The History of Music. My Favorite Pair.

It's been a few years since I've blogged.  So, I'm going to attempt to get this thing started again.  I loved blogging before and checking out all of the comments that friends and others would write.  Just until recently I haven't been able to access this blog I started several years ago.  I've got a lot of things to talk about, but here what's on my mind at the time being.

The History of Music: My Favorite Pair.
Music has always been very close to my heart.  God has gifted me with the talent to write, play and sing music.  I take it for granted sometimes, but He still delivers me with creative ideas.  My father is now 82, and throughout my childhood living in his house, there was always a conflict of musical interests.  His background of his life is a lot of different styles of country music, mostly Blue-Grass and Folk, along with a bunch of Southern Gospel ( I mean really OLD Southern Gospel).  He especially likes the Southwest Swing (Believe me when I tell you this that you had to be born in that era to enjoy it, otherwise you need to be in a straight jacket).  Every Saturday night was him in just small chair with his ears pierced to the radio listening to The Grand Ole Opry.  The more Folkish, bluegrassish, yodeling it was, the better for him. 
Me, being raised in the 70's, is mostly Mainstream Rock.  Journey, Boston, Kansas, Styx, Eagles, Pink Floyd, Queen etc.  I did live 6 years in the 60's but for a toddler up to 1st grade, The Beatles weren't really on my radar, I was focused mainly on my career and studies for the future (of course that all changed when I started school). Then the 80's hit while I was a teenager until I hit my 20's in 1984.  So, a bunch of Van Halen, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, etc. ( all considered at that time to be Heavy Metal) was pleasant to my ears, (The Louder, The Better).  I must confess, some of the bubble gum and pop music was enjoyable as well, but that was mainly credited to MTV (Music Video's, the new age!!!!!) Wow!!!! What a rush of great innovation, this was our (my generation) Video Games!!!  Best thing since the TV went to more than 13 channels with a magic box!!! And  The DJ's were DYNOMITE!!!!  (Unless you watch a lot of "Nick at Night, or something similar to that station, only my generation will understand that catch phrase slang) [Thanks Jimmy]. It was like having a favorite pair of underwear that fits your business perfect!!!!   Between Saturday Night Live and MTV,  along with this new creation of watching movies (BETA), what else could a (Good) teenager ask for?  {Just for the record, I was a very good kid growing up.  Even though my listening and viewing preferences was a bunch of "Pink Floyd" and Movies like "Monty Python and The Holy Grail" and several "Cheech and Chong" movies, I never, even until this day, have never took any drugs or tried marijuana}.  I was "Naturally Wired" (Great Van Halen Song).

Thirty years ago, television and music met in a way like never before with the creation of an all-music network, MTV.
On August 1, 1981, five young music enthusiasts, J.J. Jackson, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn were catapulted into fame when they became MTV’s original “VJs,” or video-jockeys. {Article from Fox News back in 2011 called, "Then/Now: MTV's Original 'Fab Five' VJs"}

Martha Quinn was my favorite, She was Smoking Hot, Nina Blackwood was easy on the eyes as well.  MTV made life very much relaxing for me.  Spending hours upon hours watching videos bringing the songs to life with a visual story.  That's until reality TV took it over somewhere around the mid 80's, but then VH1 took over for a few years. 

 Anyhow, back to my childhood of the household I lived in with the Chief and Ruler in charge, my Dad.  The music that my sister and I listened to in his mind was (Just Noise).  I could go into several superlatives that he used on describing our listening enjoyment, but the one that stuck with me the most over the years was ("Kevin, How can you listen to that Noise?  It's Communist music!!!")  Of course, during that time and era, with his generation living through The Cold War with Cuba, and Russia, Suicide Japanese pilots and Nuclear bombs,  anything that was Evil in their eyes, was Communist.  Another quote of his was "You have to be on drugs to listen to that kind of stuff"  It's very comical now, but back then, when he said those words, it would always cause a Heated Debate, with me defending the music like a hippie protest from the 60's.  Of course it would always end in him being the victor, (It was his house you know). I'm sure most of you in my generation heard the phrase, "When you grow up and get you're own house, you can do whatever you want to do then, but until then, you'll do as you're told, and turn that junk off."  Don't get me wrong, my Dad was a Great Father, He wasn't the Fidel Castro of  Dictators that I'm making him out to be in this story.  He would mostly just make me turn it down.  He was mainly Very timid back in the day, (easy like Sunday Morning), and still is. 

Now we fast forward to just a few days before 2016.  My Dad has outlived two wives, first of 30 years of marriage and second one 20 years of marriage.  When my step-mother passed in 2013, I went to Chicago (where him and her lived the last 5 years of her life), stayed with him there for 6 months, getting his affairs in order and helping him sell his home, and moved him in with me, my wife and two dogs in my humble home in Barling, Arkansas, and now in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  His music taste haven't really veered away from his roots, but he has ventured out into my realm a bit and seems to appreciate the Rock of my generation.  Which I've noticed, even the kids of this generation seem to enjoy and appreciate my era.  The music of the 70's and 80's will rock on through the years of generations to come it seems.  I can put a CD on in the car or in the house, and he enjoys it with me, and a few times, I know I've had it a little too loud.  He especially likes the Eagles.  Me on the other hand, I still detest his kind of Country music from his past.  I like a lot of the newer Country, (because it sounds like some of the Rock music from the 70's), but just about anytime he puts on that old Bluegrass/Folk music, I throw up a little in my mouth, and a piece of me dies inside.  But I try to withstand it, because it brings a smile to his face every time he hears one of his old classic songs from his generation.  With this new technology era of streaming music and Bluetooth, he's overwhelmed when I can play some of his favorite songs on my Bose speaker at a touch of a button from my smart phone.  And my music isn't Communist anymore, it's actually enjoyable.  The realization of the talent of musicians that came out of those years were incredible. (His words, not mine). Which brings me to the moral of my story.

You know, you can have a pair of favorite underwear.  Your friend or relative can have their favorite pair of underwear.  You might not appreciate the other individuals underwear as much as he does nor he appreciates yours as much as you do.  But when you get old, Weather ripped, torn, clean, or skid marked, As long as you are still able to wear yours or anybody else's underwear, you appreciate the experience.