I don�t know when�

[rplace]

I don’t know when that road turned onto the road I am on.

Ok, if you don’t know that line then Google it and come back. I apologies ahead because I am no Theebes, but will try and put into words something I think all of us can appreciate.

Jump into the way back machine with Sherman and Mr. Peabody and we are in 1977. I don’t want to go to the Elks club picnic, but I am either 10 or 11 years old so I don’t have much choice. It has been less then a year since my parents moved form Indianapolis, Indiana to Detroit, Michigan and I really still don’t dig Michigan.

It is late in the day, it has been raining and most of the people are gone. Of course my parents are still knocking back manhattans’ or Harvey Wall Bangers so me and my two sisters are still hanging around. This guy goes up to the microphone and starts to rattle off this sort of raffle or give away; I have no idea what is happening, except my parent have tons of tickets…mostly because all the sane people left during the downpours and gave my parent their tickets. It doesn’t really matter why I am there, but I am.

Next thing I know I am getting all these free LPs. Toto, Star Wars soundtrack, Cheep Trick several other lame ones that I have since purged from my mind and one gem that sticks out in my mind. Running on Empty by Jackson Brown. At my age I had never heard of him, but the cover with the drums on the open road and the clouds in the distance seemed interesting so say the least.

Jump forward a few years and I am sneaking to the basement to use the phone (back then there were only phones in a few places of the house, surely not in your beedroom) to call some girl – I don’t even remember her name, but I use the big wooden, solid state console as an excuse to play my J Brown album. Another time around 14 years old I am just fed up my parents BS and I am blasting Running on Empty or Stay as loud as I can get it on my Pioneer Receiver and Techniques turn table with Pickering cartridge (I loved that little brush) in my room. Over the years I must have played that LP a million times and never gave it a 2^nd though.

In 1987 or so CDs came out and I was the first in line to dump all my Rolling Stones bootlegs, Who LPs, Clash albums and the like to the used record store for $125 bucks and get 8-10 CDs. What a mistake. I still had fond memories of that day at the Elks and getting that Jackson Brown LP for free, while I was not a huge fan, I did dig the fact that he hooked up with Darrel Hanna and I never forgot those day in that basement with the console or in my bedroom with the Techniques TT making sure the speed is just perfect with the strobe light and those cool little silver rectangles on the circumference of the platter. Man, that was a simpler time.

Many years go by, I have had a few different houses and for some reason or another (probably the Klipsch forum) I buy a turntable and some how end up with another pile of LPs.

Jump forward another few years (tonight) and I finally have some free time and rather then spin some Jazz LPs, which is my new passion, I decide to go old school. I am listening to a lot of Doors, Led Zeppelin, Mo Town stuff, Rolling Stones, etc. Eventually I find this Jackson Brown LP. Where did it come from, I have no idea…but if I had to guess it would have been from Gary (GaryMD). I put it on and I am instantly transported back to 1977-1984. I literally cannot wipe the cheesy smile off my face. I can’ stop thinking of the girl whose name I cannot even remember. I see myself riding my bike home from middle school. I am worried about the pimples on my face. I am rocking our in front of the mirror jumping up and down like an idiot.

Music is a wonderful thing. I am 11 years all over again.

[HudsonValleyNoah]

[Y]

[SWL]

Music is a wonderful thing. I am 11 years all over again.

That's really cool. My music and my system allow me to be 17 years old all over again........a couple times a week. []

......Interesting how music can stir up emotions......and take you back to that time and place when.......[Y]

[bliss53]

I am still a teenager (47). My wife tells me to grow up all the time.

My wife and I have known each other since kindergarten. We hear certain music that transports us all the time. We can name the same events that we recall in association with a specific song. I have three kids (boy 22, girl 19, girl 16). They also seem to have their memories associated with music. The unusual thing is that some of their songs are the same ones that my wife and I listened to at the same ages.

[marting]

Great post!

Every once in a while when I hear the Guess Who's "No Time" I can actually smell the smell of my mother's basement as it smelled in the summer of 1970. Anyone else have music trigger an olafactory response?

[bliss53]

Guess Who's "No Time" = Back seat of my 1968 Buick Electra 225. Leatherette seats stick to bare skin.

[Groomlakearea51]

The Guess Who and Spencer Davis does it for me!! Music is a time machine.[H]

[Mallette]

Awww, Thebes is overrated. Besides, he doesn't have any memories much past the last gathering...

I can relate. Making out in my first true love's living room with Pet Clark belting out "Don't Sleep in the Subway." But the tears flow when I remember my mom, her two sisters, and my grandma gathered around the pump organ "In the Garden." I don't just remember it, I HEAR it.

Music is unique. The Greeks say "Kalahboie Kalies Psychen" (I've probably murdered the spelling, but it's wrong in Roman no matter how you spell it), "Music Charms the Soul."

No doubt about it. If I had to choose the most perfect piece of music ever written it would likely be "Jesus, Joy of Man's Desiring." I have this sense that Bach did not actually write it, but heard the heartbeat of the Universe itself and just jotted down a bit of it. It neither begins nor ends, but you just sort of join it for a few minutes and then it moves on.

Thanks. Nice work.

Dave

[garymd]

Nice post Richie!

Two LPs that do it for me every time are Jethro Tull, Thick As A Brick and Joe Walsh, So What. Days wasted (literally) in the basement with my sister and her boyfriends playing those records over and over again. I also remember like it was yesterday, my mother coming home from a yard sale with 3 25 cent LPs for me - Santana, self-titled & 2 Grateful Dead LPs - Skull & Roses and Wake Of The Flood. Those can also bring back memories in an instant.

[rplace]

I totally forgot to tell you all the really crazy part....the whole reason I decided to write was because as I am listening to Running on Empty, I am reading the LP info and it says recorded 1977 at Marriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia f-ing Maryland!!!

Growing up in Michigan I never even heard of MPP or Columbia...hardly even Maryland[] and now I live less then an hour from the place.

Mind officially blown!

[garymd]

I totally forgot to tell you all the really crazy part....the whole reason I decided to write was because as I am listening to Running on Empty, I am reading the LP info and it says recorded 1977 at Marriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia f-ing Maryland!!!

Growing up in Michigan I never even heard of MPP or Columbia...hardly even Maryland and now I live less then an hour from the place.

Mind officially blown!

Pretty sure I was at that show Rich. If I was, I probably still have my ticket stub. I'll have to check. If I do, you can have it as a souvenir. I rarely missed a show at Merriweather in the 70s.

[Mike Dubay]

[H]Nice post. Reminds to step back for the building and technology and listen to the music.

I did not have much money to purchase albums when I was young. But I feel I get a second chance at youth going to the used record store and pick up titles from my middle and high school years. Scored a couple of Rolling Stones and Dire Straights titles. I get transported to the days spent in my Firebird at the park listening to the AOR radio stations.

[thebes]

Ignore that Thebes fella. Can't write worth a lick. He's just stringing adjectives together and he has no idea what a comma is, or what it's used for. Also been known to end his sentences with a preposition (whatever that is).

Great post Rich. Can't tell you how many times a tune has evoked memories, smells, touch, taste, place or time. First heard Jackson Brown's anthem to roadies, "Stay" (just a little bit longer) on a walkman in an airport in Taiwan. I can still remember that it was a busy concourse, and being new to this walkman thing, I thought I was something special listening to this awesome tune while people strolled by unawares of just what they were missing. It's a live song and the audience really gets into the tune. At the end I felt like standing up and taking a bow. Actually, I think maybe I did stand up and take a bow.

Oh, and that woman whose name you can't remember. Well I betcha she had ruby lips and shapely hips.

[Mallette]

>Also been known to end his sentences with a preposition (whatever that is).

That is nonsense up with which I shall not put. I am certain you know where the library is at.

Dave

[kaiser SET say]

Great story Rich, did you happen to see this baby? http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1231857108&/Basis-2500--Vector-2--dustcover--boxes-

I know you have had an eye out for one although the 2800 is a newer model the 2500 is no slouch[]

[oldtimer]

>Also been known to end his sentences with a preposition (whatever that is).

That is nonsense up with which I shall not put. I am certain you know where the library is at.

Dave

Crack me up Dave. Everyone knows the library is between the "a" and the "t."

[rplace]

Great story Rich, did you happen to see this baby? http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgtabl&1231857108&/Basis-2500--Vector-2--dustcover--boxes-

I know you have had an eye out for one although the 2800 is a newer model the 2500 is no slouch

Yea, I saw it. Nice table. I check a-gon from time to time for any Basis' or is that Basi for the plural?

[garymd]

Rich,

That's a good deal. I say offer $2000 and see what happens. Tell him without full pics, you feel even that's taking a chance. Maybe settle at $2500? All he can say is no but I'm guessing he'd take it. In this economy, any sale is a good sale. I think the Zu would mate well with the Vector, you?

BTW - Got the LP yesterday. You are the MAN! Thanks pal. I needed something positive after the month of stress I've had. I'll give you a ring on my way home today.

- Gary

[kaiser SET say]

That's a good deal

True dat Gary[]

There's also a 2001w/Graham 2.0 for 3 bills but if I'm remembering you have a soft spot for the Vector. I too think the pumped up Zu103 would be a good one on that rig[]

[rplace]

I think even at 2800-3000 it is a decent deal. Problem is I hurt my back recently and have not been able to bill as many hours latley. The real killer is that between some landscaping we are having done and braces I am getting...yes braces I have about $15K heading out the door between now and the end of the year.[] My wife is a dental heigentist and she says all she wants for x-mas is for me to get braces.

All of you keep quiet on the braces thing...it is a surprise. They go on December 16th. I am thinking of coming home with a bow around my face. What do you think?

Gary, glad you got the LP. I was hoping you would get it before the weekend. Give side two a hard listen and let me know what you think. I really dig the guitar work on BoB, 2nd to last track on side 2.

Happy Thanksgiving all!