Growing up

I was really fortunate to grow up in the home I did. We had our ups and downs but at the end of the day my parents thought about their kids before they thought of themselves and that makes all the difference in the world.

I think that I got my love for music in the home. We always had a decent stereo and in 80 or 81 my family moved into a house that my dad had the foresight to have wired for sound. You could listen to what was playing in the living room throughout the house and although the speakers were pretty basic it thrilled me to no end as a kid. TECHNOLOGY.

My dad loved the Beatles, Barry White, and of course FM radio. I remember disco and rock radio being on most of the time providing a steady backbeat to my childhood.

Here is one of Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra's offerings from those days.

Love Unlimited Orchestra - Strange games and things

Another great memory from those times is roller skating. In what I guess was my first connection to clubs, my parents used to drop me and my brother off at the skating rink on Fridays to spend a couple hours skating around in a circle and attempting not to bust our asses. I wasn't really interested in girls at the time but always felt kind of odd when I had no one to skate with for couples skating. I can just see the lights going low and the disco ball casting its reflection on the smooth wooden floor when I hear this Earth, Wind and Fire track.

Earth, Wind and Fire - Fantasy



I can't say that I was fortunate enough to have my family blasting Marvin throughout the house through the 70s. We were a little hip but by no means cool. However, when my dad hit his middle age/seperated blues he took up driving a fast car and listening to 80's R&B. Sade, Anita Baker, Marivn, as long as it was loving music my dad rocked it. At the time I was a little shit about it and wanted to blast the Butthole Surfers whenever I got in his car. In the end I think we ended up influencing the other more than we thought. I got into the R&B later on and he likes New Order and the Cure. He loved the Sexual Healing era Marvin but this track is pure Balearic bliss.

Marvin Gaye - After the Dance