Then and Now--Music

I purchased a CD the other day. Normal, right? In today's times, not so much. CD's cost, roughly, $13.99. That's before tax, mind you. If you use uTorrent, MiniNova, or BitTorrent,you can download entire discographies in hours--for free. Of course, this is illegal, but to many people, mostly young teenagers, it's an ideal way to receive new music without burning into any other expenses. With this in mind, I'd like to take you on a trip down nostalgia avenue.

I remember being about 7 years-old. It was 1998, in thesummer. Piling into the car with my dad,mother, and brother to head over to Bay Terrace to do some shopping was a pretty big deal--it was a day spent out, at least in my 7 year-old mind. We also stopped by the music store, called "The Wall". This wasn't long before The Wall's parent company was purchased by another company. To make a long story short, The Wall music stores became part of the F.Y.E. chain. Sadly, these stores have nothing on The Wall--perhaps it's just my nostalgia. This was always a fun time for me. Even at 7, I was infatuated with music. I'd get a CD for one song and then play it until it wouldn't play anymore. At this particular instance in 1998, I picked up a copy of Fastball's "All The Pain Money Can Buy". I can't remember if it was the first CD I ever bought, but if it wasn'tt he first, it was the second.

The darling on this album was "The Way", a song I'd consider a 90's classic, about singer Tony Scalzo's romanticized version of what happened to an elderly couple who went missing. They were eventually found dead in a ravine, the result of a car accident, but in this case, he imagined them running off to have fun, as they had done when they were young. I played that CD to death. I still own it and the pictures can be seen below, including the extensive and extreme scratches on the disc. I still listen to the album and, for me, it'sa ride down recollection road.

This CD has a lot of sentiment for me. It reminds me of a completely different time in my life--a good one that I miss. Yet, I can listen to that song, "TheWay", and like Scalzo's inspiration, I can feel more optimistic, even about a pretty crappy situation. I feel that downloading really takes something away from the experience of music. Back then, buying a CD was a special occasion. Now, it's just another 13 songs you download along with 10,000 others.