Sunday Song: Finding Old Favorites Again

As a vintage music therapist who has invested in records, cassettes, CDs, mp3s, and now streaming services, I have lots of music around my house. I have managed to give away most of my cassettes, but I have all of the records of my family as well as my extensive CD collection lurking in bookshelves in corners of my home. I have started the process of ripping my CD collection onto my computer to store that music on the cloud.

This is not a process for the faint of heart, and it is taking lots of time. I have a CD drive in my computer - I bought it specifically because it had an integrated CD drive because this is a quest I always have at the back of my mind when I am purchasing things. I want to have my music available to me the next time I get a computer.

This is a long introduction to the benefit that I am finding with this task.

As I put on the topic line, I am finding old favorite songs again. Part of being a music therapist is a love of music, and I have many pieces that I have loved in my life. They all have extramusical associations including past people and events that happened for me. It is amazing to remember situations and people when I am simply ripping music to my computer.

I switched out Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium soundtrack CD with one I entitled, Favorites - 2020 - Disc. 3. I had no idea what was on the CD, and I found that I had put about 7 different songs and then filled the rest of the time with songs from Dido. Dido was one of my favorite artists in the turn of the century time. I loved her voice and most of her songs. The songs I included on this particular CD were unfamiliar to me. I figure that they were from the last CD I purchased by her and is less familiar to me. I don't know enough about the music to know if I like it yet or not. Since it is unfamiliar, I tend to use it as background rather than as inspiration. I turn on unfamiliar songs when I am practicing presentations or have to hash out a conversation that I am dreading. It provides stimulation without demanding my attention.

Anyway, while these songs from Dido are not my favorites (yet), they reminded me of how I have acquired most of my recordings. I tend to be a "I fell in love with this one song by this one artist but can't find a single, so I will buy the entire CD for this one song" type of music purchaser. In this instance, streaming makes more sense than purchasing music, but I come from a time when you had no other choice but to buy 14 songs to get the one that you liked.

So, I have so much music in my collection. I have finished one case and am about halfway through the second case. There are about 5 other cases to go before I am finished, but I am feeling good about my progress on this quest. I have a CD that has six versions of The Look of Love by Eclipse - all the different mixes that they made back in the day. I have no idea why I would have purchased this CD, but it was probably one n sale from my music club - BMG. I would buy the $1.99 CDs when they were offered because there was no such thing as bad music. I have music by Charo (she is a fabulous flamenco guitarist!), John Mayer, Disturbed, The Corrs, Celtic Women, Indigo Girls, Damien Rice, and many others to still rip.

I am going to look for the other Discs in the Favorites of 2020 to use in my car during my commutes. I enjoy listening to compilations that past me made of then-current favorites. Listening to all of those songs reminds me of people and places and situations that I had forgotten.

Today's plans include picking up groceries, possibly going to a movie, heading to an office supply store that is going out of business, and cooking some of my family's favorite chili version (potatoes and kidney beans). When I am downstairs, I will continue to rip CDs to my hard drive and visit music that I have loved in my past.

Happy Sunday.