was bound to happen sooner or later. Ed and I grew up as teenagers in the 70s where the music of the times surrounded us. I was at a slumber party when I got my first glimpse of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. I remember riding a bus into town and buying my first record. It was a 45 rpm, Yellow Submarine with Eleanor Rigby on the flip side. I visited my grandparents and played it so much that my (usually mild mannered) grandpa announced that he had heard quite enough of ” yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine.”
Ed remembers loading his record player before going to bed and and being “rocked” to sleep each night.
Something new came out around the time we went to college and we both outfitted our dorm rooms with the latest 8-tracks. No more worries about scratched or warped records or broken needles. Just pop in a cassette and you’re good. To this day there are still places in Carole King’s Tapestry that I expcect to hear the “click” in the middle of the song.
Thankfully, the 8-track craze was short lived and vinyl endured. As a young married couple, we joined a record-of- the-month club and began to collect albums from our favorite artists. We had an impressive turntable with gigantic speakers.
My faves: Seals and Crofts, Cat Stevens, James Taylor,Crosby Stills Nash and Young..Led Zeppelin? (how did that get in there..must be Ed’s)
Time Goes By….
and more important things required our attention…got jobs, became parents, bought a house. Our new home was equiped with a built-in cassette tape deck and inter-house sound system. The turntable and huge speakers gathered dust in our basement for decades. When we retired and moved across the country, we sold them in a garage sale. We could’t part with our beloved records, perhaps we were hanging on to the past, so we boxed up the ones we wanted to keep and they moved with us. We stashed the box in a closet.
But Vinyl Lives ON!
I blame our current Vinyl Mania on my son who recently purchased a turntable and began collecting record albums. One night a week, he hosts an “album night” where the TV , phones, and computers are turned off. Each family member gets to pick a song, or a side of a favoite record to play. On a recent visit, we saw this in action and had so much fun!
Vinyl Revival
One thing led to another. Back home, we took our long-forgotten records out of storage and spent an entire evening looking at the cover art and list of songs, sharing memories of each one. The records looked to be in good condition, so we bought an inexpensive turntable to try them out. Boy, did we miss our our stero set and speakers, but we figured out how to hook things up to our television sound bar. The sound isn’t great, but it’s a start. Then we bought a record-cleaning kit, and a wall display system for Ed’s office, and a record storage box, and of couse I had to get a little stand to display the record that was currently playing.
Ed’s Office wall display, mostly Beatles, one Stairway to Heaven
Accessories: player, storage cube, cute stool, and who’s in that picture?
Ed and I and friends at Abby Road Studios, 2018
The Music Lives On
Did we go a little overboard? Maybe. But I’m in the kitchen chopping a salad to go with tonight’s dinner and Elton’s voice floats in and before I know it I’m singing:
My Gift is my song and this one’s for you.
Threads of Thought
Ok, now it’s your turn. I want to hear your stories about your favorite song or album. What memories does it invoke? Leave a comment below (remember that comments are moderated, so be patients and it will show up, I promise). Or if you’re connected through my fb page, leave your story there. I know you’ve got one!
The back of the merchandise truck makes a great photo op.
November 11, 2022
Yeah, we did it! Elton was coming to Phoenix and we didn’t want to miss the chance to see him for the first (and probably the last time). We snagged a couple of tickets in the less expensive section of Chase Field, ordered the appropriate Elton John sunglasses, and we’re on our way!
Rockin’ the look
The stage is set
tiny stage, big music
We arrived about an hour before the concert and took our seats. Did I mention we were way up here? That amoeba-shaped stage is where teeny-tiny Elton and his piano will be. Good thing there are big screens and a huge sound system set up. From our vantage point we watched the crowd file in. Many were clad in Elton-inspired costumes.
The show begins
Philadelphia Freedom, I looove you, yes I do!
The arena lights dim and the stage lighting floods the space in red and blue. The crowd is quiet in anticipation, then breaks into cheers and applause as we realize Elton is on stage. He pounds out his first number Philadelphia Freedom and the show begins. The music vibrates through the space and resonates in my body.
My Gift is my song, this one’s for you.
Elton is dressed in a spangled tuxedo and wearing his trademark glasses. At 75, he doesn’t levitate off of the piano seat as he once did, but his voice is remarkable and he jumps up at the end of each song to wave and connect with the audience. He plays and sings for over two hours, with only a minutes-long interlude for a costume change.
We hop and bob to the Crocodile Rock , thrilled when the band stops playing and we get to do the la la la la laaaaa part. We tear up at Candle in the Wind and Don’t Let the Sun go Down on Me. We belt out the refrain to He shall be Levon and sway with the Tiny Dancer. At the end of the show, we cheer as Elton sings I’m Still Standing while clips of his life and career dance across the big screens.
Encore
He walks off the stage, but of course, we applaude him back for an encore. He takes a bow and thanks his fans for honoring him with our presence this night and throughout his career. He tells us goobye. We hold our phone flashlights high and sway as he plays his final number Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
Farewell Rocket Man. Thank you for your gift of music. I think it’s gonna stay a long, long time. Yeah, I think its gonna stay a long, long time.
