Doug
Boilesen

Memories
of the Phonograph
The
"Our Song" Phenomenon - A Phonograph Recollection
(1)
By
Doug Boilesen
I
grew-up in a suburb of Lincoln, Nebraska called Eastridge.
Our house had a basement with a recreation room more commonly
called the rec room. We had shuffleboard "triangles"
inlaid into our tiled basement floor and it provided occasional
entertainment. But the real fun was up the street at the Keister's.
There
were three Keister boys and their ages were within five years
of each other so it was easy for me to knock on their door and
find someone to play with. It was the 1960's and you would play
with friends, not hang out with friends.
Over
the years we ate alot of Valentino's pizza (2)
in the Keister rec room while we played pool and played cards
and played board games.



We
also played the phonograph...alot.
The
Keister rec room could have accurately been called "the
social center of the dateless" since most activities were
pretty much a guy thing. But we had fun and one of my distinct
memories is the sound of 45 RPM records playing on the RCA Victor
record player that sat in the corner of the rec room.

Dave
was the oldest Keister brother and he loved Doris Day and Petula
Clark. I can still hear him playing his 45 RPM of Downtown.

Doug
was the middle son and he also had a 45 RPM record of Downtown.
However, it was an Italian version of Downtown and for
some reason playing that record seemed to irritate Dave. Which
is obviously why Doug liked to play it.
Doug's
bedroom was in the basement and in his room he had built what
you would have to call a monster sound system. He called it
"The Machine".
The speakers were Voice of the Theatre 15 inch cones inside
two huge grilled speaker cabinets. A large control panel he
had made dominated the room with its size and switches and lights.

The
Control Panel, circa 1966
We
used to kid Doug about that control panel because it seemed
like most of the buttons and lights didn't do anything. I don't
remember the sound being as great as its size but it had power
and he could crank it up, much to the displeasure of his parents.
As I recall the Yardbirds' I'm a Man was always turned
all the way up by Doug at the end of the song.
I
can still hear Mrs. Keister yelling down the staircase "Turn
down that music!"
Kim
was closest to my age and he had a quite a few 33 1/3 LPs that
he played on his Harman Kardon component stereo system (the
purchase of which Kim has documented as a story
in itself). I remember he had quite a selection of albums
(The Association, Beatles, Beach Boys, Herb Alpert & the
Tijuana Brass, etc.).


Reading
Look magazine and listening to Kim's Harman Kardon
with Dave Clark Headphones, circa 1966.
All
in all there was a variety of music heard in that basement:
"de gustibus non est disputandum" as the Romans would
say (there's no accounting for taste). (3)
But
if I was to name one song that I connect with those record playing
days and nights it has to be the 45 RPM Red River Rock
by Johnny and the Hurricanes.

It's
a record that we played over and over, which is one way to account
for how deeply it's still embedded in my memory.

"You been playing
that SAME record ALL DAY!"
Harvey, October 1970

"You kids musta played
that noisy record a million times!!"
Kathy, August 1961
That
embedded sticking of a tune, often called an "earworm,"
doesn't have to be based on the number of times you hear a song.
Associations we have with certain songs can have many sources.
For
couples a song can be given special status and be called Our
Song. This designation usually has romantic connotations
but all songs can trigger memories of a particular time or place.

Click
here to see the full
1945 Crosley radio-phonograph advertisement, and other "Our
Song" examples
I don't associate Red River Rock with any special moment
or the fact that anyone in our group actually thought Red
River Rock was a great record.
I'm
also certain that none of us would ever think of it as an "Our
Song." We were a group of teen-age boys in the 1960's and
Red River Rock was really just one of the records we
played.
But
for me it is a song that has connections and triggers memories
and takes me back to the Keister basement in Lincoln, Nebraska.
I
therefore call Red River Rock one of my "Time Travel
Songs"; not an "Our Song" or a my song
but a specific song in my memory banks that can take me back
in time.
I'm
sure most people have more than one of these tunes in their
head.
Think
about yours:
What
are the songs that take you to another time or place?
Do
you have an "Our Song"?
I
wrote "The Our Song Phenomenon - A Phonograph Recollection"
for two reasons.
First,
I think it's interesting that certain songs are 'sticky' and
take us back in time or place
even if we only hear a few bars of the song.
And
second, I enjoy all popular culture connections to the phonograph,
celebrate the phonograph and its legacy, and look for any excuse
to repeat my phonographia truisms (to the point, I'm told, that
I sound like a broken record).
But
of course I am a Phonographian.
So
I'll play my broken record truisms yet again:
The
Phonograph is an invention that began a revolution of sound.
The
Phonograph created for each of us the "Best
seat in the house. Forever"©
On
December 6, take a moment and wish
Edison's Phonograph a Happy Birthday!
Its
magic is alive.
It's
a revolution still turning.

Trumpeting
the Revolution ©1990 Black Rock - Portraits on the
Playa
Click
here to listen to exerpt (4.8 MB) from Red
River Rock, Johnny and the Hurricanes
Click
here to listen to exerpt (5.4 MB) from I'm
a Man, The Yardbirds
Click
here to listen to exerpt (5.5 MB) from Downtown,
Petula Clark
Click
here to listen to Italian version of Downtown, Ciao,
Ciao
Click
here to watch the definitive example of someone incorporating
memories with their record albums. In the movie High Fidelity,
Rob (played by John Cusask, a record store owner) decides to
reorganize his record albums. How does he do it?: "Chronological?
No...Not alphabetical? Nope...What?...Autobiographical"
(Note this scene rated R for language)
The
Our Song Phenomenon
The
Place in a Song Phenomenon
The
Best Seat in the House. Forever
"Home
on the Range"
- Connections and an "Our Song"
Other
DB Memories, et al.
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