100 ways to slightly improve your life #97

#97: Listen to the albums you loved as a teenager.

Now this tip is a bit silly as what else is there to listen to? Spo-fans of a certain age might identify with me on this one: I became ‘uncool’ in my 30s when I realized I no longer knew who were the contemporary groups and singers and in addition I didn’t care to learn. Now in my 60s I could not tell you who are on the charts – or even if ‘on the charts’ status still exists. I know of Ms. Taylor Swift thanks to all the podcasts harping on her, but I could not identify one of her songs to save my life.

Besides being a fuddy-duddy I don’t listen to the radio anymore. Once upon a time that was the way to hear the new songs and groups.* Thanks to algorithms on Pandora and the like I am exposed to nothing new; I only get something similar to what I am already listening to viz. tunes from the early 60s to the early 80s which is when I more or less stopped listening to contemporary music. When I look at what ‘new music’ I have purchased last year, all of it is music from my teens.

With that said sometimes it is painful to think back on albums once thought earth shaking. I remember with vivid detail my excitement and ‘hip’ feelings going to Harmony House, where one bought LPs (remember them?). I came home with ELO’s latest album which included “Concerto for a rainy day’. I still enjoy listening to that although there is a mild pang of ‘what was I thinking?” when doing so.

The Elantra has in a Sirius subscription although I seldom listen to it, but when I do it’s the music from the 60s. Someone and I are seven years apart and normally this isn’t too evident but it shows when listening to tunes from the 60s. Most of them I don’t recognize (I was born 1962) but he immediately does and knows every lyric – it’s amazing to witness.

My parents’ tastes were towards classical music, so the albums I loved were along that line. There were some exceptions. They had a few Simon and Garfunkel albums, which to this day always remind me of my babysitters the Gray girls who would play them when they were over.

There was an album by The New Seekers: as a boy I was shocked to see it among their Mancini and Mozart albums. They were a bunch of long-haired flower children, certainly not my parents’ usual taste. Like Someone to the 60s, I know this album’s songs by heart and when I hear any I get all warm and runny inside. Groovy.

Tip #97 is a good one.

Does anyone have albums by ‘The Monkees’ or ‘The Mamas and the papas’?

Tell me about an album from your adolescence that makes you feel good.

* I don’t know how the youngsters learn about their music. I should ask the nieces if they do the Spotify thing.