Misson of Light

Will I ever tire of Beethoven's PC#1? I hope not. I trace my love for classical music back to a high school chum who made it his little mission to enlighten me. I love him for that. His name was Richard McLean (or MacLean). He was one arrogant bastard as I recall. My other fun friend was Leslie McDonald (or MacDonald), who later died in the crash of his F-100. I didn't know it at the time but we were three Irish Brothers. McDonald died ejecting from his F-100 in Japan but McLean went on to fly Air Force transports. He eventually left the Air Force. So they say.

Both of those Irish guys were fundamentally important in the developement of my later life, and I want to say here that I loved them. I remember that McDonald and McLean made fun of me when I pronounced the word, nuclear, 'nuculer.' This was in the 12th grade. McDonald taught me how to play chess. As I blundered through my first games he would comment sarcastically. When I made a fairly good move he would say, 'The brilliancies of Morphy!' When I made a bad move he would say, 'Checkmate.' I eventually surpassed him in chess, and the last time I saw McDonald (at Lackland AFB in basic training) I defeated him. This seemed to irritate him and he predicted that I would end up in Japan married to a Japanese woman. He was right.

MacLean would take me to the record shop after school. We would listen to samples of classical music. He explained to me that 'hillbilly-western' was for the masses, but that classical was for the upper crust. He would occasionally buy a record, which to me at the time was a tremendous waste of good money. But I would remember his lessons years later when I had the resources to spend money on musical things. My first classical purchases were a couple of records by Beethoven. They were 'nice' but not exactly overwhelming. The music fit well with the elegant living room furniture, but I spent most of the time in the family room watching tv. I would come to really appreciate Beethoven only after had I heard him while stoned on Pot. I remember listening to BPC#5 in the living room stoned while trying to put a 1000 piece puzzle together. It was a communal effort. We would all sit on the rug, around the coffee table, blitzed out of our minds, while Beethoven played in the background. I would later come to rely on Beethoven's symphony #6 for some sort of contact with reality as I lay on the couch tripping my brains out on Acid. Those were the days when MacLean's early efforts really bore fruit.