WhAt?...

Am I missing something? Is time really going faster as you get older? Is it that metaphor that we are on the downhill side of life, so it picks up speed? Where are the breaks? Two weeks ago, the days went by so slowly; I swear the clocks were going backward. I look upon my Substack page, and people I follow and read have posted two, three, or more, and I haven’t even finished the one three stories ago. My gosh, is my brain slowing down and time speeding up.

So I escape into my universe where all is right, well, to a point. It catches up there, too. So I found a book I had read before, one that is like wearing your favorite sweater or socks. Settle in and read, and all is right for the moment. I find I have presently been going back to the music of the 80s. It was a time when I found that music and my life seemed connected. We all have that moment when a song seems to fit our mood or reaction to something. How we feel or wish to respond to events. Many times, I have taken advice from Billy Joel or Rod Stwert. To no avail, it didn’t work.

So, I found how to work my one note of the coming of a few albums or songs from that time into this piece. Not that I was going for that, but it just squeezed it out. Back in my high school days, a friend of mine introduced me to the magazine of the time, GQ. David Byrne was on the cover of the issue in his white suit. I was hooked. Speaking In Tongues was the album, and I listened as much as possible. As much as you can on cassette.

I listened to other bands and albums, but this one just worked. It still does. I haven’t figured it all out yet, but when I listen to the songs on that album, it goes deep and makes things happen. Now, this is all going on in the early 80s. MTV is starting to make itself known. Music videos are all they do, with some music news popping in. Seeing your favorite bands in videos was the next best thing to being there when you knew you could never get there. I just wasn’t one for the large crowds and the noise. I was just fine in the family room, watching from the couch.

I then discovered Elvis Costello there now. His music resonated with me in the same way as Talking Heads. It was different from them, but it had the same effect. Another one I couldn’t explain, but it was simple and spoke to me. It was pretty and easy on the ears. Don’t get me wrong, at 15 and 16 years old, I liked my Aerosmith and Led Zepplin. I enjoyed some loud, hard, thumping bands at times. I was listening to Mozart and Beethoven when I was 7. What does that say? LoL

Elivs Costelloe reminded me of the singers from the 50s he sang. Most of what I watched on MTV was modern, electric, and loud. He wasn’t that, but he did his thing, and I liked it. Towards the end of my high school adventure and getting ready for my life after public education. I knew college wasn’t ready for me or I for it.

My senior year and my next four years after high school were an exploration of nothing. I did not know who I was or what I wanted. My track record for going out and finding someone I liked was starting to be written. Not a fun or happy time for me. I was finding that my choices for another were not panning out. A day late and a dollar short was becoming all too real. So the Army was a complete 180-degree change, I thought.

I was taking my advice from my “bandmates” and the songs they sang. It never worked, and so I learned that it was not advisable to “Tell Her About It,” at least not every time. As my track record came together and my mood got lower and lower, I heard songs that seemed to know me.

So, for most of us, I think our life was an 80s soundtrack. In all the movies and TV shows that had music, we looked at ourselves as wanting or having a soundtrack to go along with life’s adventures, good or bad. Whether you wanted it or looked for it, the songs came along that fit your mood. Happy, sad, mad, or just lost and confused, there was a song out there that fit. Think back to when you were in those awkward teenage years. What music did you fall back to? Well, it’s all there on vinyl, well now in the digital world.