At about noon today, I grabbed my new iriver H10 and went for a stroll. I was randomly playing the tracks when Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" came on. I blasted it, rapped along with Chuck D and felt an eerily familiar high. It was that same high I used to get from my Sony Walkman.
From about 1985 to 1998 my Sony Walkman went everywhere with me. I wore it when I biked, when I walked, when I rode the TTC and even listened in class. I would make mix tape after mix tape of my favourite tunes, going through a variety of phases. There would be one period where I'd only listen to The Clash or Guns N' Roses, another when it was strictly grunge or Public Enemy. That Public Enemy phase lasted for more than a year. These were my Sony Walkman years and blasting these songs on my personal player provided me with such energy, such introspective reckoning.
Although I've only owned a personal MP3 player for a week, it's bringing me back to those Sony Walkman days. Instead of a 90 minute mix tape, it's a 5 GB playlist. I'm bouncing around from Arcade Fire to The White Stripes through The Kleptones around Queens of the Stone Age and back to Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys.
The best way to close this entry is to borrow I line I heard at lunch uttered by Maestro Fresh Wes on my new iriver H10. "It's '89 y'all, not Beethoven's fifth or sixth."
