Saturday morning soundtrack

It’s Saturday morning and I have just finished playing Hearthstone for the day. My house is in a state of disarray and I need to get some cooking done for a get together we have scheduled later.

Wanting some music, I decide to go ahead and connect my Mac Mini to my Samsung AirTrack via Bluetooth and open my Itunes library. As I walk to my computer I pass my stereo receiver and record player.

Stopping, I change my mind and decide to put on a record instead. I slip the green piece of vinyl out of the dust jacket and place it on the turntable.

I walk over to the sink and begin washing dishes as the music begins to play. I am about half way through my stack of wares when I hear my youngest son come up the stairs — Aydin was downstairs grabbing the vacuum cleaner for me.

I turn to see him dancing and singing to the music — we were listening to Dropkick Murphy’s Live at Landsdowne.

I smile at him and am struck with a bit of nostalgia as I turn back to my dishes.

Growing up, our typical Saturday morning was to help my parents with the household chores. Typically, Dad would be doing the cleaning while Mom balanced the checkbook. Always, Dad would have records playing.

My Dad’s stereo equipment consisted of a record player, dual cassette deck, an 8-track player, and a reel-to-reel player. His record collection numbered into the high hundreds or, possibly, low thousands. Needless to say, our Saturday morning soundtrack was plentiful.

There is no doubt my father played a huge part in my musical education. In fact, the only person who has played an almost equal part is my older brother, Benjamin.

I miss those days when Hotel California would be the song I would wake up to. When the Stylistics or the Chi-Lites gave me a bit of groove as I swept the floors. When Led Zeplin sung about the Stairway to Heaven as I dusted.

Now, all those years later, the Dropkick Murphys are powering Aydin through his morning chores.

My Dad has since broken up his collection. Although he retained a large part of it, several pieces are spread between my siblings and me.

Although we play music via the AirTrack all the time, I don’t often power up the record player. I think that needs to change. I think it’s time my boys got a chance to listen to their grandfather’s collection. Well, at least the bit I have.

Originally posted at cosselp.blogspot.com