Homage to the LP in a digital age

Growing up in the 1970s, it was a very big rite of passage to buy your first record album.  It wasn't as easy as just pressing a button and dowloading the music onto your own computer like it is today.  You had to drive (or walk) to your nearest record store, and look through stacks of what they now call "vinyl" or what we called "LPs."



How we listened in the 1970s



The closest record store to me where I was allowed to buy my first album, which was at the age of 10 in 1970, was a place called "Grayson's Tune Town" in Montrose, California.  It is still in business today, opening in 1953. 

Stores like Graysons in the 60s and 70s were the center of everything where music was concerned.  You could get everything from LPs, to 45s, to instruments and lessons, to tons and music books and sheet music. 

Anyway, I loved the song "Fire and Rain" so I bought James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James," which is one of my favorite albums to this day. 

This was actually Taylor's second album, but it was his first in the U.S.  His first album was recorded and first released in England in 1967 on one of the most famous labels ever....the Beatle's Apple label.  Taylor's music has been a lifelong pleasure of mine. I've seen him in concert at least 3 or 4 times. To me, he is one of the greatest performers of our time.

But it was such a pleasure to get that first album home, go in my room, shut the door, put the album on the turntable, throw the headset on, and turn up the volume,and just getting lost in the sound.  Taylor's album was the 9th biggest selling album of 1970; the number one album of the year being the Beatle's "Let It Be."

It was this same year The Carpenters came on the scene.  In a time when America was still reeling from our involvement in Vietnam, and people were still wearing peace signs and the men had long hair (and it was a big deal), Karen and Richard Carpenter really offered something different. But the thing that caught me was Karen's voice.  Immediately, I wanted to sing like that.  I played their "Close to You" album over and over, trying to imitate her sound.

I would never presume to think I could ever sing as well as Karen Carpenter.  But listening to her albums did teach me to sing, something that has brought me endless pleasure throughout my life, and enabled me to participate in choral groups, trios, and do some solo singing.  It also inspired me to study both contemporary and classic voice, which was a great experience.

But my all time favorite performer, well, that is easy.  I think one of my junior high girlfriends turned me on to Elton John in about the 6th grade. 



 Listen to "Teacher I need you"

The album was called "Don't Shoot Me, I'm only the Piano Player."  I couldn't get enough of Elton.  I went to Graysons and bought every album he released prior to this one, and any subsequent albums he released over the years I always purchased.  

As musical styles have come and gone,  my favorite music has not changed.  I love to listen to those old albums from my youth.  It does more than bring back memories; it brings a sense of joy, of innocence, even a sense of continuity; an anchor to the place where the adult you grew into began.  

What was the first album you ever bought? How did it make you feel?  Let me know here, or at bycdgerard@gmail.com









Coming soon to Nook,  Sony and other devices!!!







The Perfect Place for a Wedding

In "Because You're the First," Kasandra jokes to Cameron that if she married him, she would want to get married in the little chapel in Yosemite.  This chapel is pictured above in winter.

I never knew about this chapel until recently, which is truly odd, because as far as I'm concerned, Yosemite is the most beautiful place on earth. I've been throughout New England, parts of the midwest and southwest, even Europe (which I adore) and nothing compares.  I've never been a religious person, but when I think of a God, I've always associated him/her/it with Yosemite, for something so miraculous could never be so arbitrary.

For those of you that don't know, Yosemite National Park is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in east central California.  It is filled with massive redwood trees, flawless meadows, waterfalls, and a valley filled with some of the most amazingly shaped mountains known to man. It is truly nature's most glorious pearl.

Yosemite Valley

The 130 year old New England style chapel is now the oldest structure in Yosemite.  It was designed in 1879 by San Francisco architect Charles Geddes, and built by Samuel Thompson for a mere $3000.00. It was initially located in what was called the "lower village" and it was moved in 1901 as the old village's population dwindled.

It has survived several floods which commonly plague the Sierras in winter, and received a new foundation in both 1965 and 1997.  It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

An early photo of the church, time unknown

When you look at it, it's really a very simple chapel; nothing out of the ordinary.  It is what surrounds it that is extraordinary.  And to me, the perfect place for a wedding.  Of course, what could be more perfect than Yosemite?

Did Kassandra and Cameron ever make it to the little chapel in the Sierras?  Guess you'll have to read the book to find out!!!









Sonnets for your valentine

The sonnet is a fourteen line poem, written in iambic pentameter. Its rhyming scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Sounds easy enough, right? NOT!

My favorite sonnet writer is Edna St. Vincent Millay. Millay's poetry became famous in the 1920s, and she, like many women in her era, were not shy about the fact they had a multitude of lovers. After all, it was the era of flappers, and bathtub gin, and the Charleston.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Those of us that grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, (and like the characters in "Because You're the First")during the post-sexual revolution of the 1960s, can relate to this on varying levels. (I personally admit to nothing!) But I do admit my all-time favorite sonnet is Millay's Sonnet XLIII, that goes like this:

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, 
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain 
Under my head till morning; but the rain 
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh 
Upon the glass and listen for reply, 
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain 
For unremembered lads that not again 
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. 
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree, 
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one, 
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before: 
I cannot say what loves have come and gone, 
I only know that summer sang in me 
A little while, that in me sings no more.

In "Because You're the First," Cameron gives Kassandra a book of sonnets writiten by William Shakespeare, probably the most famous  sonnet writer of all time.  There is very little known about the man known as "The Bard," who was mostly acclaimed during his lifetime for his plays.  His sonnets were more than likely written during the sonnet craze that swept England in the 1590s.  They were not published in their entirety as a collection until 1610.  Some scholars think there is a plot to them, others disagree.  What no one doubts is the verbal and emotional beauty of the sonnets, which have expressed lover's feelings for one another for 500 years.

In the book, Cameron marks for Kassandra Sonnet 116, which is probably one of his most popular.  It is one that is commonly read at weddings because it speaks of a love that is forever enduring and permanent.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

William Shakespeare

A few months ago, I decided I wanted to try my hand at sonnet writing.  Here's my attempt:

Sonnet I
To those I've loved

To those I've loved in days gone by
That linger in sequestered places
In a restless heart, that wonders why
And thinks on smiles of fading faces.
Their laughter rings through bygone days
In moments when I remember
When love was young and passion blazed
Then burst to deadened embers.
When days are long, and I'm alone
and youth seems far away
I think of when those love lights shone
Full of sweet words to say.
I dwell on all those moments sweet,
And hope again with love I'll meet.

Okay, well, maybe Edna and William did a better job. But it was my first try!!!

Love and Happy Valentine's Day to all!!!