My Confusing Musical Past

Back in April my wife asked me---What do you want for your birthday?

“An I-pad,” I said confidently.

She says I don’t listen to her. I wanted an I-pad. I got an I-pod. A doozy of an I-pod. This is the mother of all MP3 players. At last count I had over a thousand songs on it and haven’t yet made a dent in the memory.

I was one of those geeks who listened to Top-40 in high school. Most of my friends were so much more sophisticated musically. They had discovered KSHE-95, the Rock of St. Louis. I was lost until I got to college and started listening to KADI, the stepping stone to KSHE. For me it started with Bruce Spingsteen’s Tenth Avenue Freezeout….and led to a love affair with many of the more innovative bands of the late sixties and seventies.

Oh I loved commercial bands like the Grass Roots, Bob Seger, Steely Dan and the Guess Who….but I also completely fell for obscure artists like Thunderclap Neuman, and St. Louis favorites Head East and Foghat.

I remember the day I had my eight track installed in my Chevy Impala. I played Boston over and over again as I drove to visit friends in Worden, Illinois and made the homecoming circuit in Prairietown, Alhambra and Highland.

But I soon became a broadcaster and couldn’t pick my music. My work led me to a country station in Springfield where I learned to understand and enjoy Ronnie Milsap, Earl Thomas Conley and Alabama. In fact, the first song played on my family’s radio station in 1984 was from a new duo---The Judds. The song was “Why Not Me?”

As I get older, I find myself fascinated with even stranger deviations of my 1970s rock foundation. I simply love Sinatra and can listen to him for hours. Such an extraordinary talent! The Allman Brothers Band represents steel guitar opera to me. I adore the Glenn Miller Band and long to someday bring them to our college’s Coliseum for a dinner/dance.

And the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me occurred last week when I actually downloaded a Barry Manilow album. I listened to it on the riding lawnmower.

You know, Barry writes the songs that make the whole world sing.

So you see I am quite the confused puppy. My new mega I-pod has about every genre of music and I listen to it all.

But I still want an I-pad.

Got it, dear?