If you have been following along since the beginning, you’ll recall that one of my first favorite songs as a toddler was The Ventures Hawaii 5-0. Roughly ten years later, I found a box of 8-Track tapes on the side of a dirt road in Vermont while I was out running. One of those 8-Tracks was The Ventures, Walk Don’t Run.
I have had a long history of liking the twangy guitar style ofThe Ventures. My move in to management at work meant more time on reporting ad paperwork. I had virtually left most of the music I has collected on the shelf in favor of more instrumental stuff. I had amassed a decent pile of Classical Compact Discs and as you’ve seen in recent posts, artists like Mike Oldfield and Vince Guaraldi were taking center stage.
While The Ventures still qualified as pop music, the instrumental nature of their music made them an acceptable substitute for Western Tracks or Mozart. It seems that lyrics really distract me when I’m trying to focus on something. I have no problem with words when the labor is manual. I built the deck bridge to my garage while listening to Car Talk. It is only when I’m doing some mental activity that lyrics seem to clash with the voices in my head.
In 1988, my music buying had reduced to a trickle. I was saving for a house and wedding and I really wasn’t spending much time listening to music anyway. Sad, I agree. When I did buy something, more often than not, it was classical music or stuff from The Scratchy 45 Days.
I’m quite certain that I stumbled on this Compact Disc by accident. It had been years since I owned an 8-Track player andThe Ventureshad fallen into the cracks, unplayed and all but forgotten. It really was cool to listen to them again. This wasn’t the same album but it had many of the same tracks. Tracks that I had listen to so many times that my mind would anticipate the click to the next program on the 8-Track player.
There is something wonderfully Forrest Gump aboutThe Ventures. I’m sure I mentioned something about this back when I discovered the 8-Track. I get this nostalgic image of an early 60’s California coast. In this romanticized version, everything is clean-cut and tidy. Cars with ridiculous fins roll up and down the coastal highway with the tops down.
Apache ’65
Ram-Bunk-Shush
Telstar
Cruel Sea – That doo-doo-doo song fromThe Scratchy 45 Days
Perfidia
Rebel Rouser
Walk, Don’t Run
Penetration
You it just occurred to me that I don’t know anything about the men behind The Ventures they are kind of like The Blue Man Group to me. Just a bunch of nameless guys. Why is that?