Music and Me

For as long as I can remember music has been part of my life in one way or other. Whether Listening, Learning, Playing or Collecting, music has been something I have had no problem talking about. Even when meeting new people it is not that hard to strike a chord with them when it comes to music.

Growing up, everyone in the house played, or at least had a chance to try, several different instruments through grade school and high school. I settle on the drums. I must add that when I settled on the drums that meant that everyone in the house, and maybe the neighborhood settled on the drums :-) My wife, Deb, is also a musician having studied music in college and still very interested in music today. Now our children are also showing interest in music. I hope that they continue to explore and maybe even learn to read and play music.

As part of my fortieth birthday, and at the suggestion of Deb, I created a list of 40 artists, albums and songs, one from each year (1967 - 2007) to play at my Birthday party. While some of the artists and songs may have been popular in each year, the selections are more in line with what I really like, reminding me of events or people important to me. Also, the selections are pretty much from the rock genre. It was hard enough settling in on one song per year so focusing on one genre reduced the effort quite a bit.

Ultimately the "40 from 40" list that was created was played during a 40th birthday party organized by Deb. At the the party I shared with all who attended, a condensed list of 15 songs which I called "15 from 40". Along with the list, I provided the following explanation...

Fifteen from forty [15 from 40] is a collection of rock music selected from each year comprising the first forty years of my life, 1967 – 2007. Narrowing down the forty was challenging; many songs and artists did not make the cut. Fifteen were even harder. Mixing rock, jazz, blues, classical was too difficult. I will cover jazz, blues and other genre another time. I have settled on rock to start. I did so because it is where I got my start. Even though there was plenty of classical and big band in our house growing up, rock and roll, in particular the rhythm sections of the rock bands are what I really latched onto. Eventually, I went on to play drums and to this day enjoy traversing the kit whenever I can find one.

Music is very important to me, but music is not as important as all the people who have helped me reach this milestone. I am truly thankful to have you as part of my life journey and look forward to the road ahead.

The songs herein remind me of events, places, challenges, victories, ideals, family and friends. Mostly they just help me remember. Sometimes they even help me take a step forward.

In taking some steps forward and trying to improve my communication and sharing, I have been working on writing more. I am out on the vast internet blogging about things I find interesting, thoughts I have, and news about me. I am off to a slow start, but preparing this collection has given me all kinds of ideas and a springboard for covering the past forty years. My hope is that it will also improve the reporting on the next forty. I do not think it will be all music, but music will certainly have its place. Those who have been around the block a few times with me know that food and technology will have its place as well. I think God will also find His way onto the pages as well.

http://tomcoppa.blogspot.com is the place you need to go for the rest of this story, a bit about each of these songs, the full list of forty, and the next entries on our journey.

Tom.

Which brings us to this entry which serves as an introduction to a year by year music discussion with a bit about me thrown in to boot. I am working on a list of forty jazz artists and songs as well as blues. I anticipate having those done soon and expect that like the rock list, all the artists and songs will come from my current music collection.

I'll post the "15 from 40" and "40 from 40" lists with a link for downloading a PDF of the list in case anyone wants to follow along.