Living a Boy's Adventure Tale

The record would spin over and over again, the crackles and pops spitting from the speakers along with the music. The needle rode the waves of vinyl up and down until the A side finished. When the album repeated my brother would stalk out of the room to get away from a-ha.

What my brother didn't know was that the Hunting High and Low album set the perfect mood for me while I read. Somehow the music sent me to places as magical as Middle-Earth or the archipelago of Earthsea. Without the music I couldn't seem to picture Samwise Gamgee or Ged with the same vivid clarity. With the music I was, as the title of the fifth track says, Living a Boy's Adventure Tale.

In High School the albums changed, though it seemed I always listened to music as I read. Maybe it started in the second grade when I would come home from school and put on James Bond's Greatest Hits and The Great Muppet Caper soundtrack while I completed my homework.

What's the point of the memoir one might ask? Music functions as a daily part of our existence. You hear it on television, in movies, on the radio, when you walk into Taco Bell (or wherever you are dining), in elevators, while shopping, on your iPod or other gadget, or just where ever. Come on, you can hear the Ice Cream Truck's music floating in your window or while you're walking down the street. So, for me, I've got to have music while I read, study, or write--that's the point of the memoir. What about you? Where do you have to have music?

(Besides those times when you want to be Living a Boy's Adventure Tale, cause that one's mine.)