8 Comments

I love all those albums - although I found Coltrane’s Sound somewhat uneven.

I still can’t believe that my dad took me to see FailSafe when I was nine years old! I don’t know that I ever got over it.

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They are great albums. I've enjoyed trawling through a bunch while making my choices - the books and films, too. And re FailSafe at nine ... I'm sure it was at the very least a formative experience!

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Mercy...60?

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I know!

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It's a curious realization that I was born one year after these albums came out. I was musing yesterday about how I was born 20 years after WWII ended. My childhood memories are more from the 70's than the 60's, of course.

Still, your article dovetails perfectly with recent conversations about mortality, a recognition of the passing of time, and thoughts about how we should craft the time remaining. I don't find this concept sad or scary - just an is that we are more aware of than in prior years.

Over the next day or so, I have committed to listening to each album in its entirety. Thanks.

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Sorry - meant to reply much earlier, but it's been the end of the school year here and I've not had it in me!

I'm four years younger - my childhood memories are of the later 70s and the 80s - but my wife's a 1965 baby, though British - so a different set of formative memories. Seriously - our experience of children's television is something we do not have in common.

Mortality has been a pervasive thought recently - more than usual - and I understand now what my professor/advisor at college meant when he said he wasn't teaching the 'Death and Dying' course anymore because it felt like homework. But - like you - I don't find it scary or sad, unless I find myself wasting the time remaining. So ... it's more reading, listening, writing, painting, hiking, hanging out with friends and family and (hopefully) less laundry. Though I fear that albatross will never fall from my neck.

Glad you enjoyed the post - how did your album listening go?

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The album listening was good! Actually, I've gone back to Coltrane a few times. My reason: While I can appreciate Coltrane, I haven't appreciated Coltrane, if that makes sense.

I took a hit, a sip of wine, and sat in my chair in dim evening light, all distractions off (no phone, no computer screen), and just sat with it. I played it on my monitor speakers.. they are the best I have. It felt like a solid way for me to do that. I sort of wanted a wash.

I plan to repeat the experience, the same way, later this week.

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Your comment re Coltrane makes perfect sense. There are so many artists - writers, painters, photographers, musicians - that I appreciate but haven't REALLY appreciated; your hit-wine-listen approach is one I highly endorse as a solution to that problem!

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