Summer is music to my ears

Drummer and Lighthouse band leader Skip Prokop epitomized music in the summer in Canada with 1972 hit song/album “Sunny Days.”

I have lots of thoughts associated with this time of year. Most are memories of the beginnings of summers past. The smell I most relate to this time of year is that of a high school locker; this time, it had to be cleaned out right to the bottom. The sight I most associate with early summer is an open road. It seemed with the first of July we drove to a cottage, a farm, maybe a campground. And the sound? Yes, mosquitoes, but mostly…

“Sittin’ in the sun and listenin’ to rock and roll,” sang Skip Prokop. “Sunny, sunny, sunny days…”

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Strangers in the night

A reel-to-reel tape machine, the likes of which we used to record, playback and edit content for radio.
A reel-to-reel tape machine, the likes of which we used to record, playback and edit content for radio.

It’s always wonderful to be recognized for your work. It’s even better when people spot your work and recognize it as being yours. I mean, everybody knows what an Armani suit is. Or a Picasso painting. Most cinema buffs know what to expect from a Marilyn Monroe movie. Or a coffee at Tim Hortons. There was a time, when I produced radio shows in Saskatchewan, that my broadcasting colleagues might see me working late into the night and comment:

“Oh-oh, Barris is in the studio. I wonder who died?”

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