Spirit of the Radio

I must have been about 5 or 6 when my dad had his reel-to-reel recorder. I still remember the way the tapes smelled, that combination of plastic, metal and oil. At night he would put on Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Doors, or Ray Charles depending on his mood.

As I got older my own taste in music changed and developed. I started out loving the Village People and moved onto Olivia Newton John . During puberty I decided I had to listen to music that would make me seem tough. I moved from OLJ to Iron Maiden and Metallica but all the while I still knew all of the lyrics to every song by CCR, The Doors, and Ray Charles.

My son is 6 now and starting to develop his own taste in music. Unfortunately his mother has horrible taste in music which means he loves listening to Madonna, Lady Gaga, and the Black Eyed Peas. Just yesterday he was walking around the house singing "someone call 911, fire burning on the dance floor" by Sean Kingston. Honestly, where do they hear this stuff?!

Lucky for him I had "Spirit of Radio" by Rush on a CD. Today I put my foot down and refused to listen to his CD one more time. I put on Rush and the boy loves it. One the way home from summer camp this evening we listened to it 4 times. I feel good knowing that no matter where he goes in life, no matter what music he listens or how much his musical taste will change; he will know all the words to Spirit of the Radio.