So anyhow, I'm a guy in my mid 50's who remembers watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964. I got my first stereo somewhere in my mid teens. I started to move away from listening to Mom and Dad's Montovani and Percy Faith orchestra records sometime between that Beatle's experience and getting my stereo when I expanded my collection through the old "your first record is $1 and receive 11 more free" order from the Columbia record club probably somewhere around 1968. In that bunch (a rip-off actually becuase I got only about 2 of the albums I actually selected on the form) were some albums that started expanding my listening experience. As I finished high school and went away to college, I had maybe 20-25 albums and much of it fairly tame rock. That collection grew exponentially during my 4 years in college. Those college years opened up that world of music...as well as a few others ;-)... to me. Listening to music became a social experience for me and many others during that time. The music playing on the stereo while having a beer...or other things...or at parties or while playing cards was not background. It was part of and important to the occasion.
I remember buying that new record, placing it on the turntable, placing the needle on the vinyl, then sitting down and pouring over that album cover while listening to what was coming out of the speakers. The album art, the instrumental and songwriting credits, the lyrics, all of that information made the songs more alive.
The world of music with videos and digital downloads has virually eliminated the experience that I have described above. The impact of album art is minimized by how it is reproduced for a CD. Digital downloads center on songs. While you can download albums, the vast majority of those downloads are individual songs. There is no continuity the the music listening experience today.
What I'd like to do with this blog, going forward, is to bring back some of that experience by discussing some of the great albums I have loved over the years and why I think they are great. I'll stray away from that from time to time. Stay tuned, when I'm done here, hopefully I'll have converts to the ALBUM LISTENING EXPERIENCE
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