Music and vision

I have been really caught up in nostalgia for music groups and bands I have really liked over the years. I have a predilection for pop rock from the late 60's and 70's. You can go on line and hit the Amazon website and listen to a smidgen of anything that hits your fancy. The beauty of it is that they will direct to artists that are similiar so if you think of a song by Player "Baby, come back" and listen to a bit of it, they will direct you to Ace and Ambrosia and Firefall and England Dan and John Ford Coley and Paul Davis. If you hit Chad and Jeremy, they will direct you to Peter and Gordon, The Fortunes, The Grass Roots, etc. It just becomes one long riff on similar music. Suddenly, you are listening to music you hadn't thought about since you were laying in your bunk at summer camp. Or sitting with your buddies on the curb in your neighborhood during summer break.

At one time every aspect of my life had a musical background. If I heard a song on the radio it would remind me of some place or some incident which was going on at the time I was listening to that particular piece of music. When I hear 'Born to be Wild' by Steppenwolf, I think of sleep overs with friends when I was in 8th grade. When I hear 'Let it Be' by the Beatles I think of the graduation dance at Dunwoody Elementary in 7th grade. When I hear 'You don't mess around with Jim' by Jim Croce I think about mornings spent at the pool in our neighborhood.

I think music videos in the 80's killed that for me. All of a sudden the image projected in my mind when I hear certain songs from the 80's coincides with the mini-drama played out on the music video. Of course, I don't watch music videos these days so I don't tend to have that going on in my head.

Fortunately, I can still play Miles Davis' 'Miles Ahead' and still see and feel the car travelling over the bridge between Tampa and St. Pete, with the windows down, and the sun glinting off the waters of Tampa Bay. Gold on blue. Nice.