A Little Day Tripping

I think back on this song and like many of that era, I'm still not sure what it meant. I still wonder if you had to be high to really "get it". Probably so I guess I'll never really know. Although I maintain the lyrics don't really matter if the music gets inside you. That's what happened to me in the '60's/'70's. I became the music and the music became me.

Me and my $105 stereo earned with my strawberry-picking bonus in 1967. Here is a little video of "my stereo" or certainly a reasonable facsimile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_c6NlqP6ls

That stereo was probably provided me with the best value of anything I've ever purchased. It traveled with me from the Cornell Road house in Hillsboro to the basement dorm room at Southern Oregon College, to two different apartments in Ashland (overlooking Lithia Park) after that, briefly back home then to an apartment while working at the worst possible job for me (junior bookkeeper), then to San Francisco where I didn't get any smarter and stuck with finance by working for Bank of America, to a couple of different residences there, then back to a number of apartments and a duplex in Aloha and Forest Grove, then back to a house in Ashland, then to a tiny, doll house in Medford, then finally back to a house in Aloha. It survived at least 14 years (1967 - 1981) under my watch and a couple of dancing fool baby girls with their dancing fool mom.

I'm wondering if my memory is faulty, but I think it finally left with my first husband so all my friends and family went together to buy me a new stereo as a gift for my 31st birthday along with my favorite album in the world at the time by Toto. I played "Roseanna" and "Africa" over and over on it.

But back to my old friend, it played everything from Elvis, "Crying in the Chapel" to the Beach Boys, "Hang On Sloopy" to Disney's "Jungle Book" to Cream's, "Sunshine of Your Love" to 3 Dog Night's "Eli's Coming", to The Beatles, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" to Gary Lewis and The Playboys, "This Diamond Ring" to Henry Mancini's "Breakfast at Tiffanys" soundtrack to The BeeGee's "Stayin' Alive" in the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack of John Travolta fame, to Abba's, "Fernando" to Donovan's "Sunshine Superman". What a time for music! It was hard to live those years and not be influenced. I would say you had to make a point of ignoring it and I chose not to.

I honestly believe the sign of great music is you never tire of it and it appeals to multiple generations. I know my kids listened to this music and I hear even younger kids listening to it.

What can I say, it was and still is magical.