Full Circle

I am not sure why, but lately I have been thinking about the music that played in my formative years. I suppose it may have something to do with Maegan’s impending marriage. She is embarking on a journey that will take her to the end of her life. Maybe I am reflecting on that journey and realizing that my journey has been a long and more or less happy one. I wish her all the happiness that I had and more.

 

What has that to do with music? Yeah, I don’t know. Right now I am listening to Elton John’s “Madman Across the Water” album in its entirety. Only nine songs, so I will still have some life left when it is over. I just had the thought that the song was written in 1971 and in 2017 there really is a madman across the water. This album resonated with me then as it does now, I would sit in a comfy bean bag chair with my Roots shoes, smoking a joint or two, having a cup of tea and reading Tolkien.

 

Next July, I will be able to smoke a joint while sitting on my couch with a coffee, orthopaedic shoes and a choice of a thousand books on my eReader. I will probably re-read Tolkien, but I find I like to play Carol King’s “Tapestry” album. I think it was written with the Lord of the Rings in mind. Carol doesn’t agree, but what does she know, she only wrote it.

 

I still have most of my albums collecting dust in boxes in the basement. My music listening now is done mostly with help from iTunes and Youtube. They say that vinyl has a better sound quality that MP3’s, but I can’t really tell the difference and if I can’t tell the difference, what does it matter. Besides, most of my albums have been badly mistreated over the years. Drunk and stoned people trying to place the needle on a particular track and dragging it over the rest of the side. I’m sure that some of the albums have a few burn marks from those same people. I remember coming home to find Rick Parker washing my albums in the kitchen sink because they were “dirty”. Surprisingly, they played at least as good after the cleaning as they did before.

 

I am missing some of my favourite albums of course. I would have taken them to a party and missed picking them up in a smoky haze. One of my roommates still has some of my albums that he insists were his. Who knows after forty years? I do! They are mine! A couple of the albums were lost when a good friend passed away suddenly. You can’t go to grieving parents and ask to go through their dead son’s record collection. I can and did live without them.

 

Like I said, they are in the basement and I am happy with pulling my music from the ether. That is where the inspiration for music comes from after all. It’s nice to see things come full circle.