My husband recently took advantage of the Record Archive July 4th weekend sale. Who could resist 3 used CD's/DVD's for $10?! He came home with a pile of new music.. some obscure... and others that would fill in the gaps in his collection.
You have to understand... we are MUSIC -HOLICS [or better put - collectors]... don’t want to be music junkies, because that has a negative connotation... and music is definitely NOT junk!! So, it’s our healthy addiction.
Our family goes music shopping the same way that most people go grocery shopping. Each one of us has an eclectic, extensive list of artists/bands on cd. Probably Karl's would be the most diverse in our family: underground hip hop, verve, jazz, punk/hardcore . My music is somewhat connected: Broadway Soundtracks, [old] movie musical soundtracks, female jazz singers of the 40's-50's, Big Band, Barry [yes, Barry!], some Mason Williams, James Galway and more. Kerri has opera, classic/punk/indie rock, pop, R&B, Hip and Trip Hop, Electronica and such. Joe collects Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Moody Blues, Bob James, Cheap Trick, Herp Alpert, classical and what he refers to as 'rock done right,' ... too many to name.
It is a genuine thrill for us to come across a recording that is ‘unavailable’ or better yet, a recording of which we were unaware. Yes, they do exist!
Well, as they sing in THE SOUND OF MUSIC... “Let’s start at the very beginning....”
I met my husband IN a record store. Yes, it was a record store! Remember the big, black discs with lines engrooved on them. The lines of which you carefully place the stylus on and begin listening to the recording. Ah.. those lines... you gave reverence to... they held the magic to “the” sound. You never jumped in the room while the music was playing.... never jolted the furniture upon which the turntable was playing your record.... and ALWAYS ran to the turntable [stereo] to turn the record over to SIDE 2. Mmmmm, Side 2. Sometimes the best music on a broadway soundtrack was on Side 2. I digress... back to my story....
My hubby was the store manager for a little known record store originally out of Buffalo, called Cavages. I wandered in one afternoon out of the blue. Joe was determined to give me “good customer service.” I was purchasing HOOKED ON SWING and the soundtrack to the musical GYPSY, with Rosalind Russell. I was embarrassed, number 1 - to be making such a lame purchase... [never bought rock.. never] and number 2 - because I could not figure out if I had enough money. He quickly figured it out the total, including tax, in his head. Wow.. did I feel flustered and dumb! Joe and I ended up having a very long chat... had to be over an hour. I loved my new purchase... unfortunately one of the records ended up being somewhat warped. I was too shy to return it... didn’t want him to think I was chasing him or didn’t appreciate his assistance. But, I did return one day, without the record, and the rest is history. [It’s more interesting if you hear Kerri’s version of the fateful meeting! Another time.]
When we married... our record collections had to be married also. Picture a basic 1 bedroom apartment, with a typical sized living room. The back living room wall, from floor to ceiling... and one end to the other...was his record collection!! Everything was alphabetized, by genre. Incredible! He had been collecting since he was seven years old and fell in love with Herb Alpert. Joe wanted to intermingle his collection - with mine - alphabetically by genre, of course. My records were not ready for that type of commitment. They had just met. Besides, Joe had ‘collectible’ albums... in special sleeves... some still not opened! How could I subject my lovelies to such a haughty collection. I cut a deal with Joe .... my small collection would be in the lower corner of the shelf and I would organize it, or not. Good enough!
So, we kept on collecting. Our children had to have the BEST music collection during their formative years. They had most of Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Joe Scruggs [their peer got into Rafffi.. he didn’t ‘do it’ for us.] Disney, you name it ....wonderful.
Karl got ‘addicted’ to The Monk Monks [The Monkees] when he was about 18 months old. He graduated to Spike Jones... after which our budding music enthusiast required a drum set to emulate the comical band leader. I think he was four at the time. Kerri’s path was similar, but branched off into Disney recordings, Barbie soundtracks [really? she’s a doll, not an idol!] and Minnie and Me.
Needless to say.. over the years.. our family made the change to update our listening technology to a CD player. No, we did not get rid of the turntable.. or the records and tapes for that matter .. they are still played to this day! In fact, we have a new turntable! (I think Joe has even kept his 8 track collection.)
So.. back to record shopping.... I [or the two K’s] need only express an interest in an artist or band and Joe will do his best to get the collection. It may take a while, but he is devoted to all of our music. The funny thing is, he rarely writes down what he/we are looking for... he is proficient at remembering what everyone owns! I could not even remember a shopping list unless I write it down.
May I stray off for a moment??
After our first date, Joe must have been very impressed with moi.. for he played a specific song, on a specific album ... while gazing into my eyes. Wow! That is the equivalent of being sung to - as far as I am concerned, right? We have been married 27 years and Joe remembers every song that he has played [dedicated] just for me. He still does that to this day. Sundays have been known for his DJ time. All we have to do is reference a song and he jumps into action.. any genre! Yup! He’s a keeper!
Let’s see, where was I? Oh yes, .. finding that ‘special song.’
Joe bought three recordings at the Archive sale that day of which he thought I ‘might like.’ [I think they were sold for $1 each... yeh.. it pays to dig through the dollar bin!!] The first is some Broadway greats by Michael Crawford. Yeh, you know him. He is well know for creating the lead role in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Of course, I expected good things from him. I wasn’t surprised to hear him sing the recently beloved, classic song from LES MISERABLES, “Bring Him Home,” and “If I Loved You” from CAROUSEL. Predictably good.
The next CD is a jazz standard recording by Art Garfunkel. Hmmm ... who’d’ve thought? [All the singers are doing them these days!] Sure, I’ll give it a try. My friend and I used to harmonize to his music with Paul Simon, back in the day. Beautiful. Joe also found a June Christy CD that I didn’t have in my collection. That recording had a song that I recently learned to sing with my band and did NOT have - “Give Me the Simple Life.” Serendipity at its best!
The last CD features Dennis DeYoung, better known as the singer/songwriter and founding member of the rock band STYX - “Lady,” “Babe”. Dennis is singing Broadway show tunes! REALLY??!! Let’s have another, Hmmm...who’d’ve thought? I later found out he did play on broadway. Ok, I’ll give it a try.. Art’s was really nice....maybe this one will be acceptable.
Well, two of the songs that Dennis recorded really knocked me for a loop! The first song, I immediately fell head over heels in love with - “Someone Else’s Story.” The song rang a bell. I thought that I may have heard it before. It’s from the musical CHESS... not a lasting memory of a show, unfortunately. But kudos to the song writers: lyrics by Tim Rice [has teamed up with Andrew Lloyd Webber, and also writers from Disney] and music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, [formerly of ABBA]. I am TOTALLY addicted to this song.
Usually, when I preview an album, I get impatient to hear every song at once. I’ll listen to half of the piece, zipping through every song. I couldn’t do that with “Someone Else’s Story” .... had to play the song repeatedly.. hence the addiction. So, I am reading the song listings on the back cover of the album to get an idea of what other songs Dennis included on the CD. I like to form my opinion about themes/inspirations of the artist by the song choices.
Low and behold, I realized that the last song on the recording is one that I have been singing and yearning over for way too many years! Let’s just say that my first born music appreciator was a babe at the time. “It’s In Ev’ry One Of Us” was included in the John Denver’s Christmas with the Muppets TV special. The song was written by TV music writer, David Pomeranz. I used to sing it to my children when they were babies.
I searched high and low for sheet music. Believe me, this took place years before we had access to the internet. Luckily, the downtown library has an incredible printed music collection. Thank God for interlibrary loan!! [I am a “Friend” and I make donations to the county system.] For a mere 50 cents, I was able to secure a photo copy of “It’s In Ev’ry One of Us.”
In time it became a perfect addition to a Sunday School Christmas Pageant. I have a lusty passion for finding the perfect song to fit any occasion. [music nerd here!] Someday, I will record it.... may even include it on the Christmas album with my daughter that we talk about creating. But that’s another story! Right now I want to surprise my husband with a new recording that he has been searching for.... time to go CD shopping!
