The New Phone

 

It was past time for me to upgrade my cell phone.

Of course, me being me, this took far longer and more research than necessary.

Something would talk me out of pulling the trigger every time. The monthly cost was too high, I didn't like what came with it, the phone was out of stock, I didn't like the color. Literally, anything.

But my older phone was beginning to show some age and it felt best to get a good trade-in and move on once and for all. So, finally, I jumped.

The process, in the end, was mostly painless. It however reminded me of the painstaking process of setting up my mother's phone each time.

Well, she wasn't going to do it. Thus, it fell to me.

One thing I allowed myself was a phone with larger storage. I didn't go for a better camera and maybe I should have but I figured I have a fairly decent point-and-shoot camera still and the camera on this phone should do the job just fine.

But I decided I was done with using older devices as a repurposed MP3 player. I wanted my music and anything else on my phone.

It's part of my master plan to put on a pair of headphones, take something to knock me out, and listen to tunes as I sleep from New York to London in April.

Or on the train into New York in March.

Or in the car.

It was time to move into the 21st century in this regard.

So I went through the process of loading the phone with music tonight. There are nearly 17,000 songs on my older laptop so I decided to not overthink it.

Shocking, I know.

While it would have been easiest to just sync everything, I wanted a little more control so I opted to do it manually.

Look, some things are obvious. Almost all music by Huey Lewis, The Beatles, Billy Joel, and Messrs. McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison made the cut. I don't think I have much of Mr. Starkey, to be honest.

Certain complications from the above group didn't make it because I probably don't need every version of "The Heart of Rock & Roll." Studio? Yes. Live? Sure, a couple of different versions, please. But each version of "Sports"* plus greatest hits albums? Come on. Even I can't be that crazy.

I have four different versions of "Sports": the original, "expanded edition," Original Master Recordings, and 30th Anniversary Deluxe. It's a sickness but I'm the fool that falls for marketing.

Still, there's the album/original version of "Pretty in Pink" and the soundtrack version from the movie of the same name. Both by the Psychedelic Furs, of course. Many prefer the original. I love both.

The beauty of this exercise was just that: I could pick whatever I bloody well want!

If I didn't want to include Billy Joel's Russian concert album ("Концерт") or his efforts pre-solo years (don't ask if you've never heard it) then I could with ease.

If I wanted to weigh myself down with jazz then you knew I would. So Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck and Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus and John Coltrane and Benny Goodman all made the cut.

This always allows me the chance to see just much...awfulness I also have. I've acquired stuff from others over the years and always find myself in that spot of wondering if it's time to delete some things. Of course, the downside -- especially as a purveyor of production -- is that someone might need a certain song for a certain spot.

Or it's needed when I'm handling music and public address duties.

Or, as does happen with me, something or someone turns me onto the song or the artist and I suddenly enjoy that I have it in my collection. I can never thank Susan enough for making me care more about Joni Mitchell, for instance.

Then it's exciting to have Abba or Enya or Adele or something else that had basically a slim to no chance of winding up on my phone.

At least not this time around, and no offense intended to host artists. The point is there are a lot of things that I own that I find myself wondering exactly where I got that from.

Still, every picture tells a story (Rod Stewart, and no I don't have that). Or, in this case, maybe every song tells a story?

The music stretches across decades, from "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" recorded in 1908 to the earliest work by Louis Armstrong in 1925 to "McCartney III" by, well, the GOAT and "Weather" by Huey Lewis and the News (that other "GOAT") in 2020.

Nothing from 2021, apparently.

Oh I'll no doubt be looking for a song or an album one day when it will strike me that I didn't sync it to my phone. That's the downside of this, of course, but I'll take that in exchange for the ability to review what I own.

And cringe.

Well, at least some of it.

Oh and the deal with Verizon came with Hulu, Disney Plus, and ESPN Plus, which will make the sting less noticeable when I turn cable off.

He got the honor of the first picture