Dogged by an iPod

Friday, February 29, 2008

Page 15

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

Dogged by an iPod

By J’AMY PACHECO

I’ve always enjoyed listening to music.

As an adolescent, I regularly swiped my sister’s 33-rpm albums to listen to music by The Grass Roots, The Mamas and the Papas, Peter & Gordon, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, and Elvis. I had a few records of my own – a collection of Disney hits on an album that we got at a gas station; The Monkees’ recording of “Pleasant Valley Sunday” which was cut out of the back of a cereal box, and a 45 of Bobby Sherman singing, “The Drum.”

All of them were played on an old record player that was housed in a blue cloth suitcase. If we played records too long, the record player would overheat and we had to wait an hour or so for it to cool off. But it was worth waiting for.

By the time I was a teenager, technology had progressed to the point that I listened to cassette tapes I made by recording songs off the radio. This was impractical for several reasons – the tape recorder was about a foot long, and since I never knew which songs were coming on next, I always missed the beginning of my favorites.

There were other difficulties, not the least of which involved my younger brothers. I don’t think any of us will ever forget the time I was recording the Hues Corporation singing “Rock the Boat” with my brothers standing nearby. The chorus reached its peak with, “Our love is like a ship on the ocean, we’ve been sailing with a cargo full of love and de-vo-tion…” and just as the singers paused for breath, one of my brothers let out an enormous, slobbery sneeze. It was, of course, captured on tape.

I could never again listen to that song without expecting to hear the big sneeze.

As a young adult, I had an 8-track player in my car, as well as a portable model. In those days, I listened to Boz Scaggs, Eric Carmen and Janis Ian – never once thinking it odd that the songs always faded out mid-stream, clicked to the next track, and re-started.

I now have a five-cd changer in my car, but these days, the musical selections aren’t made by me. My ‘tween daughter has the player filled with cds by Aly & AJ, the Cheetah Girls, Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and Weird Al.

Before Christmas, she asked for an iPod. A friend had one, and she liked the idea of being able to stick ear buds in to listen to her music privately. Since I’d come to enjoy her favorite pop artists, I thought it was a rather selfish request.

But I reconsidered, and ended up buying her an iPod Shuffle for Christmas – at $79, it was the least expensive choice in the iPod world.

She was happy with her iPod and the iDog that came with it. But one day, she confided that she longed for the kind of iPod that came with a screen, so you could view music videos, and so you could easily find your songs in a viewable list.

I borrowed her Shuffle one day, and realized that finding specific songs was, indeed, difficult. So for her birthday a few weeks ago, I bit the bullet and bought her an 8GB iPod Nano. It’s a lovely pink metallic thing that holds a ton of songs and videos, and is so blasted small that I’m just waiting for it to get lost.

On a recent evening, I borrowed her iPod to shut out the sounds coming from the television. I discovered that it was a pretty nifty little device – even though it contained more of the kinds of songs that were in my cd changer.

I soon learned, however, that I could go online and for less than a dollar, buy songs that I would like to hear. After spending some time looking at modern favorites, I discovered that I could get a version of “Rock the Boat” that didn’t include the big sneeze.

I don’t care for that song anymore, but the discovery motivated me to take a musical trip down memory lane. I started looking up childhood favorites, and when I found my beloved Bobby’s “The Drum,” I had to have it.

Peter and Gordon’s “World Without Love” was there, as was just about everything I ever liked by The Grass Roots. I marveled at being able to find what I thought was obscure music by Janis Ian. I don’t know what was more surprising – that I actually remembered all my favorite songs from the 1960s and later, or that I could buy just what I wanted and create the perfect playlist.

We’ve come a long way since the days of my blue cloth record player. The world has changed, but in my little corner, the soundtrack seems to be the same.

Now, if I just had one of those nifty pink units with the video screens to play it on…