Diversity in Music - plus Radio Free California Episode 2039

 I used to get asked a lot about how I can listen to so many different types of music. It happens much less now that I'm a professional musician, but it does still happen. It occurs to me that I should tell you a story about my father.

My father listened to music at exactly one volume. Ear-splitting. He loved it loud. He could hear just fine, but he believed in experiencing music. He had amplifier-sized speakers set in a fancy cabinet, and a top of the line turntable and a nice selection of vinyl. He also owned 5 8-track tapes, all bought the same day he bought that stereo. He never bought any more than that, but he played them often.

For any of you under the age of 45 or so you've probably never heard what it sounds like when an 8-track tape changes. The way it worked is that there are 8 tracks all next to one another, left and right channels. To play an entire album, the whole tape would cycle 4 times, shifting two tracks at a time when it reached the change point. The change point was a physical piece of metal spliced into the tape - a physical barrier that would MOVE the playback head two tracks. The sound it made was like nothing else - and usually louder than anything on the tape itself.

I tried to find an example of what it sounded like on YouTube but couldn't. You'll need to imagine the sound of a watermelon smacking into pavement dropped from a skyscraper, dropped four octaves and played at 130 decibels. To this day it's the loudest "ka-chunk" I've ever heard.

But let's talk about those 5 albums.They were all bought in the 1970's and my dad had all of them on vinyl. But he loved playing them as loud as a rock concert through his 15-inch sub-woofers and and confounding the neighbors on his musical choices. To start with, one of the albums was one of the most popular of the day, and here is a track:

When Neil Diamond was at his best he was just amazing.

Then he might switch to one of the biggest selling artists of the 1960's (who has a new boxed-set out this week and got me thinking about all of this):

To this day it amazes me how many of Herb Alpert's songs are part of the cultural zeitgeist of my generation.

Then he might give the neighbors whiplash:

Imagine that opening at the volume of an airplane. The windows shook.

And then he'd go in for the kill:

I wouldn't even learn that this was a classical song by Debussy for years. 

But what my did would sit on the couch and actually listen to was this:

He'd make me listen to the parts played, what they were each doing and how they worked. To understand that part of the song was lifted from Bolero. What the bass was doing when the solos began. 

Most people never realized that my father was also a musician - a cellist. He couldn't read music very well, but he could certainly understand it. He was forced to give it up because at age 20 he wrapped a car around a tree, which left him unable to play again.

He loved music, and while it's my mother's side of the family that instilled the knowledge and love of music in me, one of the few gifts my father gave me was making sure that during the summers I lived with him in various places around the country that my love of music wouldn't be diminished, and that I'd hear something new every time.

When he thought no one was looking, he'd put on a symphony and conduct. He was pretty good at it. He taught me that having an eclectic ear is worth celebrating.

And so with that, here is Radio Free California Episode 2039:

Two massive guitarists give us something new, the return of Aloe Blacc, newly discovered tapes reminding us how amazing Ella was, some live performances, a throwback to 80's new-wave, a reminder that the founder of A&M records is still a big deal, Some re-imagined T-Rex and much more! Enjoy!