All through your life I me mine. Guest Post: Brad Kyle's My Life With Music (And a bit of mine). SbS 04.30.25 Newsletter 24
A Life's musical journey with Brad Kyle (Thank you!). Chris' college pre match mix tape. NEXT: My weekly new music show. This week April's Notable Songs
I had an idea (never a good start). Everyone has a musical journey. I love hearing about them. So I’m trying something new. And would love your feedback about how you feel about this etc…
The Soundtrack of Our Lives: My Life With Music
"Music is the one thing that can never let you down." — Tom Petty
We all have those songs that score our defining moments - the breakup anthem that healed you, the pump-up jam before big challenges, the sleepy lullaby you still hum decades later.
"Without music, life would be a mistake." — Nietzsche
Inspired? Comment with your song + story. Let's create a living playlist of our collective memories. Or don’t. Maybe I turn your comments into a post?
The Origin Story. I sent this (see below) to a few people. Now I'm curious to see where the conversation leads. Here’s my simple message. No rules just:
: “It’s called (maybe) My Life With Music. Your musical journey, start with young - with what your parents listen to to grade school. HS. College. Etc.”
So, with that as Brad Kyle’s guide - He unfolded his vinyl map:
….In the Vinyl Analysis
I was born March 18, 1955, in Houston, TX, 10 1/2 months after my brother, Clint. Dad was a jazz aficionado, and a local radio station ad sales exec, selling commercial air time for KULF, KTHT, and, ultimately, KTRH, the longtime CBS-owned talk/news, clear-channel, 50,000 watt AM-er in Space City.
The first music I likely heard, in infancy, was big band, in the form of albums (or 78s) by Tommy or Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and vocalists like Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald.
I do remember, early on, hearing that Mom and Dad’s “theme song” (played at their early-’50s wedding) was “I Only Have Eyes For You,” written by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin. A guess would be that the one most likely played on Dad’s “vic” (as he called it, short for Victrola, as in phonograph maker, RCA) was the original version from the 1934 film musical, Dames, as sung by Dick Powell (with Ruby Keeler):
My first real record that made it to my tiny hands might’ve been a red-colored vinyl Bozo the Clown album, perhaps sometime in kindergarten! I most likely had a small, travel-sized record player that you could clasp-close and carry.
The album had a picture-booklet bound inside the thick cardboard jacket. I can’t remember the title or the storyline, but it probably looked something like this Bozo Has a Party, 1952, Capitol Records (click here if YouTube video not showing up):
February 9, 1964 (I was 6 weeks away from my 9th birthday)…this happened, and I was sitting right in front of the TV!:
The Beatles Diaries: Celebrating 60 Years and The Feb 9, 1964 Appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show"
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FEBRUARY 9, 2024
Excitement wasn’t in the air, it was the air.-Greil Marcus
That changed everything…for me, as well as tens of millions of others! Dad’s radio gig allowed him to snag any number of promo albums from various labels’ regional reps, and bring ‘em home he did! As they were released, homeward-bound were the Capitol promo Beatles albums!
The late-’60s kept me focused on the teenybop/bubblegum scene (I was 13 in ‘68), with help from the teen mags (Gloria Stavers’ 16, Chuck Laufer’s Tiger Beat, and Flip), and whatever Top 40 hits were in rotation on Houston’s KILT-AM radio (which I made sure was tuned in whenever Mommy took me places)!
A key memory is taking dance lessons at SW Houston’s Meyerland Country Club (we were members). We’d swim in their pool most days in the summer, and had Sunday dinners there, sometimes. For the dance classes, we’d learn popular dance crazes of the day….The Jerk, The Frug, et al (The Grass Roots’ “Midnight Confessions” was a 1968 favorite of mine for these), plus, we’d practice the ever-reviled close dancing!
“Midnight Confessions” was written by Lou T. Josie and originally recorded by the Ever-Green Blues the year before (1967) on Mercury Records. Josie produced it under the name, Jimmy King. It’s never occurred to me before to look up just who wrote it!
The Grass Roots saw no reason to stray far from the original arrangement (except slow it down a tad!), including the punchy horn charts, which may have started a trend….long a staple for R&B, Motown and Spector recordings, maybe here is where horn arrangements found a new home in the closer-to-rock (but, no less pop-side melodic) sounds!
Plus, in that general 1968-1970 time frame, Dad was bringing home the Warner Bros./Reprise Records (and subsidiaries like Zappa’s Straight and Bizarre) promo debut albums by Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Jethro Tull, early Frank Zappa, The Fugs, Captain Beefheart, The GTOs, and, the label debuts of such future Rock Hall-of-Famers like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, post-Apple James Taylor, and so many more! For an early-high-schooler, it was pretty heady (and occasionally, quite inappropriate-for-minors) stuff!
But, we were regular church and Sunday School goers, so that upbringing helped keep me from being a self-satisfied godless heathen!
It was about 1971 when I joined an already-rolling rock band based at Bellaire High School in SW Houston…the previously-5-piece Brimstone. I was lead singer, and having learned the flute by ear (listening to Ian Anderson’s playing on Jethro Tull albums), played flute solos on several of our cover songs. That story’s here (it was an exclusive to paid subscribers, hence the paywall…feel free to join them as paid subscribers!):
🏖1️⃣I Was a Teenage Lead Singer! The Early '70s Brimstone Saga (with Approximate Setlist)
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JULY 10, 2023
Early ‘70s, Prog Rock Emerges
It was around this time (1971…I was 16, and a high school sophomore) when I started discovering, and really enjoying, the bands that came out in what was later called “progressive rock” and even “classic rock”: Tull, Genesis, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Doobie Brothers, The Kinks, The Beach Boys…with the notable exception of Genesis, these bands were quite noticeably on Warner Bros. or Reprise Records…all coming in the door in Dad’s hands from the radio station!
The Radio Influence
Two college radio stations followed my high school graduation: N. Texas State University in Denton, TX (1973-74), and the U of Houston (1974-75). I now had access to virtually every album and single released, even by “minor” labels!
Behind The Mic: A Personal Peek Into 1970s FM Classic Rock Radio--Pt. 1, The College Years
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AUGUST 14, 2021
Two more years, this time in commercial “progressive rock” radio, followed: Part-time at then CBS-owned KLOL-FM (1975-76), and FM 102, WFMF/Baton Rouge, LA, with a nightly 7-to-midnight shift from 1976 to 1977:
Behind The Mic: A Personal Peek Into 1970s FM Classic Rock Radio--Pt. 2, KLOL/Houston, Mother's Family
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AUGUST 29, 2021
Needless to say, those gigs informed my musical favorites, as I was spinning far more records in those jobs than I ever would at home!
The Retail Wars
I moved back to my Houston hometown following my Baton Rouge radio run. I immediately landed a retail job at the city’s largest retail outlet from 1977 through January 1980: Cactus Records (H.W. Daily Co.), starting at their SW Houston Post Oak location, then, closer to downtown, at their location on Shepherd.
Starting at about the 1:15 mark of this video (click here to view on Facebook), you’ll see B&W photos from the late-’70s era when I worked at Cactus Records on Shepherd St. near downtown Houston (selling new releases only, no used records). The vastness of the store can be imagined simply by the several-yard length of the tape wall, housing our cassette collection!
The color shots are taken at another location where the now-Cactus Music is located. They must have moved from the Shepherd location I worked at sometime in the ‘80s, perhaps. The current store (which incorporates both new and used records) appears much smaller than the wood-walled wide-open spaces of my ‘70s experience!
All of that experience coincided with both the disco boom and punk’s explosion, and each provided new favorites that joined my ever-growing record collection….the collection that I drove (with a friend of my mom’s) in a U-Haul truck (with my car towed behind) to L.A. in January 1980.
More retail work (at the Glendale and Pasadena locations of popular California record store chain, Music Plus) followed, until November 1983, when, at 28, I re-entered college to affect a radical career change! More new sounds’n’songs followed, but in a far more slower “drip” than before!
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By Brad Kyle · Launched 4 years ago
Thank you Kyle! What a brilliant life with music. Appreciate the sharing. Here’s a taste of My Life With Music
Finding an Old Pre-Match CD Mix: The Power of Music Before the Pitch
There’s something magical about rediscovering an old playlist. Especially one tied to a specific time and purpose. Recently, I stumbled upon a pre-match CD mix I used to blast (on headphones on the bus) before my college soccer matches. As one would think it’s a collection of high-energy, aggressive, and motivational tracks designed to fire me up before stepping onto the pitch. The interesting part? Every single mix ended with the same two songs - a ritual that became as crucial as putting on my boots (in a certain way and order) or shin guards.
The penultimate track was always Nine Inch Nails’ "Head Like a Hole." The raw, industrial fury of the song, especially Trent Reznor’s snarling vocals. It was the perfect fuel for the competitive mindset. The lyrics - “No, you can’t take it, no, you can’t take it / No, you can’t take that away from me” - felt like a direct challenge to any opponent who thought they could outwork or outfight me. The line that echoed in my head during warmups: “I’d rather die than give you control.”
That wasn’t just a lyric - it was a battle cry. Soccer (like any sport) is as much mental as it is physical. With “Head Like a Hole” screaming through my headphones, there was no room for doubt. The song’s relentless beat and defiant message were a reminder: You will not break me. You will not own this game.
On a side note. Friends in college that watched me play for the first time often asked after the match “Who ARE you?”. Off the pitch I was a mild mannered kid. On? Get the fuck outta the way. THAT ball is mine! I will go through you.
So you are probably thinking how do follow up that? Just when my adrenaline threatened to spill over (any guesses before the reveal?) the final track kicked in: The Police’s "Can’t Stand Losing You." It seems like an odd follow-up to NIN’s fury, but that was the point. And it worked for me (a lesson in life - what works for you? Do that) The reggae-infused rhythm and Sting’s smooth yet desperate vocals acted as a cooling counterbalance. The repeated refrain - “I can’t stand losing / I can’t, I can’t, I can’t stand losing”. For Sting it was about heartbreak. In that moment in time (for me on this mix) it was about refusing defeat. I really can’t stand losing.
The last notes played. I was ready to warm up. I was in the right headspace: fired up and focused. Angry and controlled. The combination of NIN’s defiance and The Police’s rhythmic intensity was the perfect one-two punch. It wasn’t just music—it was psychological preparation.
Those CDs weren’t just playlists - they were weapons. Listening (and writing about this) now I’m ready to run through a wall like I was a 19 year old…Some rituals fade, but the right music? That stays with you forever. What’s so funny is that even today when I hear “Head Like A Hole” - I assume “Can’t Stand Losing you” is next.
Does this happen to you?
This week is our end of the month look back. A review. A reminder. Thanks for listening.
Why New Music Matters
David Bowie once said,: "Music has given me over 40 years of extraordinary experiences… I can’t say that life’s pains or more tragic episodes have been diminished because of it, but it’s allowed me so many moments of companionship when I’ve been lonely and a sublime means of communication when I wanted to touch people."
New music does exactly that: it connects us, challenges us, and mirrors the times we live in. Every song carries the potential to soundtrack someone’s life.
Kurt Cobain: "I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not." That fearless authenticity is what makes new music vital and remember at one time Nirvana was just a local band. So supporting new artists isn’t just about discovery. It’s about keeping the conversation going. As Questlove puts it: "Music is the diary of humanity." Let’s keep writing it together. Tune in, turn it up, and let the next great song find you.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Music is Life. Music is Magic. Live Music Is Good For Your Soul.
And remember if you love someone hug them right now.
And today's title comes from: The Beatle’s “I Me Mine”. Why? This newsletter is about MY…My Life With Music.
The Beatles' introspective side with a blistering guitar. Waltz-like. A standout on “Let It Be” for me. And an under appreciated The Beatle’s song.
George Harrison quote about songwriting: “Songs are like little babies—they come out when they want to, and you just have to be ready when they arrive."
Enjoy it all and Embrace The Suck
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Since I spent most of 2024 writing about my journey through life and music on Substack I won't repeat it here but anyone can check it out! I have Top Tens for every year of my life! https://danpal.substack.com/s/the-playlist-of-my-life-a-top-ten
That promo album with the bullet hole stamps is wild! Thanks for sharing your life in music!