I always wanted to be a DJ, from the days I listened to my Radio Shack FM radio all day long as a boy. The people pushing out the sounds always seemed to have a finger on a pulse. They seemed to connect to something. I imagined a depth and breadth of knowledge and a currency that I’m sure was impossible to attain in reality.
In the 90s I took a job at a record store, which in some ways was a sort of dream come true. I thought I knew about music. I was an avid consumer of what radio and MTV fed me. But it was then that my education began.
When techno and electronica hit, my DJ dream shifted. I wanted to play the records that moved the people in the moment. I have played with decks and mixers a teensy bit. I played with a friend’s collection of vinyl and did my best to beat-match records during a small gathering.
I’ve made lots and lots of mix tapes, that mostly no one has ever heard, but me.
What’s happened is I’ve collected a lot of music over time. I am infected by people who are enthusiastic about a genre or a scene.
Music is so powerful.
It is a giant river, life-giving and fertile like the Amazon or the Nile. Some of it is written down or recorded, where it lives in the vast ocean.
Just like I can’t read every book, I can’t hear every record.
I have been listening to a series of playlists generated by someone close to my own age, that span years including the four that I spent at the record store.
Boy, is it resurfacing old thoughts and ideas and dreams.
The cool part is I agree with many of the selections.
The cool part is I’m hearing songs I would have never heard, otherwise.
The cool part is there is always such good music.
If you do the Apple Music thing, I’m here and I like to share.
