Thanks again for popping in. I’m hoping that this is a fun post and that it gives you some warm fuzzies and perhaps a laugh or two , along the way. I have been looking forward to this one for quite some time, and to be honest, I find it a little daunting. There will be some serious name dropping in this post, and if you find some that you are unfamiliar with, it could prove some what rewarding to do a little investigating. Some of it could be a blessing to you, and give you some new creases. I first acknowledge that I believe all gifts and talents come from God, regardless as to how they are used. Ok, so if you have not gathered yet, this is about my musical journey. If you have been with me for any amount of time, then you are some what familiar with Ms. Annomuis and our relationship. She is kind of the inspiration behind this post. She revived an awareness in me that had been in a serious hibernation mode. I was extremely impressed with her knowledge of R&B. All the time we were together, I never ascertained as to where that knowledge grew from or how it was acquired. It wasn’t from her parents, so maybe a little bit of a party animal in her younger days. It has been said that music is a universal language and whether you agree with that or not, I believe that there is a small amount of truth to it. And there is also the thing about it soothing the savage beast, and as to whether that is an actual animal or just your kids, you will have to sort that one out, but again it resonates a level of truth to it . I was a child of the 70s and 80s and I have a personal bias that the music from that Era was simply amazing regardless of genre or category. I will concede that music is generational, much like beer and cigarettes. So sometimes when the generations dies out, so does the music. You don’t see as many people smoking camels, lucky stripes, or pall malls, because they tend to go with the generations. Yes, PBR is still around, but much having to do with slick pricing to make it a budget beer. Many others have gone by the way side, such as Schultz or Falls staff, or in limited areas as a nitch segment. Ok, let’s move on from our little history lesson and get to some of the fun stuff. Back in the day we had transistor radios, long before the age of the boom box , or the ipod. Believe it or not, AM radio was big, it wasn’t just for talk radio as it is today. Some one out there may know how or why the switch became the FM settings, but I just rolled with it, and barely noticed the change other than the fact the music sounded a little bit better. For many of you, the word phonograph is probably a none registry for you, and they were before my time as well and have only seen them in old movies. I missed out on that one, but I’m not without knowledge of music evolution. Let’s see if I can quickly catch you up. We had vinyl, which is making a come back of sorts, they played on two different speeds, 33 or 45s and if I remember correctly the 45s were the singles, and they had one song on each side. The 33s were LPS, the albums, with multiple songs on each side, LPS, was for long playing records. We had something known as an 8 track player and man could those machines chew up and spit out tapes, always your favorite it seemed. They gave way to cassettes, much like beta players gave way to the VHS, before we moved on to the video download, and then eventually CDS came along, they are still around but we mostly live in the age of the down load, which I think is a shame because, when you get an album or a cd, there is so much more music there that is never released. I still by CDS and my daughter thinks that it is archaic, but I enjoy a lot more music than the 99cent download allows me to have. There was one more entry in the field and it was known as a reel to reel. I never owned one, they were expensive, but people use to swear by the quality of the sound. It looked like an old movie projector, and the music could play for hours, it was before we had the technology to hit the repeat button :):) . I’m getting a little nostalgic , and I haven’t even begin to get to any of the good stuff. If I had to give it a name, I would probably say that I was raised in a household with gospel, such as Mahalia Jackson, and James Cleveland. There was some blues, and a lot of R&B. When I was younger, I thought that was all there was, but sometimes I would see other categories represented on the Ed Sullivan show, but it seemed odd and strange at the time ], not what I was use to. He had some guys on there call the Beetles and I was thinking what a stupid name for a band. There was also Elvis and I knew him from watching his movies. It’s kind of hard to believe that as big as Elvis was, he never played over seas, think it was his management. So , I had a couple of uncles who were close in age to me and they were more like brothers than uncles. One was four years older and the other six years older. Well my uncle Glenn, the one six years older, was very instrumental in helping me refine my taste on likes and dislikes. I don’t know if he was a connoisseur or not, but before long, I was up and running with this music thing. As I got to Jr high and high school, I discovered something known as blue eyed soul. This is where some artist achieved cross over such as Hall and Oats, Elton John, and KC and the sunshine band. I know you guys thought that he was black, but not so much. This quickly led me into the Rock segment. I felt as if I was at a musical smorgasbord with Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, John cougar Mellencamp, yes, there use to be a cougar in there ☺️. It was only scratching the surface, with The Boss, that’s right, Eddie Money, The Stones, Bob Seagar, great bands, such as Toto, Queen and of course Journey. It’s hard to believe that with all of those hits they put out, Journey never had a song make it to number one on the charts. See, this why this post is daunting because regardless of how many names I drop, I’m still leaving scores of extremely talented people unrecognized, and for that, I apologize, but if I took time just to name them, with out their accomplishments this post would rather quickly turn into a really fat journal. Again on the R&B side the same is true as well. If I just mentioned the Ojays, the Commodores, the Spinners, oh my and Earth Wind and Fire. And the ladies were absolutely fantastic, Aretha, Natalie Cole, Donna Summer, and Patti Labelle, are you kidding me. And so many great crooners, Marvin Gaye, Barry White, Peabo, Keith Sweat, Alexander O’Neal, and my all time favorite Teddy Pendergrass, who at the time was the first black Artist to earn five platinum albums consecutively. I once again apologize for all of the artists that I didn’t mention and it is not meant to be a slight, just way to many, and all so talented. I’m doing my best to do a skim over, but we are far from being done. I have met many other individuals who have a much more diverse appetite than I do, but some that have never venture past just Rock, or country. Ok, so my late teens, early twenties, my uncle’s mother in law introduced me to cognac and Jazz, and boy I owe her a deep thank you for that. She started me off with George Benson and a reference to being light in the loafers, I didn’t get it then, but I do now.☺️. Once again way to many to give credit to them all, but Bob James, Kenny G, David Sandborn, Najeah, Fat Burger, AL Jarreau , Pieces of a Dream, and the list goes on and on. My knowledge of the finer alcohols continued as well, seagrams and Chavis, brandy, and don’t forget about our friends Jack Daniel’s and a little wild Turkey. :):) There is so much more I wish I had time to mention, Stevie Wonder, the Isley Brothers, Frankie Beverly and maze, ZZ top, and how about Abba, Steve Windwood. I’m not omitting country music, with Kenny Roger’s success in cross over, I got familiar with Clint Black, Brooks and Dunn, and of course Garth Brooks and Johnny Cash. It just seems as if some of them should deserve there very own special notice, when it come to people like Michael, Prince, and James Brown, and The Stones and Aretha are iconic as well. I say that and there are many without the honor due to them. Ok, so let’s run up to the early nineties. If you have been following along, then you know my early thirties included a major course correction, with me returning to the church and pursuit of a personal relationship with God. So a change was coming and like most things in life it can hit you out of nowhere. One day I was in a Christian bookstore, I believe looking for a Bible. As I went to the checkout they were giving away a free cd, with just one song on it, didn’t know such a thing existed and I don’t believe I have ever seen it since. I remember it as if it was just yesterday. It was a male trio named Philips, Craig and Dean and the name of the song was “crucified with Christ”. The lyrics were very powerful and it stirred my heart. This was the beginning of another new category for me known as contemporary Christian. I had never heard of such a thing. So another slew of extremely talented artists, with me getting new creases on a daily. If you were to look up Michael W. Smith and look at some of his early material, you would think that you were at a Michael Jackson concert, he was rocking out for Jesus. He mostly does worship music now, but tremendously strong. I quickly discovered Steven Curtis Chapman, Avalon, Rich Mullins, Third Day, and New Song. Some of these artists aren’t touring or making new music any more and new ones have taken their place as in all of the other segments as well. They have been replaced with Mercy Me, Zack Williams, David Crowder, We the Kingdom, and others. It is almost as if God brings them on line for a while, and then they move on to other ministries and outreach programs as if he is moving his players where desired. Again for every one I mention, there are dozens without recognition. One of my favs in this segment is guy by the name of Toby Mac, I discovered him at a concert with my kids known as winter jam….just amazing 5 bucks at the door and you got to see great acts, both established and the up and coming. It maybe more than 5 bucks at the door now, but still an incredible opportunity to introduce your unchurched friends to Jesus. So for the majority of my married years I resided here. My daughter and I will catch a concert now and then, but she does more of that with her own family now. Ok, let’s see if can bring this full circle. When I met Ms. Annomuis, she took me back to a previous Era, and a loss love with the R&B. It was great going down memory lane with her and us sending each other songs, more me than her. I think she was a little intimidated with my musical brain and she also felt that way about faith as well. She would plead no contest and disengage. Sad, but true. I tried to introduce her to the contemporary music, but she preferred to stay stuck in the past. I can’t even begin to count all of the artists that we have lost from R&B, Rock, Disco, and jazz as well as country. Some seemed to have left us way to soon, like Whitney Houston and James Ingram. I was hoping that she would join me in my pleasure for Christian contemporary, and that we could do concerts together. See not many of the old school artists are still touring, but the few that are , such as Earth wind and fire, The Isley Brothers, Journey, or cheap trick are picking up a next level fan base as parents take their kids with them to concerts . Well at least they use to before Covid and this inflationary heist that we currently find ourselves in. There is also new R&B out there, but I can’t give any recommendations on it. See this is the amazing thing about this segment, regardless of what kind of music you enjoy, they make something that sounds incredibly similar, just the lyrics are about God and many times they are singing scripture straight out of the word of God. I’m not going to beat her up, I know how hard it can be to make changes in your life, when it’s the way it’s always been done, or the only thing that you know. I still stick to my guns on it being fear, and when we let fear win or rule us, we never grow, we just do circles in the same old patterns, playing it safe. Again, sad, but true. Ok, I’m going to bounce back one more time and maybe it will bring back a warm memory for some of you. Ok, so back during the transistor time frame, we use to try and record music off of the radio and hope that we could keep the background noise to a minimum, and that the disc jokey, wouldn’t stop the record soon or start taking through it, or even worse singing along . I may be here all alone, but sometimes the DJs would make up a narrative , and they would play clips from varying artists song’s. I’m going to give it a go here, but I’m sure that it will not be as amazing as it was back in the day. Ms. Annomuis has had me in a funk, and for some reason, I have been in it with Teddy Pendergrass, which I earlier mentioned was one of my all time favorite crooners. Ok, so dedicated to Ms. Annomuis. She came over to my place, a year ago, we closed the door. We turned off the lights and lit a candle. We got down funky and loose. And it was so good when somebody loves you back. Of late I felt as if the whole town laughing at me silly fool, how did you loose such a good thing . And I wish that I could tell her that it don’t hurt now , but that’s not true. Some of you will get this , to others it’s just nonsense. In that little clip there were at least seven Teddy Pendergrass songs. As I said at the beginning of post, I dropped a ton of names, in numerous genre and I believe your ears would enjoy any of them that you choose to investigate, remember don’t be scared or lazy or you will stunt your growth.
