The BFMS era is one that seems the most fuzzy, grey or undefined. the Scratchy 45 Days had fairly distinct borders. The KISS Age was also fairly precise. BFMS is the era that my memory questions the most. There are some distinct areas but much of the time i find myself thinking “Hang on was that Boston album then or was it later?”
I think a couple of things are at work here. One being that I was in a new environment where sitting around the house playing records didn’ happen as often as roaming about the countryside following streams or hiking through forests. I had become quite a bit more outdoor oriented which meant leaving music behind. This was a few years before the Sony Walkman or even those early boom boxes.
This was also a point in my life where apart from finding some 8-Track tapes on the side of the road, my music acquisition had come to a halt. I think that this is the main reason behind the issue. I was more or less being flooded with new music from my two cousins. I had a stack of KISS albums and a couple of others like the Star Wars soundtrack but Flavia and Jamie had albums of their own that covered several different artists. Since i wasn’t buying my own music at this time, it makes it easy for all this stuff to get jumbled up. On top of that, I was also checking out my Aunt and Uncles meager record collection. My Aunt and Uncle didn’t seem to be drawn to music in the way that my mom was. My Aunt liked music a lot but she was more into playing her piano, or organ or violin and not so much into collection 45’s or albums. They did have a few but they were more or less Old Timey type stuff. Here are a few samples from that comes to mind
Spike Jones – Cocktails for Two
Cocktails For Two appealed to my appreciation for humor in the way that Benny Bell’s Shaving Cream did.
Eddie Fisher – Oh My Papa
Who can explain why certain combinations of musical notes or the composition of lyrics appeal to us or inspire us?
Marty Robbins – El Paso
I always thought that this was a well told story.
Apart from Switched-On Bach that we already talked about, the bulk of Aunt Roberta’s record were more Christmas and classical compilations that came from gas stations like my mothers. Aunt Roberta was more about the radio. WHOM broadcasting from high on Mt Washington. I can’t recall the contemporary stations that we listened to that came out of New Hampshire.