Cherry River (Soundtrack of My Life)

Have you ever searched for something only to find it when you weren't looking for it?

       This post is a continuation of sorts from my previous post so you might want to start there if you didn't read it--it's short.   The following post will likely be short as well.





Cherry River

        In 1975 I ran away with the circus--or actually it was a stage magic show.  That would be my lifestyle for the most part for the next 15 years.  There were a few diversionary periods that involved a first marriage, having a kid, getting divorced, being depressed for a while, meeting a new woman and getting married again and having three more kids.  Throughout it all I was working on first a magic show and then a theatrical stage production for over a decade.

        That's not this story though since what I'll be relating is not so much a story as it has to do with the incidents that are interspersed throughout our lives, how we feel about our life incidents, and how they can affect us later.  And maybe in the end what I'll be telling will only appear to relate to any of these things other than only the most remote ways.   An impressionistic memoir perhaps?  Or merely thoughts passing from my mind's memory to your computer screen.

          Spending so much time on the road meant my record collection sat at my parents' house gathering dust.   Now I would be spending much of my time in my vehicle or in motel rooms.  The music medium of choice during this period was no longer vinyl, but now it was cassette tape.  Hours were often passed on the road so that meant I was continually building a cassette tape collection.  If there was time that needed to be killed in towns that were new to me then I mass murdered minutes in record stores wherever I happened to be.  

          I would peruse the cassette bins searching for albums that I might have recently read about or for new releases by old favorite artists.   Sometimes when I'd get to the G section I might think about my old favorite group The Good Rats with little expectancy of actually finding anything by the group.  I was certain that they had disbanded, but it never hurt to look anyway.

           Another record store section I always checked out was the cut out bins.  Since many of my favorite vinyl albums had been discovered in the cut-outs, I was always ready for a bargain price spent on some new-to-me discovery or some old favorite that I was happy to add to my tape collection.   Typically I would come away from my searches with a few selections to while away future travelling time.  Besides, I always had money to blow when I was working on the road.  To me, new music seemed vital to my sanity in a sense.

          It was in 1985 I think it was and, if I remember correctly, I was in Louisiana--Lafayette I believe--when in a mall music store cut-out cassette bin I found a treasure trove that I had never expected to find.  There were something like five different Good Rats releases from 1975 until more recent dates.  I was elated with my find and bought them all along with some other interesting albums.   Upon later listening I discovered that The Good Rats were even better than that first vinyl album by them that I had purchased in the University of Tennessee student center bookstore.  Now The Good Rats were officially one of my number one favorite rock and roll groups.

         The first cassette that I listened to was the 1979 release Birth Comes to Us All.   The song that really hit me and stuck with me was "Cherry River"--a song that in some strange way tapped into everything my road life represented to me.   It's a druggie song from the way I interpret it, but in the more metaphorical sense the song symbolized the hypnotic effect of constant travel and my continual quest for the next perfect experience.   I could especially relate to the image of driving outside of Butte, Montana listening to Johnnie Ray.   Not that I had any Johnnie Ray cassettes, but I had plenty of music that represented all eras of recorded music and beyond back into the eras of classical music.  A Johnnie Ray cassette could have easily fit into my eclectic collection.

         Listening to Johnnie Ray at night on a winding road outside of someplace like Butte, Montana epitomized so much of road life.  Sometimes weary after having put many miles behind us, waiting to get to the next motel or wherever we were heading at the time.  In retrospect it all does seem like some kind of crazy drug-induced dream experience.  So much remembered with even more forgotten. They were the good years, or some of the best at least.  Or maybe they were just vastly different and strange in a life that has been mostly good.

        I can't complain.  I feel as though at some time--or times--in my past I have drunk deeply from the Cherry River of imagination and reality and memory and contemplation of more miles to one day be traveled.  I want more.   More than I can ever drink in one lifetime.  More than any life can hold.  The river of experience and life is worth the search that it takes to find it.

          Have you ever searched for something for a long, long time and then found it later on when you weren't even looking for it?     What is one big experience that you would like to relive?   What one thing that you haven't done yet are you still looking forward to doing eventually?
    



In this post I offer another in my Soundtrack of My Life series.    Robin at Your Daily Dose has been doing the Soundtrack of my Life posts on her blog for a while now.   I had done a few of my own "life soundtracks" on my Tossing It Out blog as well as the song series (starting at this post) I did for my 2014 Blogging from A to Z April Challenge on Wrote By Rote. Be sure to visit and follow Your Daily Dose for more Life Soundtrack info.

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When the Music Comes Back to Me (Soundtrack of My Life)

        How many songs do we hear in our lifetimes?   Thousands?  Millions?   Each of us probably hears at least one new song per day if we are out and about or listening to some kind of media.  Often we might not even notice, but the songs are there.

         In this post I offer another in my Soundtrack of My Life series.    Robin at Your Daily Dose has been doing the Soundtrack of my Life posts on her blog for a while now.   I had done a few of my own "life soundtracks" on my Tossing It Out blog as well as the song series (starting at this post) I did for my 2014 Blogging from A to Z April Challenge on Wrote By Rote. Be sure to visit and follow Your Daily Dose for more Life Soundtrack info. If you like you can listen to this version of "Lover, Come Back to Me" while you read the post.





Evocative Music That Haunts Us

         Of all the many songs we hear in our lifetime, some we like, some we don't, and some are basically background noise like an unnoticed soundtrack of a film.   The music is always there even if only in our heads or some faraway place in memory.  Why are humans so drawn to music?  Or more specifically, why do certain songs tap into some distant hidden place within us?

         Even for those who may claim they don't like music, don't pay attention to it, or willingly resist it--what would the world be like without music.   Think, if you will, of a movie without a musical score or television commercials with no trace of music.  Okay, some do exist, but not many.  Think further of a club or a party with absolutely no music--that might be your preference some times, but most people might find this a bit awkward.  Music is a soundtrack to many things.  Even armies march to music.

          Music can affect us in the moment or take us back into our pasts.   Therein lies what is for me a mystery.  Why do certain songs affect us deeply?  Sometimes the melodies haunt us like ghosts, while sometimes they softly brush past us like a soft kiss of a loved one from another time and place.  A sweetness of sound.   A stirring that is as vital as the sound of our own breathing and our hearts beating.   There are times when a song comes back to me and reminds me of something specific or some vague thing that I can't quite recall.

          Recently when I saw the the film Deep in My Heart, I heard a song that I hadn't heard in many years.  "Lover, Come Back to Me" is a tune that I've heard since childhood.   It's a song that has been recorded by many artists.   The melody is the kind that seems melancholy and poignant even though many of the recordings are done in an uptempo jazzy style.   Even with that happier sound, this melody makes me reminiscent and perhaps a tad sentimental.   To me it's just that kind of a melody.   Maybe it is attached to some specific childhood memory or perhaps it merely evokes some undefinable wistfulness that is attached to a time, a place, or even a person.   Or maybe it is just one of those kinds of songs that causes a gentle swell of passing emotion.  There are songs like that for me.

         I wonder if others feel the same way about certain types of melodies.  There is probably no universal melody that moves all of us in the same way.  Undoubtedly some of the feelings brought about by music are generational, cultural, or based on personal experiences.  What works for me might not work for many people or maybe no one else.  Still these types of evocative melodies and songs are part of my life soundtrack.

          If my life were a movie, I'm sure "Lover, Come Back to Me" could work well in a scene or two.   To me it's a beautiful song and I can't explain exactly why.

           What songs move you deeply?    Do you prefer slow songs or faster songs?   Why do you think our memories are stirred by certain songs?

           If you haven't voted on my most recent Battle of the Bands post I hope you will by visiting Tossing It Out.

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Marvin's Records

Vinyl record collection at student-run CKMS station at the University of Waterloo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        From the title of this post one might expect a story about a store called "Marvin's Records."   My dear friend since high school, Marvin, would love to have owned a record store.  He used to talk about it a lot when we were younger and had more time to dream.  His dream even captivated me.  A record store seemed like a great business to run--selling our favorite things while listening to music all day.  What a dream job that would have been!

         As things turned out, neither one of us ever opened a record store or even worked in one.  I went my way which kept me touring with a stage show for years and then later managing a costume supply company.  Marvin worked a series of jobs mostly in manufacturing industries.  He stayed in Tennessee while my destiny landed me in Los Angeles.  We both married and started families and bought houses to settle down in lives a couple thousand miles from each other--literally worlds apart.  But there was one common bond that remained between us--a love for music.

        In high school, as our friendship developed starting in senior math class where we sat next to each other at the back of the classroom, we began to share our common interest in popular music.  We had both begun collecting records, modestly due to financial constraints, and we'd talk about the music we owned and that which we hoped someday to own.

         As the years went by we both started amassing fair sized collections.   There were some albums that were so essential that we both owned copies.  Then there were the many albums found in cut-out bins or purchased according our individual tastes.  The ones that he had that I didn't--and vice versa--we each took a keen interest in.  Still there are albums of his that I remember listening to that I'd like to hear again but they are difficult to find even on YouTube or Amazon.  Mostly those were the cut-out albums.  I had a good collection of vinyl and Marvin had an equally good collection.  We both took good care of our albums.

          Now I've sold most of my collection and kept my absolute favorites which amounts to maybe 100 to 200 albums.  Trying to downsize you know.  The other day when I was talking to Marvin on the phone, I asked about his record collection.  He said he still had all of his old albums, but, like me, didn't listen to them other than on very rare occasions.   Marvin thought he might decide to start selling them on EBay, but wasn't sure. I know the feeling.  It was hard for me to part with so much of my vinyl.  I still think about some of those albums that got sold.  And I think of Marvin's record collection.  So many hours spent with great music listening.

          If there really were a store called Marvin's Records and my friend Marvin owned it, he could just put his old collection in inventory.  Sure, so much music can be downloaded on a computer or other gadgets that the technology of media storage is evolving to the point where maybe someday there won't be stores that sell recorded music.   However the upside is that vinyl has seen a resurgence and record stores have been opening in many places.  Vinyl still has a lot of fans.

           Maybe there is still hope for Marvin's Records.   Ah, what a great job just listening to music all day while you do the work you do in a record store.   It could happen you know.

            Is there a certain type of store that you've long dreamed of opening?   Have you ever or do you now own a store of any kind?     Do you have a collection of something that you might like to turn into cash?

From the Cut Out Bins: Frank Sinatra

Nothing But the Best (album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The following is my response to Stephen T. McCarthy at Battle of the Bands.

      My parents had a nice little collection of albums prior to the time I started accumulating my own collection.  When I say little, I'm guessing that they might have had anywhere from 100 to 200 vinyl LP's at any given time.  The life of an album was probably relatively short-lived in our household because to be honest they didn't take the best of care of their records.

        When it came to buying records my father would go to record stores in search of very specific types of albums--invariably any sort of album that had to do with circus, carnival, or something that he construed to have something to do with show business.  He rarely looked for the typical pop albums as far as I can recall and for his specialty albums he would pay the market retail prices.

        On the other hand, my mother usually bought pop albums, hit compilations, or a variety of other albums that she found in the bargain priced bins in places like the supermarket or variety stores.  There were albums by artists such as Francis Bay Orchestra, Perez Prado, Ray Coniff, and many others whose albums somehow wound up being sold at discounted prices.  That's where she must have gotten the Frank Sinatra albums we had in the house prior to 1966.

         Looking on the internet now I can't seem to find any albums with all the songs as I remember them.  I find all the songs I remember, but not on the same album.  If I'm remembering correctly there was one album that consisted of Sinatra's older material such as "That Old Feeling", "Paradise", "The Nearness of You", "Laura" and some others.  Then there was the lusher material from the 50's such as "I Can't Get Started", "Moonlight in Vermont", "Try a Little Tenderness", "I Cover the Waterfront", and others that came from the Billy May/Nelson Riddle albums.  

          I'm thinking that there were some compilations that were available then that are not available now.   On the other hand my memory could be just totally faulty about this, but I'm not positive about this.  The way I played those albums the song line-ups should be etched in my memory, but then that was 50 years ago and a lot of memory could be blended in with all the other albums between then and now.

          Seriously though I played the heck out of those Sinatra albums in my junior high school days. I probably listened to them more than my mother did.  In quiet times when I was alone and in a contemplative mood I'd put on one of the Sinatra albums and immerse myself in the words and music.  Sometimes I'd concoct secret agent movies in my head using the songs in the imaginary soundtrack.  Some of those plots I wrote down and probably still have them somewhere in my old papers.

           At this time I was also listening to a lot of Tijuana Brass, Beach Boys, and Jan & Dean so to lump Sinatra into my adolescent listening schedule was saying a lot about the nature of the guys music.   For me a lot had to do with Sinatra's phrasing.  He sang lyrics with such style that it was almost like a melodic conversation.   He was telling me something in song and waiting for my response.  The sound of the orchestral arrangements didn't hurt either.  I'd always had an appreciation for good arrangements and Sinatra had some of the best behind his vocals.

          No, I can't ever knock Sinatra because he kept me company and enchanted me for many hours of my younger days.   Sinatra was like a cool uncle who made movies that I liked.  I still have a distant memory of going to the theater when I was about 6 years old to see Sinatra's film The Joker Is Wild and hearing the beautiful song "All the Way".  That was one of my favorite songs when I was a kid and it's always haunted me.  That movie made me melancholy whenever I thought back on it.  And I thought Sinatra was the best--even better than Elvis who was all the rage at the time but didn't have the cool urban hip of Sinatra.

        I wish I could find those Sinatra albums that my mother had--the same songs in the same order. I probably have all the songs in the compilations that I currently have in my CD collection, but I want to go back and have that same exact listening experience.   Then again, if I heard it would I remember?

         Did you appreciate Frank Sinatra when you were a kid?   Do you have a favorite Sinatra film?  What music from childhood haunts you the most?

Watertown: Sinatra's Forgotten Album

  

         My middle school years were spent at Merrillville Junior High in the northwest corner of Indiana.   We moved there in October of 1963 right before John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the Beatles hit the American shores to make modern music history.   I was a socially awkward kid in the transition between my much beloved childhood years and the intimidation of growing into my teen years.   Music was one of the many refuges I had to escape the insecurities brought by growing older.

         Since my earliest childhood I enjoyed listening to the music from my parents' record collection.  They had eclectic tastes that ran from pop, easy listening, classical, early rock, and odd selections such as compilations of bullfight and circus music.   The variety of styles they listened to shaped my own musical tastes so that I had a broad appreciation of all styles of music.

          Having spent her late childhood and early adolescent years during the Bobby Soxer Era of the 1940's when Frank Sinatra was the idol of many young girls, my mother was a Sinatra fan.  There were always some of his records in my parents' collection.   I too became a Sinatra fan and he became one of my favorite artists.

          During my junior high years I don't know how many of the other guys were listening to Sinatra, but I frequently listened to his music on the portable stereo in our family room.   My feelings would turn to romance as I'd listen to his songs about love.   I'd listen carefully to the lyrics of great songs like "Moonlight in Vermont", "I Can't Get Started", or "If I Had You" and occasionally try my hand at writing similar types of lyrics.  For a while I dreamed up a running James Bond type spy story in my head that was inspired by Sinatra songs.  The music of Sinatra fueled my imagination.

          Eventually the rock music of the 1960's won me over and that became my passion. Sinatra songs like "It Was a Very Good Year", "Summer Wind", and "Something Stupid" would continue to show up on the hit charts and I was happy to hear them played on the radio.   My mother continued to buy new Sinatra albums that I would listen to and enjoy.  Then, after I had started college, my mother received an 8-Track of the latest Sinatra album offered by the record club to which she belonged.   The album was Watertown.

          As soon as I began listening to the album I was hooked.   Sinatra's familiar style and phrasing was all there, but there was something striking about the songs.  For one thing the series of songs told a story, not in the way that a musical would, but it was more like reading a book or watching a movie.  They were excellent songs and I liked every one of them.    Watertown became a favorite tape that I listened to often.

           I tried to get some of my friends interested in the music, but none of them were Sinatra fans and the music didn't strike them as much as it did me.   It didn't matter though.  I continued to listen often to the tape until eventually it must have stopped working like 8-Tracks were notorious for doing or maybe it just disappeared.   The music was now etched in my mind and I often replayed the songs as I remembered them in my head.

           Years later I tried to find the album on cassette tape, but it was nowhere to be found.  Watertown never did go over much with the public so it was not in general release.  What was to me one of Sinatra's best albums was among his least popular and faded into obscurity.  It had attained critical acclaim when it was released, but it didn't get many sales so apparently the record company saw little reason to re-release it on newer recording formats.

          While researching my Battle of the Bands post at Tossing It Out I ran across some additional reasons that I liked the Watertown album so much.   This album was Sinatra's experimental foray into a more modern rock influenced sound.  Indeed, he had already recorded some albums that dabbled in rock sounds and popular hits like the Cycles album of 1968.   Besides Watertown being a concept album in the song cycle tradition, the songs were produced and co-written by Bob Gaudio who was one of the main creative forces behind one of my favorite groups in my junior high years--The Four Seasons.  Also on board with song lyric credits was Jake Holmes who wrote the song "Dazed and Confused" which was popularized by Led Zeppelin.

           Though the Watertown album has the fine backing of an orchestra, there is also a greater emphasis on a more rock-sounding ensemble of drums, bass, and guitar, giving the songs a bit more punch than preceding Sinatra albums had.   Later covers of songs from Watertown as recorded by groups like Cake and Bomb Dawg show how adaptable to rock the songs are.  Though not truly rock, Watertown put Sinatra on the cusp of an edgier sound while keeping him in the comfort zone of what he did best.

          Please be sure to visit Tossing It Out to vote for your favorite version of the song "What's Now Is Now" from the great Watertown album.

          What is your favorite Frank Sinatra album?   Do you think Sinatra's music will continue to be appreciated by many in the future?    What were some of your musical faves when you were a kid or teen that most of your peers would have been unlikely to listen to?

       

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Music As A Memory Prompt

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

          Prior to the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge of 2014 I did a series of posts about music and some of the memories inspired by music.   This concept came about as a cross promotion for my Battle of the Bands posts I do on my main blog Tossing It Out.

          Thinking about how certain music and particular songs prompt memories for me, I came up with a few identifiable music prompts.   Here is my prompt list:

1)   Music of an Era:   There are songs that immediately evoke memories for those knowledgeable about historical musical eras such as the Jazz Age, the Swing Band Era, the British Invasion, and other historic music eras.

       In my own life I also can identify certain time spans that I might refer to as personal eras.  These were time periods--months and maybe years--when I was hearing the same songs repeatedly and there was a heavy listening preference regarding certain types of music.  Some of the personal eras overlap.   There is my parents' music that I listened to in my childhood, the AM top forty era of 1963 to about 1969, a disco/new wave era in the late 70's to early 80's, my 80's music era, and so on.  

        Now if I hear a song by the Zombies, the Allman Brothers, The Police, Depeche Mode, or Daniel Amos (a Christian rock band), I will often be reminded of certain times of my life when I was listening to that type of music.   If I listen now to songs by such artists I can be taken back to that time and use the memory as a writing prompt.

2)   Songs of a season:  Most typically these are Christmas songs, but they can also include songs that remind me of Fourth of July (Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever"), Easter ("Easter Parade"), and even songs that were signature hits that I relate to times of the year ("Sugar Shack" for the beginning of the school year or "Summer In The City" for the summertime).   Some of these songs I rarely hear now, but a time of year might make me recall certain songs or vice versa.

3)   Music that relates to a specific time:   There are certain songs that I recall exactly where I was, what the time of year was, and what I was doing at the time I heard the song.   For example, Alan Parsons Project "Eye in the Sky" I first heard on the radio while sitting in the parking lot of a supermarket in Billings, Montana in mid-June of 1982.    Or Steve Miller's "Abracadabra" on the radio as I drove late one night in 1982 toward Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan with lightning flashing on the horizon.  Then there was a Sunday night in October of 1968 when I picked up a St. Louis FM station long enough to hear them successively play CCR's "Suzy Q" and Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", changing my view of music in a drastic way.

       The concept of time also applies to certain precise times when I can recall hearing a song to the point where it caught my attention and stayed with my memory.  Many times these were songs I had heard frequently and not paid much attention to until that magic point in time where the song registered in some special way.  This might have happened due to hearing it on the radio, on the piped in music system at a store, at someone's house, or some other place where the listening choice was out of my control.

4)    Songs related to an event:   These would include Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March #1" at graduations. Wagner's "Wedding March (Here Comes the Bride)",  or any number of songs traditionally used for ceremonial purposes.   This also includes songs that might be specific to a personal event such as a party, a wedding, a funeral, or some other occasion.

        An example of the personal event experience was a funeral that I attended--I don't even recall who the funeral was for--where a young lady sang a song called "On Eagle's Wings" by one Michael Joncas.  That song stuck in my mind so strongly that for over a year I searched for a recording of it.  Thereafter, whenever I listened to that song, I recalled it being sung at that funeral.

          Concerts I have attended will also be vividly replayed in my memory when I hear a song that was performed in a concert that I had seen by that artist.  Jethro Tull's earlier music is a good example of this.  If I hear cuts from Thick As A Brick or Passion Play, parts of the concerts I saw with this band will replay in my mind.

5)   Songs that evoke a memory of a person:  This very personal category is frequently thought of in relationship to a romantic interest, but for me it also relates to friends and family members.   There are certain songs that will make me think of my father or mother or my sisters or brothers.   Some songs I identify strongly with certain friends, especially musician friends who may have performed the songs.   If I hear one of these songs my mind will immediately begin thinking about the person to whom I relate the song and in some cases more than one person.

6)   Songs that evoke a place:  This category can go together with any number of the above or it can stand alone.  For many songs and albums I hear, I am taken back to the basement of my parents' house in Tennessee or my old bedroom in our family's house in Indiana.  Some songs might take me back to a unique venue where I heard them performed in concert.  When I hear "Walking in the Sand" by the Shangri-Las I remember the old gym at lunchtime in the junior high school I attended.  When I hear Dan Fogelberg's "The River" I remember sitting late at night with my first wife in our VW Rabbit parked in front of her parents' house in Richmond, Virginia.   Some songs can transport me to an exact place where I remember hearing them.

       I'm sure there are other prompts or variations on the ones I've mentioned here.  Sometimes I enjoy just putting on an album or listening to a song and letting the memories flow.  I find that music can do that.  For me the music does that very well.

         Do you make similar connections with the music of your life?   Are there other types of memories that music can prompt for you?   Do you ever write stories, sketches, essays, or other work using music as your inspiration?   

Please visit Tossing It Out this Thursday May 15th for the next Battle of the Bands post.

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Volare #atozchallenge

Dean Martin   "Volare"  (1958)




Volare

        Music always filled my family's home when I was growing up.  I recall as a very young child listening on a portable record player to 78's that belonged to my mother and ones that she'd bought for me.   I loved them all whether it was "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" in my collection or "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" in my mother's collection.   For me all music was good.

        In 1958 when we moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, my parents bought brand new furniture for every room of the duplex they moved into.    The furniture they bought for this move  was the first they ever owned in their marriage.  Prior to that we'd lived in furnished rental houses.   It was like being born into a world where everything was new and for us I guess it was.

         One of the highlights of the new furniture was a hi-fi record player that they put in the dining room. The hi-fi design matched the rest of the furniture.  It was a Danish modern-looking affair light in color that stood on four dowel-like legs.  You could put a stack of LP records on the spindle and they'd play a couple hours.

         My mother would put a stack of records on and do her housecleaning while I swirled around the house acting like a kid.   I don't know where she got those first record albums but she had an assortment of compilations of the hits of the day along with albums by the popular artists like Frank Sinatra, Perez Prado, and Louis Prima with Keely Smith.  I enjoyed my mother's music and listening to it seemed to brighten her days.

         Then there was the radio.  When the hi-fi wasn't playing, the radio was often on.   The AM stations mainly played music.  I don't know if there was much in the way of talk stations then. If there was, that's not what my mother listened to in the daytime while my father was at work.  She listened to the music.

          And I listened to the music.  The boppy tunes and happy ditties.  Or sometimes it was those haunting tunes that were kind of happy and kind of sad.  Songs like "Volare" where Dean Martin sang about happy hearts and flying away and words in a mysterious language that made no sense to me.  It was a song that mystified me yet made me feel happy.

          The music of my mother and father is now my music along with so many other kinds of music. There are times I'd be content to fly off to the clouds on that old music.  In my mind, I'm still dancing in circles in the living room of that Pittsburgh duplex as my happy heart sings "Volare".

          What songs do you associate most with your childhood?    Did you have a stay-at-home mom and did she listen to music in the daytime?    How old were you when you first began to appreciate music?

         

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Memories on the Record Sleeves

Mom's Record Sleeve -Front (Photo credit: Jeff to the Maxx)

          Since we've been thinking about the memories that music brings in the previous few posts and considering that Musical Memories from A to Z will be the theme on Wrote By Rote for this year's Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, we might as well continue on the theme of music in this current post.  We got to this music topic due to the Battle of the Bands posts at my other blog Tossing It Out.   For an idea of what the Battle posts are about I invite you to visit my most recent Battle.

          As I had mentioned in previous posts, lately I've been going back through my vinyl collection and listening to the music from my past.  There are more memories to those albums than the music though.  The obvious answer would be the album covers.  Album cover art became very creative in the seventies. Back then I would listen to my albums and study the album cover artwork, lyrics, and artist information. Some of those album covers afforded hours of enjoyment.

         However one part of the album package that is often overlooked is the paper record sleeve that protected the vinyl LP.   There were many of these that did have lyrics or other aspects of the total cover art package, but probably the majority were just plain paper or plastic.  There was nothing to look at on those latter types.   They were merely functional.

            Especially in the 60's and into the seventies, some of the record sleeves had promos for other albums by artists who recorded on the same label.  Much like the coming attractions on today's DVD's, these sleeves would advertise other recordings that the label had to offer.

           I used to like to look at the sleeves in each album to get an idea about the artists that were out there.  Some I'd be very familiar with and perhaps even own albums by a few of them.  Others I might have seen at the record store.  Others were new to me.  Artists like Acker Bilk, Rod McKuen, or the San Sebastian Singers were first encountered by me on the record sleeves.

           Warner Brothers records sometimes even had a coupon that could be clipped and sent off with a quarter to get a catalog of the albums that the company had to offer.  I never sent for one of these catalogs, but once I did send off for a very nice boxed set of sampler music for something like three dollars.  It was an outstanding collection of music which I apparently got rid of sometime in the past.

          I've run across a few CD's that have had advertising circulars enclosed, but this has been a rarity.  They've never had quite the attractive appeal as the promotional record sleeves.   But then of course CD's very rarely match the artistic punch that LP's used to have.   The retro appeal of albums is not just the sound quality, but those fantastic album covers.  And on those certain occasions, the promotional record sleeve that took us beyond the album at hand to other albums that we might wonder about.

         Did you ever notice the promotional paper protective record sleeves?   Did you ever buy an album solely on the appeal of the cover without knowing anything about the music?    What are some of your favorite album covers?

         Please join me here starting on Tuesday April 1st as I embark on a journey of Musical Memories from A to Z.


       

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#atozchallenge Theme Reveal

        This is a special posting a day early from the normal Saturday schedule in order to be a part of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge Theme Reveal.    For more about the A to Z Theme Reveal Blogfest see the links at the bottom of this post.  

          My last several posts on this blog have been about music.  This has been in conjunction with the Battle of the Bands posts that I do on the 1st and 15th on my blog Tossing It Out.  The Battle of the Bands posts have been a bit of an audience dwindler in some ways, but since I enjoy these posts so much I've been adamant in my continuation to participate in this particular blogging event.  And there is a small audience of those who have shown an interest in these posts.  My plans are to continue the Battle of the Bands on a monthly basis.  My music posts on Wrote By Rote have been my attempt to do some cross promotion for the Battle of the Bands posts.

          For those who might be unfamiliar with the Battle of the Bands blog event to which I refer--and I sure that includes the majority of those reading this--the twice monthly blog posting is a contest between two versions of the same song.  In each post I pit two or more different versions of one song against each other, then readers vote in the comments as to which version is their personal favorite and why.  The following week I reveal which song version won the vote and which is my own favorite.  On the appointed days I am joined by four or more other bloggers who post their own battles at their sites.  It's fun if you enjoy music and comparing cover versions of songs to each other.  If that's something that sounds like something you'd enjoy I hope you will join me on Tossing It Out each month on the 1st and 15th.

         Since Wrote By Rote is a blog devoted to memoir, my recent music posts have been about the songs that I've chosen as my Battle of the Bands selections and some of memories these songs have evoked.   For most people, music has a power to take us back to the times we associate with that music.  Music taps us into past memories of people, places, and events.   In each of  my April posts I will present a song which my visitors can listen to if they wish and I will accompany each song pick with a short vignette that expresses the thoughts, feelings, or memories that particular song draws from within me.  

        Some of the songs you may know while others might be new discoveries for you.  Most of them will be songs that I consider to be beautiful, wistful, and even sad.  Some will be light and even somewhat funny.  They will all be songs that are meaningful to my personal history.  They might even become favorites of yours if they aren't already.

         Please join me here at Wrote By Rote in April for a musical journey as I explore Musical Memories from A to Z.  

          Does music play an important role in your life?   Do you often feel stirred when you hear songs from certain parts of your past?    Have you ever used a song or piece of music as a writing prompt?

        To see what other A to Z bloggers are doing during the April Challenge visit the Blogging from A to Z Theme Reveal Blogfest for the list.

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Digging into Musical History

Browsing in the Rough Trade Shop (Photo credit: Lee Jordan)

         
             The Battle of the Bands posts that I've been doing at my blog Tossing It Out have been dredging up memories for me.  I discussed some of this in the two posts preceding this current post.  Most of us attach personal memories to certain songs from our past.   Finding songs to use in my "Battle" posts have prompted me to do some research on the backgrounds of the songs and the artists performing them.  Since this musical history coincides with much of my personal history, a virtual mixtape of memories starts playing in my head to help me write my blog posts regarding this topic.

            This week for example I've used a Carole King / Gerry Goffin tune called "Snow Queen" which you can listen at Tossing It Out.   I had known this song from an old cutout album that I had bought back around 1971 or so.  I usually paid forty-nine cents to ninety-nine for albums on sale.  I didn't buy many albums at full record store cost back then.  I was always rather frugal.

           Sometimes I'd find albums by bands I was familiar with, but mostly there were artists that I didn't know.  Sometimes I'd recognize a name associated with other albums I owned and that would make me more interested in the mystery album that I was considering to buy.  Most of my album collection was probably purchased from the cut-out bins. Most of it was music that I liked.

            For one version of the Battle of the Bands song I used a cut from an album by Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends.   This is an album of mostly cover songs with a couple of originals.   The group sounds a bit like Brasil 66, the Carpenters, Fifth Dimension or other groups in that vein.  I enjoyed the album when I was in college, but forty years later listening back I think I more greatly appreciate what the Nichols Trio was doing.  It's an album lushly orchestrated with some very nice vocal work.

            But don't let me digress.

            My point as far as memoir goes is that by digging these old albums out and listening to them closely I can recall times when I heard this music before.  The melodies and sometimes the words swirl through my head as a wash of memories flood my mind.  The music stretches from my past into the future of that past time.  I remember prompted by the tracks on the vinyl.

           I suppose I would compare listening to a once familiar album to paging through a scrapbook or photo album looking at the images and remembering.  

            You might want to check out some of the videos on YouTube by Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends.

             Here are links to a few of their songs:

I'll Be Back

Cocoanut Grove

Don't Go Breaking My Heart


            Did you buy cut-out versions of albums?    What interesting albums have you found in the cut-out bins?     Do you have memories associated with buying record albums or listening to them?

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