“If it’s too loud, you’re too old.”
Several rock musicians have screamed this phrase through the years, and I have seen it on plenty of black concert T-shirts, but it seems to have roots with the Motor City Madman and modern-day gun rights promoter himself, Ted Nugent.
Well, Ted. It is too loud, and I am too old. But it wasn’t always this way. There was a time when the volume knob on my stereo couldn’t turn far enough. All the music I liked seemingly sounded better louder. I am guessing the neighbors of my childhood home disagreed.
My male teenage friends and I would spend hours scouring through the pages of Crutchfield magazine to look at receivers, equalizers, dual cassette decks and, eventually, CD players. We couldn’t just pull up an Amazon app and order things back then, but I don't think we would have done that anyway, even if it were available. Ideally, we wanted to actually hear our favorite tunes play on the equipment before we bought it, but that wasn’t always possible. As such, a trip to a nearby city with a stereo electronics store was like a dream vacation.
Each one of us guys had our own stereo brand of choice. Some liked Yamaha. Other preferred Sony. I chose Pioneer. We couldn’t afford the really expensive brands, but we didn't want something from Radio Shack either. We had standards, after all.
My home stereo speakers were the size of coffee tables, but they sounded great. Woofers. Mid-range. Tweeters. The combination was deafening, at least until one of the woofers blew. Then everything sounded like it was played on a kazoo.
I also liked to crank up my Sony Walkman when I went for a run. I would pick out up-tempo, rocking songs — most anything from Def Leppard worked — to keep my legs pumping and drown out any sounds of my trying to catch my breath. The louder, the better. It worked.
My Walkman eventually died, but that Pioneer home stereo moved with me many times through the years until my wife ultimately convinced me I should sell it at a garage sale. I only hope that someone is still cranking that volume knob.
Today, I prefer spinning classic records on my turntable or asking Alexa to play my favorite music. I never thought I would say this, but music can be too loud — even if I don’t feel that old.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305
www.thedailyumbrella.com | 
