Make Mine Mike

What music are you listening to lately?

People ask me this question and I never have a good answer. I’m not hooked up with that crazy iTunes thing all the kids are into or the Sirius satellite XM stuff. And free radio sucks.

Okay, I admit a guilty pleasure of mine is the bubblegum bullshit of Avril Lavigne’s “Hey Hey You You I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend”. But she’s not the first supposedly “alternative” rocker matching her questionable talent with a lack of integrity by selling out. In fact, it’s all been done before.

Everything today is a complete rehash. As Homer Simpson said: "What's with these new bands? Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact."

A question that’s easier for me to answer is: What was the first music you ever got? (CDs, albums, 8-tracks, illegal downloads, whatever)

Here were my first three cassette tape purchases:

1. Pink Floyd, The Wall. I had first heard Echoes from some older kids and was blown away by the psychedelic sound. I also love the weird Syd Barrett years, and of course, The Dark Side of the Moon is a masterpiece, but The Wall was my introduction into trippy classic rock. Floyd ain’t just for druggies, y’know.

2. Fiddler on the Roof, Original Broadway Soundtrack. Not to take anything from Zero Mostel’s honorable mensch-ion, but I only acquired to this to get better acquainted with the play, which we performing in my school. Ironically, I missed the audition for Tevya, because I had some Hebrew school commitment. I wound up with the role of a random Russian shtetl-person, singing “Tradition” but secretly longing to solo “If I Were a Rich Man”.

3. Donna Summer, Greatest Hits. I just heard “On the Radio” which prompted this post. Dance music never dazzled me, but Donna always did. I remember a school assignment was to write a fan letter to someone we admired. My friend wrote to Ron Hodges of The New York Mets and he actually got a response with an autographed photo. Today, I wish I had done something similar, considering a Reggie Jackson reply might be worth big bucks today. And also ‘cause Donna Summer never wrote me back. But still, I could never badmouth the Queen of Disco.