Music

I just finished the book Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield, who is an editor / contributor to Rolling Stone magazine and many other outlets. It chronicles his love of music, a special woman and the nineties in general. It details his courtship and marriage to Renee Crist; sadly it also chronicles her death after 5 years of marriage and his life and coping afterward.

Moving right along with this, each chapter opens with a song list for a mix tape that reminds him or was listening to at the time. Most of the songs I knew, some I didn't, but I understand the sentiment behind each chapter. Love indeed is a mix tape.

A good and dear friend of mine recommended this book to me, she and I have our own mix tapes in history.

This book is for those who remember a "mix tape" and grew up on the hard rock of the late eighties and fell in love with grunge and rock in the nineties; its for anyone who has experienced love and loss.

I thought deeply about my life while reading this book. I am fortunate to be married to a wonderful woman and have to great boys. But more than that, I have music. Sometimes a song comes on the radio and I am immediately drawn back to the time when I first heard it, or the time I kissed that girl, or the time I walked out of my house. the time I divorced, the time I was married. I think you get the point. A good song excites all of your senses, s,ell, sight and taste included.

I remember as little kid, probably about 8 or 9 when my ma and pa bought me my first real record player. I took Sgt. Peppers and put it on the turntable. Of course I had heard all the songs on this record before, but not through my own speakers. To this day, I still tremble and get goosebumps when I hear the 4/4 beat of Ringo's drum and the electric masterpiece of George's guitar as the song comes in on the first few notes.

I still get pumped up at the hearing Chuck D's powerful delivery on the album, "It Takes a Nation of Millions". The anger in Trent Reznor's synthesizer. The picking of Lyndsay Buckingham.

Every single song has a special place in my heart. I hope you have a chance to read this book, I hope it inspires you to remember your old friends, your old enemies. The time you almost got arrested. You get the idea.