February, 2025
I recently bit the bullet and signed up for a paid subscription to a streaming music service. Spotify and Pandora were too big and corporate, so I went with the recommendation of a friend. Tidal, an alternative to the big companies and owned by JayZ, was their choice. One of the better investments I have made recently. It has brought current music back into my life. Artists I did not know about, genres I had lost track of, and the ability to choose my own playlists. I know, it sounds like I haven’t been around the block for a few decades. Well, maybe it’s true. But then again, I am now finding out that there is a lot of great music out there and I’m even catching up with what I missed since about 1980. But in the midst of all this plenitude, there is one piece of music that I cannot find on Tidal. Prokofiev’s 7th Symphony in C# Minor, conducted by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. That piece has been my bedtime story since 1969 when I would listen to my Mother’s old vinyl recording of it from 1953. In 1970, my graduation present from her was a portable stereo with removable speakers that I would take to college in the fall. That summer I would lay on the floor in the living room when no one else was around, put the speakers near my ears and bliss out as the 7th played me to sleep. The LP recording is rather tattered now and I have not found a conductor who interpreted the music as well as Ormandy in ‘53, but I do keep looking.
The summer I moved away to go to college, my sister, who was 3 years younger began listening to James Taylor and Carol King. I was listening to Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears and Neil Young. When I went home for Spring Break, there was a concert featuring James Taylor, Carole King, and Jo Mama at the Coliseum in Seattle. Leslie and I decided to attend. It was a dark and stormy night in March 1971. Seattle traffic was a nightmare but we managed to get there on time and even though we were in the nosebleed section we had a great view of the stage and the sound was excellent. I do wish I had had binoculars. King sang her Tapestry songs, Taylor his Sweet Baby James songs. I remember Leslie turning to me in the middle of King’s song, “I Feel The Earth Move” and saying, “I wanna dance!” I was too self-conscious to do anything like that, but she stood up and strutted her stuff. I wish I had had the guts to join her. Ha! The little upstart made me proud to be her brother.