Since I was the youngest of four siblings I was influenced by the music my brother and sisters listened to.  Eventually I got old enough to discern my own musical tastes – I remember asking my father to buy me a record – a single or a 45 of  The Animals  “Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” when I was about 9 years old, my first acquisition of music that was my own.

I was fortunate in that my older brother with whom I shared a room was also interested in music and so had a record player, later a stereo, and some music.  I had his stereo to play my music on and his collection to listen to.  Since I usually destroyed most of his stuff like little brothers often do, I’m sure I scratched most of his records and roached a few of the stereo’s needles.  Of course there was no malice aforethought – but still – sorry Ted!  However, most of the time it was the radio that supplied the music.  When I say radio, I mean AM Top 40 radio as that was the format of that era.  And that was enough for some years, but as the sixties waned, the music scene was evolving too.  Stereo setups became a little more sophisticated, usually incorporating a tuner/amplifier with an FM band.  FM stations began to spring up with what was known as album-oriented formats or free form programming.  Bottom line is there were no playlists, the DJs played pretty much whatever they wanted.  The first one I was exposed to was KSAN, a San Fransisco station – as I recall it was because the father of a high school friend of mine had a Cadillac with an FM radio.  A little later, local station KZAP came along.  These stations provided access to progressive or alternate rock like Genesis, YES, Emerson, Lake &Palmer, etc. that was never heard on AM because of the Top 40 format.  AM radio was still very much alive, however, since most cars only had AM radios and we kids were still a few years off from our own cars and having money for after market sound sysytems.  Eventually the free form FM format died out, apparently not commercial enough to succeed.  No matter – the internet was born.  Thank you Al Gore!  I couldn’t do this without YouTube!

So you have a little glimpse into what happened to turn me into the maladjusted developmentally arrested freak I am today.  Did I say that out loud?  What I meant is now you know why I subject you to these music offerings each Friday.  If you have a music question, a band you’d like to know more about or a song request, leave it in the comments – I’ll do what I can.

Here’s a little of that ELP – don’t be frightened!  This is on the mellow side.  You’ll see it’s all clear…You were meant to be here…from the beginning