By Frank “Smokin” Truatt
For a music lover, what would have been the best years to be born to enjoy the tunes we hear on the radio? I’ve been reflecting as my birthday is back again (next Wednesday) which it seems to do each year, imagine that. As we get older, birthdays take on a different meaning. On the one hand, we long for our youth, for the days we took for granted being too young to understand that those days would be some of the best of our lives. Getting older is no fun, but on the other hand, there is something to be said about still being here, healthy, with plans for the future, full of a lifetime of experiences to reflect upon.
The one thing I am happiest about is that I think I was born around the right time in music history. One of my earliest memories is Chubby Checker doing “The Twist” on television. I was there when the Beatles came to America in 1964 while listening to WABC radio and watching them perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. As all of this rock and roll was happening, I remember listening to my parents music…. Tony Bennett, Sinatra, Jimmie Roselli and Johnny Mathis and watching these performers of the American Songbook on television variety shows. The Beatles brought in the British invasion and tons of music for a kid in elementary school to enjoy. Like many kids of my generation, I took guitar lessons and learned folk music, trading my acoustic guitar for an electric one and forming a band with two school buddies. We even played a birthday party!
I was there when FM radio became popular as I made the switch to FM stereo in 1970. In 1971, when I got my driver’s license, I kept it tuned to WOR-FM and became fascinated with the 70’s sound of pop music and disc jockeys like Walt “Baby” Love. In my first semester of college, I began doing a radio show on the college station, with an exposure to “underground” rock and album cuts. The music of the fifties with Elvis and Chuck Berry was always played on the radio. After graduating college, most clubs were playing disco music. Starting my professional radio career in 1981, I played adult contemporary and country music. In the mid 80’s, I began to DJ in clubs and at parties, always aware of the ever-changing music styles.
For the younger folks who enjoy listening to music from the past, there’s one thing that they can’t experience. It was the progression of music through the years that I have lived through, that has put this whole music thing in total perspective. I consider myself extremely lucky to have experienced it from the beginning, and to have the experience of many genres of music. Being born at the right time? Well, maybe I was! I’m so happy that like they say, music heals the soul, even if that soul has another one of those birthdays just around the corner.
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