hahahahaha! You are killing me...the way you wrote your description reminds me of a thread I started on another forum where I reviewed beers....
@:
I was looking for other versions of Steven Wilson's Lazarus on YouTube awhile ago and started playing a version with no video, just his picture. I was using my iPad and found myself thoroughly enjoying the tune via the little tinny speakers. Most of us have continued the escalation of gear over the years to where we are now, playing our surround music in a most enjoyable fashion. I'm no different, being quite content with the equipment I have, lots of speakers, gobs of power...but something struck me while listening through the iPad. It took me back to the late 60s - early 70s, to the east coast where I grew up. After school meant coming home and taking my portable Sony AM radio up to the railway tracks behind our house. There was a place tucked away on an overpass where I'd sit and listen to tunes for a couple of hours. Up Around The Bend springs to mind as one of them, not sure why that one popped into my head. We had a "coffin" console at home where I could spin records (the few I had), but there was something about being alone with that little transistor radio. The music transported me somewhere else, and in looking back now through 60 year old eyes I can see that I was hooked then....as perhaps were many of you. So listening to the iPad has made me realize that it's not what I'm listening to the music on, it's that I'm listening to the music. I certainly enjoy what comes out of my speakers these days, but you could take it all away and I'd still be happy as long as I had a little AM radio close to my ear. Take away the amp, and the Oppo and all the speakers...just don't take away the music.
These are the BEST stories...when we connect music to our past. I have so many wonderful memories of my childhood, and up through teen years...and all of them include music. I have similar memories.
I grew up (as many of you might already know) in a very rural community. The farm life you know....folks raised cattle and corn & soybeans for a living. That meant us kids helped with all the farm work...and most certainly didn't paid for it. In fact, I remember in the fall time, I was excused to leave school early (2PM) to go help my dad with harvest....
Anyway, so we had a very, very modest farm house that was situated on a hill with a great view to the west. We lived on a gravel road that was only frequented by the weekend high school kids looking for a place to park their cars and party. It was called "Moore's Hill" Well, that's because we, the Moore's, were the only house on that road. They had a picnic table, couple trash cans and that's it. I used to lay in my upstairs bedroom...which was conveniently facing that Moore's Hill....and I had my little red Realistic AM radio in my window. Bed was shoved up against that window so I could gaze up the hill and listen to all those "older guys" yelling and partying. Every once in a a while, when the wind was in the right direction, I could hear them playing the same songs that I had heard on my radio.....and I just didn't quite understand how that could be. AT the time, I didn't understand what they were doing...didn't matter. I listened to the great WLS AM 89 from Chicago and they played all the great tunes back then and I wondered what all those cars were doing on our hill. I loved to go up that hill in our 3020 John Deere tractor to mow the grass...and I'd always see empty cans of Schlitz and Pabst....and odd as it sounds, I would smell the cans because I was fascinated with the smell of old beer in the can...my folks didn't drink so this was something I just couldn't understand. What is this weird pungent smell?
OK - a little sidetracked...but anyway. Point is, music was the center point of my life even way back then and I hope "ya'll" enjoy my little time capsule from central Illinois.
Great story! Bet you got great reception on the hill. I remember with that same radio from Canada's east coast picking up Red Sox and Yankee games at night when the reception was better
