Music

It wasn't until I got into high school that our family was finally able to afford a record player.  Before that my exposure to music was whatever was playing on the local radio station or the extreme priviledge of hearing recorded music on my cousins' family record player.  As I recall the first song I remember hearing on my cousins record player was "Bonaparte's Retreat." 
During my high school years, after my Dad died, I worked more kinds of jobs than I can even remember.  Some of the money I earned was spent at the local record shop buying  45 rpm records.  My sister, Virginia, who is two years younger than me, spent even a larger portion of her disposable income on music.  In small town Thermopolis, Wyoming, just about the only choice of music available was country music.  The local radio station played only country music.  My brain still contains a vignette of my past:  I am standing in Steward's Creamery making ice cream bars and listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford singing "Sixteen Tons" on the radio.  My love of music blossomed the first time I heard Elvis Presley.  To me, his music is timeless. Unlike other singers from my past, he sounds as good to me today as he ever did. 

Somewhere I acquired a 45 recorded by The 9 La Falce Brothers entitled "The Devil's Highway."  I loved that song!  I played it over and over and over.  It disappeared when I went into the Navy.  Several years ago I thought I might search the internet to see if I could find it.  I had just about given up when I saw it listed in the inventory of a small Florida record shop.  I pounced on it.  It cost me more than 5 times as much as the record cost new and I didn't care.  I got it and it was in perfect condition.  What a find!!  The first time I listened to it I was completely flooded with memories of the past.  What a treat!!  Somehow I get great pleasure in connecting things together in my mind.  I'll not lose that record again.

While in the Navy I became exposed to a much wider variety of music than I ever knew was available.  This was due to my friendship with people who had a lot more sophistication in their rearing than I had.  I had no idea that classical music could stir the soul like nothing else.  Today my favorite composers are the great Russian artists. Among these are Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky.  I was hooked.  I started exploring all avenues open to me.  When in San Francisco I went to see The Kingston Trio playing at a little club called The Hungary I.  I loved the music of Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Esquivel. 

Today I enjoy nearly all types of music.  The lone exceptions are Heavy Metal and Rap.  I can't seem to connect with these.  Among my current favorites are Flamenco Guitar artists and music from Italian opera.  I am also appreciative of zydeco and jazz.  Of course I absolutely love pop music from the 50s and 60s and lately I have been listening to some of Django Reinhardt's work.

A couple of years ago I got the idea to build a digital library consisting of both full recordings and MP3 recordings.  I started work on this with my customary fervor.  After ripping several hundred albums I made a spirit quenching discovery.  Everything I ripped had a low level background noise.  It was so low it was almost imperceptible but once I knew it was there, it became as obvious as a sore thumb.  I knew I could never accept this.  Even worse, I promised to make my work available to my friends.  I set about trying to find the source of the noise.  I tried everything I could think of including shielding every component in the process with aluminum foil.  Nothing worked.  In dismay I set the whole project aside while I tried to regroup my thinking.  I have to admit being discouraged since I had spent a great deal of time on this project.  I have since aquired a new computer and have made some test rippings.  They sound pretty good.  I am about to start again.  This time I plan to be a lot more critical in the process.  I will yet fulfill my promise to my friends.  I also have hundreds of 33 rpm records which I will someday digitize.  All I have to do is live long enough to do this.