My Tunes, My Friends

How attached are you to your music? I seem to be quite fond of mine. I can't leave it behind on the hard drive of my old laptop...so I'm slowly loading into my new one. Tedious, when I'm resorting to putting songs on CDs and then loading them into the new laptop. And, before you say it, yes I know about the Cloud. I'm not quite ready to have someone else hold my music for ransom while they jack up the price. So I continue my old time ways.

Some of my songs and I go way back. Doobie Brothers, Steeley Dan, Eagles - those guys have been singing to me a long time! Some take me right back to when I used to listen to the song. "Black Water" by the Doobies. When I hear that one, I always think of when Joanie Troll used to pick me up for school in the mornings. That song would play on the radio and Candice, Joan and ? who else was in the car...Pam? Chris? would sing along. And smoke cigarettes. (Not me)

We always picked out good music for our Big 4 college parties

Several songs remind me of my Sunnyside lifeguarding days - listening to WOW radio out of Omaha. I was really into rock and roll back then - groups like Kansas that weren't really radio material, thanks to the Deardorff connection. My friend Chris Deardorff's brother Scott had a huge music collection. Face it - the 70's rule when it comes to music. From Elton John to the bands I've already mentioned. Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC, Queen, Al Green, Aerosmith, Al Green, Hall & Oates, Gordon Lightfoot - there are too many to name. My college roomie made listen to "gasp" Barry Manilow. We would borrow Moose and Steve's Stereo for our parties at 230 Campus Avenue during our Junior and Senior years - good tunes!

The 80's weren't all that memorable when it comes to music, yet I came away with a few faves - Springsteen, I've got a great duet by Dolly and Kenny - "Islands in the Stream" love that one, Tina Turner, and more Foreigner. Hey, I got busy getting married and having kids. That era did produce the best dancing song of all time - "Love Shack". I will always remember dancing to that song at the First National Bank Christmas party - it must have been 1987 or so.

Then came the 90's - by now I had joined Columbia House and was getting a cassette a month - yippy! I went through a gospel stage Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant - though I don't have any of those songs on my hard drive now I'm sorry to say. Good stuff. My kids grew up hearing that music and Fleetwood Mac. By the end of the 90's Amy was into music and I kinda liked what she was listening to - Backstreet Boys etc.

I admit it, I like Hip Hop. I am a freak for "Uptown Funk" and other songs like that. Give me Rihanna. My niece Jordan asked Amy if I knew what the lyrics to one of her songs were. Um yes. I just sing along anyway.

Sure, it's taking a while to get my friends, I mean my songs the way I want them in my music library. It's still a work in progress. It's worth it!