You may listen to classic rock, but I was there. I remember when FM was an
unexpected surprise on your friend’s parents radio, and you could listen to
album cuts, not just the scaled down AM version. I was thrilled the first time
I heard “Light My Fire” by The Doors album version. Almost 7 minutes-or the
length of three songs on WABC, the most powerful AM station in the world. A
whole side of an album, Side 1, with hit after hit, and I was there. We had
WNEW-FM, the first rock station with no format, compare that to today’s
preprogrammed radio, packaged and sent out to stations everywhere. We had Pete
Fornatale, Allison Steele, the NIghtBird, Scott Muni, and others who would stir
our souls with great music depending on their moods. Ever hear Sgt. Pepper
played by side instead of song, we did. There was even a long version of
American Pie, you think the one played often today is long! We heard cuts from
Chicago, Lighthouse, Gordon Lightfoot before you could read his mind, Ten Wheel
Drive, jazz that wasn’t smooth, and live concerts. This was New York City in
the 1967-72 period, and music was fresh, alive, and exciting. I can still hear
Nicky Hopkins playing piano for Quicksilver....or is it all in a dream?
For oldies we had WCBS-FM, playing greaser music from the 50’s, although
only 10-15 years old, it was oldies, because music was moving so fast. And so
moods still filled a spot our radio pushbuttons. WQIV, with King Biscuit Flour
Hour, live concerts, where a room full of audience made it sound like a concert
hall of 10,000 listening. Groups from England like Camel, beautiful
instrumentals, Andy Ward the drummer the brother of Ian who I worked with. 10
CC, playing Rubber Bullets, Eric Anderson’s unreal solo voice, and so many
groups who never were one hit wonders, but whose music lived on in the special
moment we first heard it. Today they call it Classic, back then it was new and
exciting...and bought on albums, with two sides, each side produced to fit a
mood....but to the new generation hearing them they only sound new.
But it just wasn’t the music, it was getting your license, and the first
date, the first real date, a car date, with the radio playing and helping to set
the mood. Times you remember like they were yesterday, and they were-many
yesterdays ago. Driving to the lake, and the radio cutting in and out as you
dipped in valleys, looking at your watch nervously, counting the minutes you had
left until the car and you had to be home...passing the time with music. Maybe
listening to Don McLean, putting your date in the mood, trying to coax her
closer to you, sitting on bench seats, in a four door sedan. Maybe your
parent’s car had a rear speaker, not many stereos in cars yet, or you had an
8-track, and you could pick from four tracks at any one time. It was the music
that set the mood, the car that took you there, and the girl who object of it
all....old songs, old cars, and old girls-and in our memories they only seem new
now. We were pre-classic, no Classic Coke yet either, and we looked forward,
just not to Viet Nam. And today when we hear the same Led Zeppelin songs over
and over, when you hear Layla in two versions, when Blood,Sweat, and Tears meant
“You’ve Made Me So Very Happy, when Country Joe asked “what are we fightin’
for,” and Elton John sang “Your Song,” we were living it, we were there. Never
did we think that we would become classics, Classical music was for longhairs,
we had longhair, but they were the originals. So when talking with younger
people, and they ask did you ever hear of Jim Croce, they just heard him on the
radio, your mind goes back 40 years, before his plane crash and his songs moved
you. We were so busy making memories that we were looking ahead, not looking
back. But things were changing, Fillmore East was closed, FM was discovered by
the trendy folks, and soon it was like AM. Muscle cars soon became extinct due
to insurance regulations, horsepower gave way to miles per gallon, and your date
now wanted a relationship before that first kiss. “Do you respect me?” she’d
ask, and of course we lied “yes.” We had dreams, visions, expectations, and
tomorrow. We had music that moved us, cars that excited us, and girls to
remember. And today when we hear that song, we go back, before we were
classics, and we were making the memories instead of reliving them. We know
what it was like, if only history would do us and it justice.
And then along came Jesus into my life, and it all changed. We are told to
not let the customs of the world transform us, but we were already transformed,
we just weren’t Born Again. We had it all, except we had nothing, something was
missing. We heard of God, even used His name in vain, but when He became real,
it all changed. Suddenly music changed, and to me it all died in 1975 when I
was Born Again. Music after 1975 just doesn’t do it for me, I had heard a new
song, and old girls, old cars, and old songs were behind me. I truly had a
future, but was caught in the past. It would eventually take a miracle to get
me out of Jersey, but the memories of nights listening to WNEW-FM still remain.
They had set a tone of freedom, of free thought, to ask questions and search for
musical answers, sadly they didn’t know they were only to be found in Jesus. So
when scripture tells us to be transformed in the way we think, we don’t get it.
Our heart has changed, but we think the same, at least for a while. Then we
begin to see who we are in Christ, and we find ourselves thinking different, a
different attitude, a fresh outlook. And just like the first time we heard FM
with no format, we find life has new format, and we have a freedom we didn’t
know existed. We are free from religion, Jesus is the new format, and He wails
when He enters your life. His song is new, although over 2000 years old. And
that day becomes the day of demarcation-BC and AD, before and after. But the
memories still play the same...
Are you still longing for the good old days? Is your life filled with the
past, because you feel you have no future? Are the old songs still fresh, the
old girls the same? Do old cars take you back? Then you are not alone, in fact
you are more normal than you may care to admit. But now my memories take me
back, and allow me to look ahead. I have a purpose, a desire for more out of
life, and Jesus fulfills it. His song is new every morning, and fresh. His
memories to come excite me, and remind me of how far I have come, and how my
mind has been renewed. But the old songs also remind me of how close I had come
to not finding Him, if not for the grace of God, I too would only have memories,
and lsiten to Classic Rock. But for me Jesus has become that rock, a late night
DJ when I need one to play the tunes my heart needs. To take me back, and bring
me back. Every day with Him seems new, and the memories fresher.
Do you desire new memories, or do the old ones still haunt you? Have your
mind transformed today, your heart changed, and a new song played-the song of
Jesus. Tunes you never heard, words with meaning, and true love, all the things
we were looking for back then. For some things don’t change, like Jesus, but
we can. Classic or not-old songs, old girls, and old cars can all seem new
again, when our future is based on Christ. Put Him in the first groove and let
Him wail!
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com