Music Enters My Life A Farm Boys Tale
My father disliked music. He would say that it was a useless distraction from the work that was always waiting to be done on the farm. So, the family radio was on for news and weather, nothing more. He also limited the viewing of television in the same manner.
In 1964, when I was 13 years old, I had saved up enough money from farm hand work at neighbor's farms to be able to buy a transistor radio, on one of the family's infrequent trips into Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
It was a pearl white Zenith with an extendable silver antenna. I could carry it with me wherever I went. I could listen to it while milking the cows. I could listen to it on the John Deere, as I pulled the disk over the plowed fields. I could listen to it late at night as I lay in bed. I could listen to the local radio stations, with shows like Invitation to Beauty, which featured classical music, and Afternoon Bop which aired Jazz. I could listen to WLS, and WCFL in Chicago, which had rock music all day and all night. At night when I was lucky and the weather conditions were right, I could even get the Border Radio Station, XER otherwise known as the X, and listen to Wolfman Jack. I heard the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys. The Beach Boys led to a lifelong obsession with California where I ultimately ended up living.
When my family moved to Milwaukee, I bought my first record player, also a Zenith, and bought my first albums, Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys and So What by Miles Davis. In Junior High I took up the trombone which led to an early obsession with Jazz. This was after many years of failed attempts to play guitar.
Music became a real full-time obsession when I began to smoke weed and use psychedelics. It was even more magical and could function as a time machine, connecting me to times in my past when I would hear certain songs, and a safety net, during acid trips.
Over the decades I have pursued Vinyl Long Playing Records, 45’s, 33’s and 78 records. I have collected and made cassettes. I bought countless compact discs, and now have endless lists of music on Spotify, YouTube, and Soundcloud. I pursue all kinds of music, old, brand new and all genres.
In terms of taste, I like this quote: You must stop listening in categories. The music is either good or bad. Duke Ellington.
One of my life's companions has always been, and always will be music.
Jon Pinter