Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
Oscar Wilde
It's funny but I feel a seductive pull from this website to write more. I should really go and put together that bookcase I got for Christmas but I have the urge to add another post first. I suppose this urge will dissipate after I have posted for a while. Do people who keep diaries also have the urge to continue writing?
I purchased a new toy yesterday from Future Shop. Its an ION Profile LP turntable that converts albums to MP3's. I have a fairly large collection of vinyl (approx. 1000 albums) hidden away in the basement. Over the years I replaced many of these records with compact discs but there are still many that I haven't replaced yet. It's either hard to find the record in CD format or it's just too expensive. Now with this ION turntable I plan to pull out my records and singles and convert them. Of course one has to listen to the record while it's being converted just to ensure it doesn't skip but that's okay...I get to hear some music that I haven't heard for years. They just don't play these songs on the radio anymore, but the topic of the sad state of radio today will have to wait for another day. Right now as I'm writing this post, I'm listening to and converting a Gordon Lightfoot record. This is great!
Although I'm not musically gifted in any way, I have always enjoyed listening to music. Two people during my early teen years (around 1973) influenced me and I thank them for getting me to enjoy music so much. When I was around 13, my friend Steve showed me his brother Eric's music system and record collection. I was amazed and hooked. Eric's room was full of stereo equipment, speakers and records. There were a couple of turntables and a large reel-to-reel tape deck. This was before cassette players were popular so Eric had the big reel-to-reel player instead. Steve put on a few records -- I think it was the British glam group Slade -- on Eric's system and blasted the music. It was great!
Around the same time, I was at another friend's house and his sister Debbie allowed us to play her albums. That's how we came to know groups such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Lighthouse, The Guess Who, and The Doors. It was shortly after this that I went to the local Woolworth's and bought my first album -- Creedence Clearwater's 1971 compilation album titled Creedence Gold.
From then on I was buying albums and singles. Later when I got my part-time job and my driver's licence, it was even easier to go buy records. I remember going to Super Clef and buying three or four albums at a time and often without knowing who the artist was. Many of my purchases were based soley on the album cover artwork. If the cover looked interesting then the album must also sound interesting, right? Yes, there were a few duds -- ever hear of "The Funky Chicken" (not the Rufus Thomas version) -- but surprisingly enough not that many were duds. One of my best record finds was the Australian Cast version of The Rocky Horror Show. If you ever get a chance, try listening to this version. A true gem.
Over the years my musical tastes have expanded. I now love the blues and jazz, and I have a growing fondness for the standards from the 40's and 50's -- Bing, Sinatra, Dean martin, the Andrews Sisters, etc. I have to confess that while living through the disco era in the mid to late 70's and hating disco at the time, I now actually enjoy much of it now. Must be a nostalgia issue. Actually, I apprieciate most types of music now but I still can't appreciate today's 'pop' music from artists like Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, etc. Also I'm not a fan of rap or new country. Who knows, as I get older I may start liking that too. I sure hope not though.
