I can relate

[sadie65]

As a child of the 70's and 80's...I can totally relate to this. But I also think it doesn't matter what your generation is...music is a connection.

http://www.rushvillerepublican.com/cnhi ... ndarystory

Casuscelli: Music, the soundtrack of our lives

Mike Casuscelli
SEI Publisher

Watching the Grammy Awards last night allowed me to drift back to my childhood. Tributes to Sly and the Family Stone and songs by Paul McCartney, a former member of the Beatles, reminded me of the way music influenced my life. And, how much it has changed today.

When I was really young, many, many years ago, the first favorite group I remember was a band by the name of Herman’s Hermits. I used to practice my English accent and sing one of their popular songs that went something like this; "I’m leaning on the lamp post at the corner of the street until a certain little lady comes by…" I’m not sure why I liked the song, or if I was truly waiting for that certain little lady, or if my accent was even close, but I sure practiced a lot.

My taste in music ran the gamut from old Herman’s Hermits to Seals and Croft, Jefferson Starship, to Led Zeppelin, the Moody Blues, Santana, America, CCR, The Temptations, Elton John, Emerson Lake and Palmer and many more that I can’t remember or choose not to mention. I choose not to mention those groups on the grounds it may lead you to change your opinion of me.

Ah, what the heck, here are a few more that I enjoyed frequently… Jethro Tull, Chicago, the Eagles, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (my all-time favorites), Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, the Beach Boys, Meatloaf, Styx, Steve Miller Band and too many more to mention. You can tell my taste in music (those of you who are familiar with those groups) was all over the board. And, no, I never liked the Rolling Stones and still don’t today.

Some of my favorite songs then are still my favorites today. My reminiscing brought me back to listening to music on my radio and falling asleep to music playing on my record player. Yep, each night I would load up a bunch of albums and let them roll until I fell asleep. Many times I was awakened to the skip, skip, skip sound as the record player needle went round and round at the end of the album. To this day I can generally tell you what songs are on my favorite albums and in what order they play.

I even remember running to the record store to pick up Billboard’s #1 hit of the week on 45 vinyl. Remember popping those plastic disks into the center of the 45s in order to play them on your record player? I remember the song on the other side of the 45 that was not as popular. There were some pretty obscure songs on the backside of those popular 45s. Sometimes you were lucky to get two hits on one record.

Then came 8-track tapes and you could play your favorite music in the car without having to wait for the radio station to get around to your song. And, the best part of the 8-tracks was that you could mix up the order of the songs without getting into the mundane sequence in which they were listed. Skipping those songs you did not like was as easy as clicking on a button. Then we evolved into cassettes, CDs and now I have no idea where we are. I think mp3 players (whatever those are) are the fad.

Kid’s today can go anywhere to get their music. Computers, cell phones and, I am certain, there are places that I’ve never dreamed of. My children have been brainwashed to hear lots of my favorite music and I find they really like what I listened to as a youngster. The only song I ever remember my parents listening to was “The Unicorn” by the Irish Rovers and lots of that Lawrence Welk bubbly music. I can’t forget my mom’s passion of watching Tom Jones. WOW! That’s scary.

The bottom line of my memories was hearing songs that meant something to me and helped me identify a time and place in my life. Regardless of the relevance of the words or music, I still relate situations to songs I once enjoyed.

So, when I heard "Poppa was a Rolling Stone" during the tribute to Sly and the Family Stone I couldn’t help but regress into a dream world of memories from the past. For a short period of time I was able to push life’s fast pace aside and, as Steve Miller once sang, just watch "time keep on slippin, slippin, slippin into the future."