Start Me Up

Hello, and welcome to my blog.

Yes, yes, I know, I'm late to the blogosphere party.  But then again, that seems to be a theme for me.  I didn't purchase my first CD until the late nineties, I only started using a cell phone because my company gave me one (even though, now my iPhone is permanently attached to my right arm), and now, at a certain age, I may be attempting to re-invent myself professionally.

So, here I am. I've been told that in my first post, I should reveal three things:

1. What the blog is about.
2, What I hope to accomplish with it.
3. My qualifications for writing it and what I bring to it.

Here are the answers:

1. I don't know yet.
2. I have no clue.
3. Huh?

OK, seriously, I don't have any grand designs for this little blog.  I have a fairly deep well of rock and roll trivia in my head.   I happen to enjoy snooping out little behind the scenes tidbits about artists, songs and albums, generally from yesteryear, and I thought that this blog may be a way to share it with a few people who may accidentally stumble upon it.

Even though I like most genres of music, my own tastes are decidedly retro.  From the 60's, I like British Invasion, garage, soul and jangly guitars.  I like almost anything from the 70's, which is when I actually started paying attention to music.  I am not worried about losing my hipster credentials, since I never had any to begin with.  I grew up with AM Top 40 in the early 70's, so one of my pursuits of late has been reconnecting with some of the more less commercial stuff from the late 60's and early 70's that I didn't know about the first time around.  I missed the 80's, I think I fell asleep.  From today, I like The New Pornographers, She And Him, Wilco and Neko Case, among others.  To my surprise, I've found myself listening to a lot of alternative country lately, like Justin Townes Earle and the Old 97's.  I don't care much for today's pop music.  This will probably be that last time the words Lady Ga-Ga appear together on these pages (although Styx's "Lady" and Queen's "Radio Ga-Ga" may be a different story.)

I may post reviews from time to time, but if you are looking for serious music criticism, you've come to the wrong place.  Often, I can't even explain why I like a particular song, it just evokes an emotion in me.  Even though this is intended as a music blog, I reserve the right to post on other topics if I am moved to do so, although I wouldn't count on it too often.

In short, I thought I would just play it by ear and see where this thing goes. 

I would like to leave you with this little gem from the 70's:  A vintage Radio Shack commercial for an 8-track tape player.  When I installed an 8-track in my '67 Mustang in high school, I thought I was "all that" and then some.  The thing I remember most about 8-tracks is that they had 4 programs with 2 or 3 songs per program, so the music companies would often have to split longer songs up between programs.  I bought Heart's Dreamboat Annie on 8-track and the song "Crazy On You" was split in two. I'll never forget the first time I heard that song without the "CLICK WRRRR" of the tape changing programs in the middle!  Enjoy.  And Welcome.