Flashback Friday - Music, Music, Music!

What role did music play in your growing up years? What, if any, music do you associate with early childhood? What music style or songs were popular when you were in high school? How did you listen to music - on the radio, albums, etc. Did you have a stereo in your room? Did you attend concerts when you were a teenager? Did the music you liked cause conflict with your parents? What song or songs take you back to a certain place and time of your youth?

I don't even know where to start with this post! I love music and have loved it since my earliest memories of singing hymns at church. If you are a regular Saturday visitor to my blog, you know that hymns still resonate with me and speak to my heart like nothing else.

When I was little, we had an old record player. We had mostly 33 1/3 rpm records, but I remember my dad had about three 78 rpm records of a man singing hymns and other inspirational songs. When I was probably in about the 4th grade, we got a stereo - one of those old consoles that had a sliding door on top and one side held the records. That was so exciting! My parents had that until we moved my mom into assisted living a few years after my dad died.

I was a little bit nerdy as a child in the music I liked. I can't believe I am about to admit this on the world wide web, but I loved The Lawrence Welk Show when I was in elementary school. I was convinced I was going to grow up and marry Tom Netherton! I used to tape the show on my mom's little cassette player and play it multiple times during the next week. I would stand in the living room and hold a pretend microphone and imagine I was singing on stage.

In the early days of contemporary Christian music, groups such as Truth, Eternity, and the Heritage Singers just fascinated me. I thought it would be so cool to be in a group like that.

My parents were a more than a bit horrified at the rock music that was popular in the 1960's and beyond. When I was in third grade, my class did a little dance at the school's Fall Festival. There wasn't much dancing to it - I think they just kinda swayed back and forth. But I wasn't up there. Part of it was the dancing - my strongly legalistic Baptist parents weren't about to let me do that! But a lot of the reason was the raucous song that was being danced to: Sugar, Sugar by the Archies! That is almost elevator music by today's standards!

I don't even think they cared about the lyrics; I doubt they even listened to the song enough to even know what it said! In fact, when I was in high school and my best friend went with us on a vacation, we would laugh at my dad because he could only stand to have the car radio on the pop station for a little while; if a particularly fast song came on, he would switch it. . .to a country station! We always said "Those lyrics are a lot worse - and you can understand them!"

Some of the songs from my younger (elementary) years that stand out are a result of hearing my siblings play their little FM radio include Billy, Don't Be a Hero (anti-Vietnam War song), Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree, and The Carpenters. We didn't get to buy popular albums, but one sister actually had a Glen Campbell LP, and she and I loved Long Black Limousine. The two summers that I spent a week with my brother and his wife we listened to their Simon & Garfunkel records a lot, and my favorite was The Sound of Silence

And of course, there was The Streak! ("Is that you, Ethel? What do you think you're doing?! You get your clothes on!. . .Say it isn't so, Ethel!") (If you "youngsters" watch that link, you'll get to see an actual record player with an automatic arm!) And the one that horrified 2nd Cup Lid to find out that I liked was Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band; it's a raunchy song, but I always loved the harmony!

When I was in high school, I listened to both contemporary Christian music and pop. Contemporary Christian music favorites of mine were the Imperials, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Evie Tornquist, and Amy Grant, who was just releasing her first record.

I have been sitting at my computer for more than two hours watching/listening to YouTube clips of songs that are now considered oldies that I loved in high school. It's funny how hearing a song can transport you right back to another time and place! The late 1970's had some wonderfully romantic music. . .and some songs that I realize now are so melancholic and depressing! Of course, I loved the BeeGees. Andy Gibb. David Gates & Bread. (Goodbye Girl and Lost Without Your Love. Olivia Newton-John. Abba. I loved the Commodores (Three Times a Lady and Still). And Babe\ by STYX. Dan Hill's Sometimes When We Touch. (I liked some sleazy songs! Maybe it's a good thing I didn't date a lot!) With a Little Luck by Paul McCartney's group Wings. Anne Murray's You Needed Me was a favorite. And I loved Kenny Rogers. And Dolly Parton's Here You Come Again takes me back to the angst of boyfriend ups and downs!

I was always misunderstanding things I heard. No confused lyrics pop into my mind right now, but when I was in high school, I thought "Hall & Oates" was "Haulin' Oats" -- and I couldn't figure out why they were on the pop station instead of country!

And lest you think I have an indelible memory, remembering one song leads to another, plus I found this website!

Oh, and I do remember in Journalism we loved to tease the editor with Randy Newman's Short People! I think she was 4' 10". I was a whole foot taller than she was!

One thing I did notice while listening to these old songs. . .it is easy to feel the heaviness of the emotion. My heart and mind are much happier listening to a great Christian song!

When I was in college, I pretty much stuck with Christian music - it was really exploding with new talent. Twila Paris, Sandi Patty, Michael W. Smith, Petra, DeGarmo & Key, Harvest, Steve Archer, First Call, Larnelle Harris, Wayne Watson, Steve Green, Gaither Vocal Band (when it was called The New Gaither Vocal Band!). . .the list goes on and on! And one of the first things I bought when I graduated from college and got a job was a stereo! It was great - had both a record player and a cassette player! Kids today with their iPods don't even realize how good they have it!

I gotta stop. Here's a song I always loved from Amy Grant's very first album, released in 1977. Look how young she and Michael W. Smith (at the piano) are!




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