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Old
Tunes Bring Back Memoriesby
Murray Montgomery |  |
It’s
funny how different things can remind us of the past and bring back old memories.
With
some folks it might be certain smells or things they see and hear. In my case
it’s music – old songs can send my mind racing back to events that happened long
ago, many times carrying me all the way back to my teenage years.
I think
we all go through musical transitions in our lives, at least that’s the way it
was with me. My teen years took place in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, back then
all of my friends listened to rock and roll. For me it was not only rock and roll
– I also loved soul music. Going to high school in Angleton, Texas, south of Houston,
our radio station of choice was KILT; back in those days all they played was rock
and roll, mixed with soul.
My buddies and I would cruise the streets listening
to our favorite tunes. The speaker on my ’55 Ford would rattle when the volume
was cranked up as we listened to The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Chuck Berry,
Little Richard, and one of my favorite groups, Ike and Tina Turner. I stopped
liking Ike when I found out he was slapping Tina around. No doubt about it, Tina
Turner is one of the best performers I ever saw on stage.
The Beach Boys,
Roy Orbison,
Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and many others also had a place on the old Ford’s
radio. When I think back on it, there’s no question that Buddy Holly was my idol;
I was 16 when he died and I remember crying like a baby. My daughter said she
did the same thing when Stevie Ray Vaughn passed away – music will do that to
you.
In the 1970s, although I still liked rock and roll, particularly
the Rolling Stones, my taste in music started to change. My all-time favorite,
Merle Haggard, turned me on to country music. I was able to see him in concert
on three different occasions and always came away knowing I got my money’s worth.
During that time in the ‘70s, I bought albums by Waylon Jennings, Willie
Nelson, Don Williams, Hank
Williams, Jr., Gene Watson, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and many more. Fact
is there isn’t enough space here to list all the entertainers whose music I’ve
enjoyed over the years. But it seems that country music just doesn’t seem “country”
to me these days. My favorite of today’s bunch is Alan Jackson but most of the
others all sound alike to me.
As noted earlier, there’s no way I can list
all the music I do like but it’s easy to name the sounds I don’t care for. I never
acquired a taste for hard rock, rap, or opera music. Other than that, most anything
goes. I like Mexican music, primarily mariachi bands, but Freddy
Fender and Flaco Jimenez would also be included on my list of favorites.
And there was a time when I couldn’t stand polka music; that was before I moved
to Hallettsville and became brainwashed. Now crank up the Red Ravens or the Dujka
Brothers and I’ll pat my feet with the best of them.
Not long ago the
wife and I were in San Marcos visiting the kids and attending our grandson’s birthday
party – as we were headed back after a day on the Blanco River my daughter slipped
a Buddy Holly disc into her CD player. When Holly’s tune “Maybe Baby” came on,
my daughter told me to look at my four-year-old grandson in the backseat.
She said, “Look at him daddy, he just loves Buddy Holly.” Sure enough the little
fellow was sitting in his car seat, moving his body from side-to-side and rockin’
to the same music his grandpa has loved for so many years. |
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