Music

I’ve been listening to music my entire life. My mom played the organ and piano. That led to my taking piano lessons starting when we moved to Dos Palos in 1959. I got good enough to perform in local recitals hosted by my teacher Gracie who lived two doors down. I stopped taking lessons and playing around 1965. Big mistake and one of the largest regrets of my life. I should have kept playing.

I joined the band in 1963 when I started middle school at Bryant. I don’t recall exactly why but I ended up in the percussion section playing drums. I was a pretty big kid at that point so maybe they thought I was a good candidate to carry the bass drum in parades which I did. The Dos Palos High School marching band was a source of pride for the entire town. They won lots of awards and even marched in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s inauguration parade in 1965.

I got good enough as a drummer that I was selected to join the high school band in the fall of 1966. At the time, that was a big deal. Many of my classmates auditioned but were not selected. I remember vividly competing in Long Beach my freshman year and attending Disneyland with my bandmates. A few weeks later we all travelled to Pasadena and marched in the Rose Bowl parade.

I didn’t start listening to pop music until The Beatles became popular in the mid-60s. I don’t recall our having a record collection at home, so I probably just listened on radio and tv. We had lots of dances at DPHS and some of my friends formed groups to perform. I stuck with playing in the band and enjoyed my first couple of years learning to play all the instruments in the percussion section including chimes and tympani drums.

After I returned from a year abroad in Belgium and started living at the SAE House in Berkeley, I was ready for my first official stereo system that I bought used from one of the graduating seniors. I didn’t have a lot of money, but records were not all that expensive and I became a regular customer at Tower Records on Telegraph Ave. I found that listening to music in my room was very relaxing and helped me study. Fast forward 50+ years. Not much has changed. I do most of my work these days with a set of headphones attached to my laptop listening to playlists I have created on YouTube.

I never really enjoyed hard rock. It was too loud and annoying for my taste. I preferred listening to soft rock and folk music. I tended to buy albums from performers like James Taylor, Neil Diamond, Cat Stevens, Carly Simon, Don McClean and the like. This got me through the college years.

Once I started working in the real world, I sort of took a break from listening to much music. Commuting to and from San Francisco and putting in a full day’s work didn’t leave a lot of spare time. Then I started attending night school in 1977 to get my MBA from UC Berkeley. That took up another three years of my life. After that I started running up to 50 miles a week training for 10Ks, half marathons and even one marathon.

I left the accounting world in 1983 and took a CFO job with a startup company in Silicon Valley. That led to many 12-hour days and more than a handful of all-nighters. The kids were born in 1984 and 1986, so life for me was like a blur. The only music I listened to was in my red Nissan pickup driving to and from Palo Alto. It helped keep me sane despite an insane schedule.

We moved to Minnesota in 1987. The only real music I listened to in that era was from the movies I was watching with the kids. A lot of Disney classics including Fantasia which introduced me to classical music. I turned to Christian music in the early-1990s when I re-connected with my Christian roots and was re-baptized at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, MN.

I started working for Willow Creek in 1992 and listened to all their CDs along with other Christian groups like the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and Hillsong in Australia. I started coaching the kids in baseball and basketball and that kept me busy for the rest of the decade. Music took a back seat in my life although there was never a time when I stopped singing songs to myself.

My love affair with 60s music (and early 70s) was re-ignited when XM Satellite radio launched the Sixties on Six channel in 2001. They later merged with Sirius in 2008 and rebranded the channel Sixties Gold on 73. It is pretty much the only channel I listen to while driving. The DJ’s keep you entertained and the music never gets old. One of the reasons I like going on road trips is it gives me a chance for long, uninterrupted sessions of music from the sixties.

As streaming technology has improved, I have turned to listening to music on YouTube while working in my office. It takes just a few seconds to search for whatever album or group I want to listen to. In addition, YouTube uses your search history to curate custom playlists that are only one click away. That sometimes introduces me to some new music that was not previously on my radar screen.

I enjoy listening to each of the albums that I have selected for this website. As you can see, there is an intersection of my love for movies and music. Many of the albums are soundtracks from my favorite movies and musicals. I have even begun using the website (rather than a YouTube search) to select the music I play. It’s become a daily feature of my current life. I’m not sure I can explain why, but I really do believe I’m a better trader when listening to music. It allows my brain to think clearly and decisively while I sing along to the music. Carpe Diem. Enjoy the music.