Monday, August 08, 2022

#BestSongIHeardToday • Volume 14

A 1965 Santa Maria postcard I found on the Internet, and my longstading MMM Facebook & Twitter header.

Your musical taste came from somewhere, born at a time in a city or town that shaped you. 

The popular music that came into your life as a child and teenager is like a date stamp for your generation. For boomers like me, that is most emblematic in one date, Sunday 9pm February 9th, 1964, The Ed Sullivan Show. I think you can guess the band that were the musical guests on that night, The Beatles.

I remember being with our family friends, the Reyburn's that night and being with Steve Reyburn who was my age at 8 years old (both just shy of our 9th birthdays).

Now jump ahead to the summer of 1972. I'm in Steve's car somewhere along Highway 1 heading back to a beach camp location where both of our parents were camping together. Steve has an 8-track tape deck in the dash and of all things on this earth, he puts in a Jackson's Five tape! I nearly fell out of my seat in disbelief (A B C, It's easy as 1 2 3, as simple as Do re mi).

How could two teenagers from basically the same community environment be worlds apart in our musical tastes? Well by 1972, we both had a different set of friends, and obviously one was still married to AM radio, and the other had an album collection.

The older I get, I like to think that my taste spans many genres of music. But as I reflect back to that summer 50 years ago, when it gets down to it, it's really those very specific bands and artists from folk to rock, shared with my friends, that endures today with that beautiful date stamp.

So what brings you here to read this blog? And if I'm so fortunate, why are you taking the time to listen to some or all of the songs in my playlist?

Well, no matter where you came from, one thing's for certain, we have a connection. Maybe the first three songs in this week's playlist are good examples of some of the factors that bond us a little more together from the herd, and bring us a little closer to understanding what's this world's about. At the very least, we have similar tastes in music to help us along our way.

Enjoy my friends,