I only listened to hits
The new of the world getting you down? Can’t find solace in the music of the day. Take the alternative road, and study some history. I’ve just finished watching the last video lecture in a music history course (a combo that solves so many other problems). Retrospective on my life, with a chance to hear what I missed “the first time around”.
To be fair, my life is better matched to the second section of the course (starting in a couple of weeks), but that blurry period when I was in Grade IX and unable to understand what the older kids were talking about is now clearer. What was psychedelia? Answer: nothing I experienced, so Jimi’s question remains moot. Did I follow the advice of Jim and “break on through to the other side”? No. But, the music had a good beat and I could have danced to it (in my own way). Behind the closed doors of the bedroom, any gyration was an acceptable reaction to the sound of the time.
The budget precluded purchasing whole albums, but I did own a collection of carefully chosen 45’s. I now know that I only purchased qualified hits; nothing else was offered for sale in my town. The radio station only played hits. My friends listened (only) to hits. We were protected from content that might have required a critical ear.
And now we have YouTube. Turns out that those hits still sound good (if a bit dated). I could listen to classic rock radio and never want for anything else. Take that, Biebie…
