The Music that Made Me
One of THE best things about my childhood is MUSIC!
My parents listened to music out loud. Not the way we do today, mostly through headphones. Sometimes it was a little loud for my mom's taste, and it must have been murder for our neighbors because we lived in an upstairs apartment. Saturday morning cleaning music would either be old favorites or the newest out of my dad's collection. When I had a record player of my own, one of my favorite things to do with them was go to the "record shop". They'd listen to music and pick out an album and I'd get to pick out a 45 (single).
My post as it's spinning around in my head is brainscreenshots of album covers. It's not so much a list of pieces of music that changed me. It's more of a collection of music related memories.
5 Music Memories
1. George Benson was the first man I ever kissed on the lips. When my parents weren't around, I'd kiss this the back of this album cover. This was his Weekend in LA album, released in 1977. I was seven years old. My favorite song from this album was The Greatest Love of All. Eight years later, Whitney Houston would remake it, but for me it would never give me the warm and fuzzies of the original.
I found this video of him singing to kids on Sesame Street. While the album version is polished to perfection, this one was SO sweet it made me tear up.
2. Larry Graham was the second man I kissed on the lips. I was 10 years old when this album was released. I LOVED him!
And okay, so I might have slow danced with the album cover when he sang When We Get Married.
3. My mom taught an aerobics class in the early 80's. Stomp by The Brother's Johnson's was one of her "woebic dencin" songs as my brother called it. He and I were tag-a-longs. I couldn't participate because I had to watch him. He would have been two or three at the time.
Side note: People used to say my daddy looked like them.
Mom and Dad in 1982 when mom taught aerobic dancing and daddy looked like one of The Brother's Johnson's.
So just imagine a routine like this in the 80's with women wearing, headbands, leotards, tights, and leg warmers.
4. Every time I see my dad, music is a big part of the visit. He travels with a Bose bluetooth speaker and as much music as his iPod, tablet and phone can carry.
On our last visit he introduced me to the app Spotify. We were up late one night naming random songs and then finding it on Spotify. He played a song from Stevie Wonder's Secret Life of Plants album and asked me to guess who it was. I saw the album cover in my head but didn't think I was right because Stevie Wonder isn't singing this particular song. I loved this album because it is art. It was like a book of poetry and it opened up this big with the lyrics to all the songs. I know this album so well, I can be listening to one song and know which one comes next.
The music on this album was definitely one of a kind.
5. For the fifth and final, I feel like I should list an all time favorite song here or at least one that complies the theme this week.
Well, that was too hard of an assignment for me. So I asked the music man my daddy. Referring back to the title of my post, here is the the song that changed my parents lives... Sex Machine by Sly and the Family Stone.