from vinyl so I could play them over&over in the car.... Wish I still had the oldest of those tapes, which dated back to 1971 -- there was stuff on them I'll never B able 2 replace....
...3 years working in a record store from 1979 to 1982, watching as 90 percent of the music-buying public went ONLY 4 the stuff they heard on the radio, & would never try anything new or diffrent. But the OTHER 10 percent were pretty freakin brave....
...Meeting fellow writer Don Vincent & hitting all the local record stores 2gether & pulling outta the cut-out bins such forgotten greats as Gryphon, Providence, Hawkwind, Caravan, David Sancious and Tone, & much more....
...Playing Caravan over&over at top volume on the way 2 & from the record store, day after day. Cranking it way up when stuff I never Xpected 2 hear came on the radio: "A Man I'll Never Be," "Feeling That Way/Anytime," Mac's live version of "I'm So Afraid"....
...Playing The Pretenders' 1st album over&over at top volume thruout the long hot summer of 1980, knowing that no matter how angry & frustrated I was, Chrissie Hynde had gone thru far worse, & survived 2 make great music about it....
...Meeting & marrying Cyndi & having endless musical discussions/arguments with her over how much Pat Benatar a person could stand 2 hear ... how much Madonna was good 4 1 ... how much Country could a person listen 2 B4 Bcoming a redneck....
...Seeing The Go-Go's & A Flock of Seagulls with Cyndi & losing my hearing... Seeing King Crimson with Mary & wishing KC had steamrolled all of us in the audience -- they did everything BUT run over us, & we just wanted MORE....
...Making love while the stereo played Pat Metheny or Miles Davis or Nick Drake or mix tapes of off-the-wall '70s bands....
...Using music as a way 2 build me up 4 the day ahead when I was working as a reporter ... & as a way 2 bring me back down gently at the end of the day....
...Seeing my kids grow old enuf 2 sing along with the Oldies we always played on the home stereo & when we were travelling in the car. It was when I heard my kids sing along with all the words 2 The Cowsills' "Hair" & when my daughter asked me 2 put "Behind Blue Eyes" on the home stereo that I finally felt maybe I'd raised the kids right....
...Heading 4 the store with the car full of my Xtended family, singing along with that silly Eminem song that makes fun of Michael Jackson & asks you 2 scream & wave yer hands in the air....
...Singing "American Pie" karaoke-style at a backyard wedding, me & my girlfriend & her X-husband singing the verses when the folks who'd TRIED 2 do the song couldn't keep going 4 the full 8 mins ... & we didn't even have the lyrics in front of us....
...When my son was 2 years old his favorite song in the world was Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work." When he was 4 it was The Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town." Now he's more likely 2 point me toward something good I might otherwise miss -- like Coheed and Cambria's "The Road and the Damned" & "Feathers." We still agree on a lotta music -- later Rush, Wigwam's "Bless Your Lucky Stars," Camel, quite a few others....
...There R still songs that hit me hard emotionally, that can make me cry if I think about them 2 much: "This Woman's Work," Peter Gabriel's "Family Snapshot," Fleetwood Mac's "Silver Springs" & "Landslide" (which I 1st thot was about nothing, but which has gained a lot in meaning 4 me over the years), Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," Blue October's "Calling You" -- most recently it happened with Kelly Clarkson's "I'm Already Gone." I can't even always tell you why. They sum up regrets I have, things I wished I'd said, years I feel like I wasted....
...I bitch about lame radio programming, but these days when I'm listening 2 Oldies I'm much more likely 2 B thinking about where I was & what I was doing when some old hit was popular ... than I am 2 B paying much attention 2 the actual song....