The Greatest Gift
Posted: April 8th, 2008, 8:07 am
Another blurb from the blog Zen Upchuck http://soozen.livejournal.com/
April 8th, 2008
The Greatest Gift
4/8/08 04:17 am
You may think the best gift you can give your children is confidence in themselves, security or stuff like that but that is not the best gift I got from my parents altho those were certainly given. I was one of those lucky ones that was raised in love without question but that is not the point here. What did they pass on to me that we passed on to our boys? Music, it was a love of music.
The thing I remember most about my childhood is that our house was always filled with music, all kinds of music. My Dad played the piano and organ by ear and never could read a score but he could hear a melody and play it the first time. My Mom did her housework to classical music, it would fill the house with Stravinsky, Bach and Handel. Both of them loved Hank Williams and Patsy Cline. Mom had records of the Platters, Dad loved the Big Bands of his era. Our big stereo in the dinning room was hardly ever silent.
Dad would go to Juarez and play in the piano bar near Septembre Street, he was well known there. As a Shriner he had a Dixie Land Jazz Band and fixed up an old upright piano in our cabin in Ruidoso so it would play rinky-tink music. He painted it Chinese Red with a mirror above the keys and a window in the face so you could see the keys strike the strings (tacks in the face of the keys so they made a distinctive sound as they hit) and it was a thing of rare beauty. They would party late into the night, a clarinet, trumpet, drums and of course my Dad on piano and Mom on percussion and the canyon would ring with music. When Dad was working, he whistled, a tune always in his head and when he sat down, his fingers always drummed a beat. He played the organ big and small even the humongous one in the old theater downtown...he could play anything with keys and foot peddles.
When I met Cecil, one of the commonalities was music. Cec loved music and as a result, we shared a special love together. He had great taste in music and not just the fads of the day. He would take me to the record store downtown that had obscure things like A Beautiful Day and Beggars Opera. We loved the Stones and Cream and he saw the first concert that Zeppelin did in the US. Janis and Jerry were on our minds. Our lives were filled with music, always. Friends...Wayde Blair, Dave Arnesen, and countless others played in our home. In San Francisco, we attended the concerts, we had our own concerts and music was our linkage to our friends there.
Our kids grew up surrounded by the sounds of the universe for that is what Cec said music was, the universal language. Everything from Pavarotti to Dwight Yokum, the Police to Bach, we played the gamut and they absorbed our gift and it is still to this day, their greatest love. Our oldest Noah was one of the best dj's of his time playing and spinning records as DJ Muppetf**ker and was well known in the genre (until Henson and Co. threatened to sue him for the name...another story.) Our youngest Nate always has had a love of the eighties music. Madonna was a goddess to him and every day he has a concert in his room, straws for drumsticks and he announces each song.
We Lees love music and we come by it naturally...it is in our blood. We may disagree on what is and isn't good music but we do agree that music is the most wonderful thing ever created and it is true, isn't it? Give your kids music, give your friends music and most of all, give yourself the gift of music and you will always have a song in your heart.
April 8th, 2008
The Greatest Gift
4/8/08 04:17 am
You may think the best gift you can give your children is confidence in themselves, security or stuff like that but that is not the best gift I got from my parents altho those were certainly given. I was one of those lucky ones that was raised in love without question but that is not the point here. What did they pass on to me that we passed on to our boys? Music, it was a love of music.
The thing I remember most about my childhood is that our house was always filled with music, all kinds of music. My Dad played the piano and organ by ear and never could read a score but he could hear a melody and play it the first time. My Mom did her housework to classical music, it would fill the house with Stravinsky, Bach and Handel. Both of them loved Hank Williams and Patsy Cline. Mom had records of the Platters, Dad loved the Big Bands of his era. Our big stereo in the dinning room was hardly ever silent.
Dad would go to Juarez and play in the piano bar near Septembre Street, he was well known there. As a Shriner he had a Dixie Land Jazz Band and fixed up an old upright piano in our cabin in Ruidoso so it would play rinky-tink music. He painted it Chinese Red with a mirror above the keys and a window in the face so you could see the keys strike the strings (tacks in the face of the keys so they made a distinctive sound as they hit) and it was a thing of rare beauty. They would party late into the night, a clarinet, trumpet, drums and of course my Dad on piano and Mom on percussion and the canyon would ring with music. When Dad was working, he whistled, a tune always in his head and when he sat down, his fingers always drummed a beat. He played the organ big and small even the humongous one in the old theater downtown...he could play anything with keys and foot peddles.
When I met Cecil, one of the commonalities was music. Cec loved music and as a result, we shared a special love together. He had great taste in music and not just the fads of the day. He would take me to the record store downtown that had obscure things like A Beautiful Day and Beggars Opera. We loved the Stones and Cream and he saw the first concert that Zeppelin did in the US. Janis and Jerry were on our minds. Our lives were filled with music, always. Friends...Wayde Blair, Dave Arnesen, and countless others played in our home. In San Francisco, we attended the concerts, we had our own concerts and music was our linkage to our friends there.
Our kids grew up surrounded by the sounds of the universe for that is what Cec said music was, the universal language. Everything from Pavarotti to Dwight Yokum, the Police to Bach, we played the gamut and they absorbed our gift and it is still to this day, their greatest love. Our oldest Noah was one of the best dj's of his time playing and spinning records as DJ Muppetf**ker and was well known in the genre (until Henson and Co. threatened to sue him for the name...another story.) Our youngest Nate always has had a love of the eighties music. Madonna was a goddess to him and every day he has a concert in his room, straws for drumsticks and he announces each song.
We Lees love music and we come by it naturally...it is in our blood. We may disagree on what is and isn't good music but we do agree that music is the most wonderful thing ever created and it is true, isn't it? Give your kids music, give your friends music and most of all, give yourself the gift of music and you will always have a song in your heart.