39 Years in 39 Songs: 1981 - Rush, Red Barchetta 1981 brought a host of life-defining changes. Although I had moved to a new house before, this was the first time that I moved to an entirely new city, an act that would become a regular practice in the first half of my life. In that new city, I was faced with an even worse academic situation - not just negligent but actively suppressing. The solution ended up being that I would skip 1st grade and go directly to 2nd. While this solved some of the immediate need for intellectual challenge and felt at the time like a new lease on life, it would forever relegate me to being the youngest (and for a long time the smallest) person in my class. This along with repeated moves served to further separate and isolate me from society and build a continuing pattern of reinforcement for my introversion. It was in the same year that I became directly and actively aware of music. Thanks to my older brother Bentley, I was introduced to an album you may have heard of called Moving Pictures. To some extent I liked it because he did, but I certainly saw the appeal immediately. My favorite song on the album, though, was not the one that is its most famous (that would be Tom Sawyer), but this one. I definitely liked the music, but something about the story grabbed me. It was in effect my first experience with dystopian science fiction. When I discovered Bradbury and Vonnegut in my teen years, they felt just right. I enjoy this video because it reminds me that 1981 was also the year of the Atari 2600. My early experiences with that gaming console would certainly have a long-lasting effect on my tastes and interests as well.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 11:41:43 +0000
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