"So This Is Where [We Came In]"

In 2003, when I was fourteen, I gathered a fistful of courage and asked my dad to teach me about music. He'd already been trying, bless his heart, to do that all my life. You'd think that my actually asking for it would have come as a joyous surprise. And maybe it did. But it was with an air almost of reluctance that he dragged out the box of cassettes my sister and I had asked about, and made a few caveat- and disclaimer-ridden recommendations.

My life essentially changed that night. On the feel good, "Awwww" level, it opened the door to a veritable aural meadow of Common Ground I discovered I shared with my dad. On another level, it triggered a passion I've shamelessly fed since then. He gave me his tapes, then his records. Then his turntable- the one he bought when he was about nineteen, and fastidiously cared for over the years, with the beautiful marble body. The day we finally got it set up and working, we filled the house with the glorious, warm, slightly apoplectic noise.

This blog isn't about my relationship with my dad, although I'm bound to mention him, and other people I know. It's actually about my relationship with music. I am not a musician. I played the violin for a few years as a kid. I was the lesser half (female vocalist) of a musical duo that was very famous around my small-town high school. But finally I had to admit to myself that I didn't get the gift of musical composition. I can't make up a good tune to save my life. I've done it in my dreams, but in the waking world such a burst of inspiration has the lifespan of a soap bubble. And burst it does.

That's why I finally, like my mom, took to saying "I play the radio" when someone asks me what I play. Because I love music, but I can't compose it. So I make a hobby of enjoying it. And drafting playlists.

I'm a child of two worlds, here. On the one hand, I relish a solid album. My dad taught me that only posers like artists based on their hits, that the non-radio tracks really tell the tale. But sometimes, when you're making a bowl of fruit, you gotta cherry pick. I am no more or less guilty of iTunes single-song downloads than any other music junkie in the digital age. What about you? Album/artist devotee, or Spotify acolyte? Do you only get the songs you like, or lock down for the whole ride, filler and self-indulgent intro tracks notwithstanding?