The Author long before he went Down in the Flood


AuthorI was born a very long time ago, you might not wanna know 'bout that. I'd rather fill you in on some of the details of how I gotta sit here on the computer tryin' to get all this down. I guess that goes back some 30odd years when an uncle took me to the office where he worked and got this huge IBM computer to print my name & address 5 times on green & white striped sheets of computer paper. Those were the days of punchcards and huge Electronic Data Processing Departments, when PCs and any other small size items were only part of the fictitious imagenings of some spacemovie producers / -directors. In 1980 I worked on one of the first Pcs myself, those were the years of floppy discs. Around that time I wrote my first program in Basic, looking up things in existing programs and learning what reactions certain commands would have. With me it's always been an issue of trial and error and learning by watching what other people did and never being to scared to press a few more buttons on the keyboard (I guess that's what they're for!).

Let's talk about some music: Those were the late 60s when our parents would find my younger brother and me in bed early on Wednesday evenings listening to the latest charts on the radio station. I had my first radio-recorder and taped an assortment of songs along the way. In the very early 70s the B.F.B.S. in Germany broadcast a series on Saturdays called "The Beatles' Story". I recorded only the songs from the radio and discovered some gems I remembered from earlier years, the most significant being probably John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance", which was one of our favorite songs at the end of the 60s. But due to our limited knowledge of the english language at the time we hadn't been able to make out the title of the song and never got the record. After listening to this show I told my brother that I'd at last discovered the words and it wasn't long after that he pitched up with the record.

The Beatles / 1967-1970     The Concert for Bangla Desh     Bob Dylan - Street Legal

The first single I ever owned was by a group called "The Summer Set". It was called "Overnight Changes / It's A Dream". The first Beatles album I had was the so-called "Blue Album".  The first Bob Dylan album I got was actually "The Concert for Bangla Desh", which may also count for being my first Ravi Shankar album. The first Bob Dylan tape I bought was "Street Legal", which still remains my favorite.

Richie Havens - Mixed Bag

One of the first CDs I had was Richie Havens' "Mixed Bag", which also contains the song "Handsome Johnny", which I liked most of the songs he performed at the "Woodstock Music & Arts Fair".

Yoko Ono - Feeling the Space     John Lennon - Mind Games

Yoko Ono - a story

"Feeling The Space" by Yoko Ono was one of the first albums by her which I owned and loved and still love to this day for it's jazzy type of music; a lovely album I got around the same time as John Lennon's "Mind Games". I recall them being released simultaneously. The CD "a story" by Yoko Ono is one of my latest favorites from her Rykodisc album catalogue.

During the mid-70s I began to collect all the Beatles' and Solo Beatles' albums and had some of the first Beatles' bootlegs. Toward the end of the 70s I changed my life toward religion or religion changed my life, whichever way you wanna see it and I gave up my record collection which by then must've consisted of about 150 - 200 records, though I recall that I once counted only 100. But along the road I came across Rock'n'Roll and had gotten hold of some records by the original artists whose songs the Beatles had played during their early years. All said and done I went to live in South Africa, one of those decisions one takes from one day to the next - or not at all.

In South Africa I began another record collection, a few Beatles albums were among it, lots of Joan Baez, some Bob Dylan, George Harrison and a vast selection of classical music by various composers. Actually I started to buy tapes first. I used to have one of the first Sony Walkman and listen to tapes all the time. But since one could not get every record on tape as well, I got myself another record player eventually. Living in South Africa among so many different cultures it was only a matter of time when I'd get more interested in the Indian Music and started to listen to and collect a number of Ravi Shankar's albums.

In the mid-90s my time in South Africa was up and I sold my record collection again. But since I had also started to collect CDs in South Africa I decided to keep these. How did I get to buy CDs? Well, that's thanks to Richie Havens. I loved his singing as I had seen & heard it in the movie "Woodstock", and I tried desperately to get hold of any of his albums; I was especially interested in his song "Handsome Johnny". But all these efforts were to no avail until I found out that his music was available on CD. That's how that started, and by now I've got a vast & varied selection of CDs I won't part with again so easily. The Beatles are among them again, so is Bob Dylan, so are Joan Baez, Ravi Shankar, CDs by his daughter Anoushka, by Ali Akbar Khan, John Lee Hooker, Van Morrison, Roy Orbison, Neil Young, Newport Folk Festival Compilations, the latest albums by Johnny Cash, some classical music as well as an assortment of music by other Blues-, Jazz- & Folk Musicians.

Today the heaviest burden is Bob Dylan, and numerous links related to him,  as well as to many other artists & musicians can be found on various individual pages on my website, which can be found under www.it-takes-a-lot-to-laugh.com, www.it-takes-a-train-to-cry.com & www.downintheflood.com.

Professionally I'm an Industrial Merchant by training, a Cinema Projectionist by re-education, a guitarist, and lately also harmonica player by distinction.

I never got married due to my appreciation of too many women at one and the same time. Children I have none except when I play with them or am being asked to look after them, which they usually enjoy a great deal. The reader should imagine that I'll always be into some kinda mischief & that's gotta be passed on to the next generation(s)!

Well, meanwhile that's all Folks!