Calendar of Music
- bmsimpson
- Aug 9
- 3 min read
If I sat here for a while and pondered my past, I could probably come up with hundreds of life events that I could tie to one song or another. Simply put, me and my friends may have been the first generation who was literally raised on music. Everyone had at least one radio in their home, almost everyone had a record player, some had reel to reels, and it seemed like the music never stopped. Every car had a radio. When I was in junior high, AM radio was being replaced with better sounding FM radio that was run by college kids who were picking the music that the entire nation was falling in love with. Radio, of course, evolved into 8 track, then to cassettes, onto CD’s, and so on. Just a few years before FM came onto the scene, Lawrence Welk and big bands had been replaced by 1950’s pop. That grew into 1960 rock and roll. But in the late 60’s through the 70’s American and British music exploded and it changed our lives forever.
If I was working on my car, there was music playing. If someone was painting their house, there was a radio on in the background. Summer sunshine was accompanied with the sound of rock and roll. If we were drinking beer or just hanging out, there was always music. Our entire world had become a long extended series of songs.
When I think about my old friend Barry who died not long ago, I recall being at his house listening to American Pie and the Beatles. I remember sitting in my brother’s apartment one day, smoking a joint that we had to quickly douse because my mother was knocking at the front door. I can still hear Fleetwood Mac Rumors playing on his stereo. The same brother introduced me to Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run album when we were riding down I-95 to buy tickets for a Bob Dylan concert. My high school years could be summed up by Freebird, Green Grass and High Tides, Kansas, Marshall Tucker and Edgar Winter. My first four years in the Air Force was Queen, old Doors albums, Aerosmith, David Bowie, and Pink Floyd. The truth is that the talent was endless and there was music for every mood and occasion. Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Jackson Brown, Santana, Credence Clearwater Revival, Hendrix, Tina Turner, and the Rolling Stones. I could fill five more pages with songs and artists and I have no doubt that my entire life could be broken down, decade by decade, event after event, by the songs that filled my heart and mind, and influenced my thoughts and attitudes. If you want to find a Peace of My Heart or just go along with me and be a Simple Man, music will get you there.
No matter what kind of music we were listening to, there could be no dispute that we were all listening to something back in the day. And there was more original styles and beats and rhythms and combinations of notes and lyrics than we could begin to wrap our musical minds around.
When I think back on my life and I hear the music and tunes and lyrics, I smile. My life has been good and the music has been good. Each memory brings back a song and each song brings back a memory. Sometimes the whole Magic Carpet Ride seemed sort of like a Stairway to Heaven.
Dobie Gray probably said it best when he sang his unforgettable lyrics.
“Oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away.”
And we did.
We got lost in the music and we drifted away.
