The world of music has brought me so much richness that it is difficult to express how music has broadened my life. Today, I celebrate 50+ years of being a follower of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. I know nearly every song they recorded, and I love singing with their recordings.
I started out playing old jukebox singles my dad bought from a guy who serviced jukeboxes. My vintage Capitol Records phonograph played those worn 45s when other stereos wouldn't.
One batch my dad bought for me had a few Beach Boys and Jan and Dean singles. I played them obsessively, learning different vocal parts, and sang enthusiastically and loudly to my favorites. I loved Surfin' Safari and Surf City, and those two tunes were the beginning of a love affair with music that continues to this day.
The Beatles and Motown were late to arrive in the little town in which my family lived. Our town's radio station, KDCE (Que Dice) played Spanish and Mexican music until one hour before. sunset, when they would play roughly an hour of top 40 music.
I would drag out my little transistor radio at bedtime, use my ear plug, and listen to Wolfman Jack play records in between doing ads selling baby chicks, phony "bulk up" muscle tonic, and hair restorer for the folically challenged. The clear channel radio stations were my musical beacons. There was XERB from Mexico, KOMA in Oklahoma City, and KFI for Los Angeles Dodger baseball games, with the great Vin Scully announcing the games.
As things evolved with my getting older, I realized there were big records, called albums. The drug store in our small town carried some lps, and I became a die hard fan of The Beach Boys, Beatles, The Four Seasons, Nat King Cole, Henry Mancini, Bob Dylan, and Dave Brubeck.
As time went on, my interest in music grew, and I learned to play piano, and several brass instruments. What we played was not pop music, and some of the music we played made me sleepy. But there is a certain feeling of satisfaction when everyone played their parts well, and as a school band we blended well together.
As time went on, and I left school and got married, I spent about six years in the retail music business, and as we played complimentary promotional albums, I got very familiar with all sorts of musical artists and styles. The great informal exposure to all sorts of musical styles, and also artists was irreplaceable. Those years were invaluable and I found artists in most music genres that I really liked.
Over the years, I developed one of the most comprehensive archives of Beach Boys music, record company promotional materials, and photographs in the world. I developed lasting friendships with some of The Beach Boys, their families, people who wrote books about the group, and Brian Wilson in particular. In the late 80s and early 90s I was able to help separate Brian from his abusive psychologist by figuring out what excessive psychotropic medications were causing Brian's trembling, eyes rolling back in his head, and inability to follow basic conversations and instructions.
We had assembled a team of Brian's friends and relatives to separate Brian from his highly controlling and abusive psychologist and attendants known as "The Surf Nazis." The movie Love and Mercy is a partial segment of the story. Thanks to his current wife, then his female love, we were able to present my findings to his brother Carl, and his mother Audree.
Music today is a companion and support for me that I treasure and keep close to me. I have sung in choirs, giving me a chance to use my voice to make music. Most of my kids and step kids have excellent voices, and they sing almost without thinking about it. My youngest daughter has become a big Brian Wilson fan, and sings enthusiastically when I play Brian/Beach Boys music in the car stereo. A new generation of my family loves music just like her parents.
Fine arts like music and drawing pictures have been found to assist children's math and science abilities in school. They certainly have enhanced my life from childhood. It will be tempting to remove Art and Music from elementary and secondary schools. That would be a terrible mistake. The joy in life offered by music, art, and being outdoors in nature is irreplaceable in my experience.
Copyright 2017 by Peter Reum - All rights reserved
I started out playing old jukebox singles my dad bought from a guy who serviced jukeboxes. My vintage Capitol Records phonograph played those worn 45s when other stereos wouldn't.
One batch my dad bought for me had a few Beach Boys and Jan and Dean singles. I played them obsessively, learning different vocal parts, and sang enthusiastically and loudly to my favorites. I loved Surfin' Safari and Surf City, and those two tunes were the beginning of a love affair with music that continues to this day.
The Beatles and Motown were late to arrive in the little town in which my family lived. Our town's radio station, KDCE (Que Dice) played Spanish and Mexican music until one hour before. sunset, when they would play roughly an hour of top 40 music.
I would drag out my little transistor radio at bedtime, use my ear plug, and listen to Wolfman Jack play records in between doing ads selling baby chicks, phony "bulk up" muscle tonic, and hair restorer for the folically challenged. The clear channel radio stations were my musical beacons. There was XERB from Mexico, KOMA in Oklahoma City, and KFI for Los Angeles Dodger baseball games, with the great Vin Scully announcing the games.
As things evolved with my getting older, I realized there were big records, called albums. The drug store in our small town carried some lps, and I became a die hard fan of The Beach Boys, Beatles, The Four Seasons, Nat King Cole, Henry Mancini, Bob Dylan, and Dave Brubeck.
As time went on, my interest in music grew, and I learned to play piano, and several brass instruments. What we played was not pop music, and some of the music we played made me sleepy. But there is a certain feeling of satisfaction when everyone played their parts well, and as a school band we blended well together.
As time went on, and I left school and got married, I spent about six years in the retail music business, and as we played complimentary promotional albums, I got very familiar with all sorts of musical artists and styles. The great informal exposure to all sorts of musical styles, and also artists was irreplaceable. Those years were invaluable and I found artists in most music genres that I really liked.
Over the years, I developed one of the most comprehensive archives of Beach Boys music, record company promotional materials, and photographs in the world. I developed lasting friendships with some of The Beach Boys, their families, people who wrote books about the group, and Brian Wilson in particular. In the late 80s and early 90s I was able to help separate Brian from his abusive psychologist by figuring out what excessive psychotropic medications were causing Brian's trembling, eyes rolling back in his head, and inability to follow basic conversations and instructions.
We had assembled a team of Brian's friends and relatives to separate Brian from his highly controlling and abusive psychologist and attendants known as "The Surf Nazis." The movie Love and Mercy is a partial segment of the story. Thanks to his current wife, then his female love, we were able to present my findings to his brother Carl, and his mother Audree.
Music today is a companion and support for me that I treasure and keep close to me. I have sung in choirs, giving me a chance to use my voice to make music. Most of my kids and step kids have excellent voices, and they sing almost without thinking about it. My youngest daughter has become a big Brian Wilson fan, and sings enthusiastically when I play Brian/Beach Boys music in the car stereo. A new generation of my family loves music just like her parents.
Fine arts like music and drawing pictures have been found to assist children's math and science abilities in school. They certainly have enhanced my life from childhood. It will be tempting to remove Art and Music from elementary and secondary schools. That would be a terrible mistake. The joy in life offered by music, art, and being outdoors in nature is irreplaceable in my experience.
Copyright 2017 by Peter Reum - All rights reserved
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