Tracking Time With Music

I just spent the last few days with my oldest and closest friend. We met in a bar 45 years ago, in the DJ booth, swapping tracks. He was the front door guy, and I was one of the cooks, but we both appreciated each other’s taste in music. After our shift, we headed to my place and spun records until the sun came up. We’ve been friends ever since.

Our kids are grown up; we’ve watched relationships develop, careers change, and several different moves across the country since then. No matter what, it always comes back to music. We only manage to get together in person a couple times a year, but we chat every Sunday about what’s up, what we’re listening to, and what new music we’ve discovered. It’s amazing how our musical tastes have grown and how little we’ve discarded.

The last few days of listening confirmed that.

While spinning records still proves fruitful, it’s not like the old days when he’d drop by with the latest 10 records purchased to share with me. (A few things always got bootlegged to reel-to-reel tape to increase my music collection, too—a trend that continues to this day.) Or vice versa, though I’ve always been the crazed audiophile.

Today, sharing an iPad across the coffee table is a great way to pass almost an entire day, shuffling through old favorites, and sharing recent discoveries. It’s amazing looking back to where we were when certain albums were released, like punctuation marks in a long story. Tidal and Qobuz, served up via ROON, feel like spending the whole day in the record store, flipping through the bins.

A great HiFi is wonderful, but the music and the memories always reign supreme.

Written by Jeff Dorgay from Tone Audio Magazine.