My dad was a hi-fi nut. I followed him just as one son has followed me. My other son listens to music through his TV! How could this have happened?
I went as a child (early sixties) with Pops to the hi-fi stores where bow tie wearing, pipe smoking and unctuous young trucks hawked the latest. He worked up to a MAC amp/pre/tuner, four foot Tannoys and Thrones turntable that I wasn’t allowed to play my records on. I got around that when they were out. I got his KLH Model Twenty Integrated Music System when he jumped to the MAC stuff. I was a lucky ducky kid often yelled at to turn it down. Later in my younger years with my trusty Stanton Dynaphase Over Ear Headphones I could listen to records and FM radio late into the night.
My Mom worked in a record shop so from an early age I had records. I had a fifty fifty split of Rock and Jazz. At college some one took most all of my beloved Jazz records and left the Rock ones. That hurt. “Time Out” and” Kind of Blue” were replaced at once. (Another time someone broke into my truck’s cab (easy) and cherry picked my tools. That hurt to the max.)
As I mentioned when we moved and I deacquisitioned my records. Sometimes I have a bit of self flagellation over it but have sorted a non fatiguing digital playback system.
As a child my folks dragged us kids to lots of classical music concerts, ballet, musicals (yucky to me) and plays but more music in the mix than anything. Yesterday I put on a Deutsche Grammophon recording of Beethoven’s First (harkening back to the set I had on those flat round things) at a loudish volume it was thrilling. Crescendo me up!
My folks did me a solid with the music indoctrination. My sister is a Gilbert and Sullivan nut (performer) so there’s that one too.
It all started with vinyl records
