Listening Skills

"Poor Dad. He doesn't have anything to listen to."  Dave Helms, circa 1987

My first music producing device was a small plastic record player. As best as I can remember it only played 45 rpm records, the small records with the big hole in the center. But as I think about it, it must have been that I only had 45 rpm records because the device on the center of the turntable could be lifted or dropped to accommodate different formats.  The first records I recall when  I was about three years were singles Carrots Grow from Carrot Seeds and My Old Virginie Shack.  It's very possible that one was the flip side of the other.  Mother must have bought for me more records, but those are the only two that I recall.

Then Mother and Dad inherited a large console record player from my great aunt when she upgraded. It wasn't a stereo as it only had one large speaker, but the sound quality was quite a step up from my small record player. The 33 1/3/  long play albums that I most remember were collections from Reader's Digest that they probably inherited with the unit.  I spent many blissful hours sitting by that unit listening to those albums. A soundtrack for the movie Rome Adventure was some of my favorite music. It sent me. The movie showed in  1962 so I was at least nine years old.

I assembled my first stereo when I was about fifteen years old. The components  consisted of a six watt-per-channel reel-to-reel tape deck as my receiver, a turntable and two speakers.  I mounted the speakers on adjacent walls in my bedroom to enhance the stereo effect. I seldom used the reel-to-reel, but I made very good use of the turntable. My serious adventure into the world of stereophonic music had begun. Strange thing.  Albums couldn't have cost very much, but my brother and I bought them together. We became co-owners of those records. After we heard Spinning Wheel on the radio, we pooled our resources, went downtown to the record store and bought the Blood, Sweat and Tears album, Purchasing an album was like Christmas morning, we were only familiar with that one song. My brother and I listened to it together. Expecting an  album of songs like Spinning Wheel we were utterly amazed with the first track was serene music played on a classical guitar and a choir of flutes ending with wind chimes, footsteps and a door closing.  This is rock music? And who the heck is Erik Satie?

Because of my love of music after high school, I took, I thought, the next logical step and majored in music. After seven years of college, two degrees and forty-five years of making music, my music life has come full circle. Instead of creating music, I listen to music. As it turns out, it's listening that I enjoy most of all. Technically, I was listening to choirs the entire time I was conducting them, but just listening requires much less time and effort. Also, because of my critical ear, no matter how good it was, I always heard the flaws in my own productions,  Sirius/XM, Spotify or a CD play music flawlessly every time with no effort from me. And no self-criticism from me. I didn't produce it.

I'm sitting at my current stereo system. It consists of my computer, Bose noise-canceling headphones and an external CD drive. And then, of course, I have my Bose surround-sound stereo system on wheels in my car. Music on the road is unique as the music and the constantly changing scenery create a combined aesthetic effect. Music in the car late at night has a quality that is unparalleled in any other context. Have you ever listened to Stairway to Heaven while alone on a lonely highway  after midnight?  That final a cappella motif after that incredible song is like from another world.

When my son was about six years old, my receiver (my tape deck) stopped working. Since it was about twenty years old,  I decided to not spend any money to get it repaired. For several months I was without a stereo. "Poor Dad. He doesn't have anything to listen to,."  Out of the mouth of babes.

My next stereo was a sophisticated rack of components including a pre-amp, 50 watt-per-channel amp, an equalizer, a cassette deck, and a high quality turntable and speakers, Later I replaced those speakers with tower Polk Audio speakers. They were somewhat unsightly, but  the sound was stunning.

People comment to me about what I remember. You read what I remember and have no idea what I don't.. Although I remember that my brother and I co-owned those records, about thirty of them,  I don't remember what we did with them when he left for college.  I think we must have flipped coins or drew straws as we loved them equally as much. I really don't know.  What I do know is that beginning with My Old Virginie Shack when I was three,to this soundtrack of Mark McKenzie on Spotify I'm listening to now, listening to music has brought me more therapy than  money can buy and more joy than I have words to express.

When my time comes, I don't want streets of gold and a mansion on a hilltop, just give me a cabin in the woods, a laptop with internet connection, Spotify and some noise-cancelling headphones.  There's only so much of Amazing Grace I want to hear.