Music

I rarely listen to music on the radio. If I’m not listening to talk-radio like Dave Ramsey
I’m listening to cds. But I’ve noticed I listen to the same old cds over and over again. If I get a new one, which I did a few weeks ago with Bruce Springsteen’s new disc, I’ll wear myself out on it, put it on the shelf and not listen to it again for months, or even years.

So today as I started my errands, I thought I’d grab a couple of cds off the shelf of 400 that I seldom listen to. Instead of selecting the discs though, I closed my eyes and just grabbed two.

Today’s selections: Van Morrison Tupelo Honey and The Electric Light Orchestra’s “Discovery”.

A couple of summers ago one of my friends in the newsroom came in from a story shoot and was talking about a “new” group. She had been listening to XM Satellite radio and said “have you heard of this group? ELO? They’re awesome!”.

So today, and for the next several days I’m going to randomly grab one or two of my old cds and give them a listen. Again.

By the way, I don’t remember “Tupelo Honey” being as upbeat as when I first bought the disc 10-12 years ago. “Discovery” sounds fresh as ever. Listening to “The Ballad of Horace Wimp” and “Last Train to London” today I recalled the day I first bought the album. I was in the 10th grade and begged my mom to take me to the mall the day the album came out. The clerk told me I bought the first copy in the store. I remember walking out of the store and grabbing an Orange Julius and looking at the lp sleeve. For those of you not old enough to remember what an LP sleeve was, it’s the paper cover for the actual vinyl record.

ELO was good about about putting lyrics to their songs on the sleeve along with some photographs. Sometimes they included a poster.