After reading my Friday Substacks, I am sure more than a few of you have wondered where on Earth did I come up such eclectic music choices and todays Substack is that journey.
I normally give some random opinions about music, business or politics but I rarely give any details of how I got to that point. Was I always a conservative (no, I voted for Jimmy Carter while in college)? Did I go to school for business(no again, I have a BS in Forestry)? Do I have any musicalal talent (again a no, I am the musically challenged person you will ever meet)?
So, how did I get to the point of actually thinking I could write something about music with zero background in music? Very simple, I had an older brother and an older sister who loved music. From a very early age someone in my house was playing rock and roll on horrible sounding stereo equipment. No one cared about the quality of the sound back then, they care about the quality of the music. Thats what we had in my house.
If memory serves me correctly my brother used to work in the record section of TSS back in the day. TSS was Times Square Stores, a forerunner of Kmart I suppose. If you lived on Long Island during the 60’s and 70’s you knew of TSS. It was the everyman store where Gertz and Abraham and Strauss were around for special occasions or for people who had some money. I do not recall the record store in TSS but I do recall they had a great sports department and a great toy section. I didn’t really know enough back then to wander through the bins looking albums of interest. I didn’t have to, my brother would bring home tons of records and I would sit downstairs and listen to them when I was allowed.
I do remember my brother giving me the original version of The Who’s Live at Leeds album. While I liked The Who at the time (mainly because my sister used to play Tommy endlessly), I was sold when I opened the album and there was a ton of paraphanalia inserted in the jacket pocket. Bills for the damage to hotel room, the invoice for their gig at Woodstock! I was a gonner after that.
Over time I developed my own tastes and like every kid growing up back then, it changed based on the next great thing. I was a Crosby, Still and Nash fan from the beginning but then when Chicago, Live at Carnegie Hall came out I was into Chicago. Yes, would release something, boom, I am on it. T-rex, Marc Bolan was literally the coolest dude ever. On and on it went. Bowie popped up and I was into glam rock and every week or so I would be pulled back to Earth with Grand Funk Railroad or Steppenwolf.
My brother went off to college and my sister took over teaching me about music. her tastes were a little different. Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane. I know she like the Grateful Dead as well. Years later, I realized a lot of her tastes were San Fransisco oriented and that was fine by me. Quicksilver Messenger Service and Poco were on constant rotation in her room. I think there even might have been a random NRBQ song in there as well.
One touchstone that I will never forget the first album I ever purchased, Cosmos Factory by Creedence. To this day, I still think it might be one of the greatest records ever recorded. It had soo many singles on it and it had “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”. One of those instances where to cover is as good as the original. There is not a weak track on the album and even if you hate “Ooby Doby” you still have to get the blatant reference there.
Sad story about that album. I was in college and my apartment got robbed and the perps stole my TV, my stereo and all of my albums, including Cosmos Factory. I wasn’t pissed about all the other stuff but I was steaming mad about Cosmos Factory spinning on someone else turntable. Least they had good taste.
As time went on and my sister moved away from home I developed some odd musical tastes. Back then, no one except college kids listened to Steely Dan. I did. I would listen to Blue Oyster Cult, Billy Joel and then old Steve Miller Band.
One thing I never really did was latch onto any particular musical style. Thankfully, I could listen to a lot of different styles, find what I like and go on to the next style.
I think another touchstone was while I was college. My brother was living in Knoxville at the time and every once in a while he would bring me to a show and one night he called and told me that he had this band last night in another city and they were unlike anything he had ever scene. He knew of them because he was a rock and roll disc jockey and he had played their earlier stuf but this was the first time he had seen them alive. We ended up going to the Knoxville Theater(I think) and there were maybe 600 people in the audience and out walks Brnuce Springsteen and The East Street band. I was blown away. I don’t remember the set list at all but I do remember him in the audience playing for half the show running up and down the aisles and I remember he did four songs from Born to Run. I am not sure if it had been released yet but when I got back home I heard a lot of it on the radio so it was right around that time. I don’t play much Springsteen now (politics and his down home country boy speech patterns bugs the Hell out of me, he live in Rumson, NJ for Gods sake).
Springsteen brings up a great time on Long island. At the time there were so many great cover bands that you literally could see the Cover Band Hall of Fame in one month. On top of thet Twisted Sister and The Good Rats were always playing somewhere nearby. It also was a period were Kiss exploded as well but not on my radio or record player.
I have seen some great shows of actually acts as well. AC-DC still stands up there as one of the best shows I have ever seen. I lost 25% of my hearing that night and literally could not hear a thing for two days but it was worth it. Saw The Who on their first tour with Keith Moon and they still put on a great show. Led Zeppelin from the 15th row at Madison Square Garden (Later used in the film “The Song Remains The Same”). Traffic, Humble Pie, Free, Pink Floyd, U2 (3 Times) and of course George Thorogood and His Delaware Destroyers at Malibu.
I have also been thoroughly disappointed with ZZTop and Greg Allman. I wanted to leave before the third song. I thought as much of genius as Beck is, he really wasn’t much of a performer. Apparently, I was the only one that night that felt that way. Oh well.
It has been a long and winding road for me and I think one of the reasons I write this column on every Friday is to try and help people rekindle some of the good stuff from way back when. No matter what all the following generations say about our music, the truth is, they just don’t make it like that anymore.
I am getting old.
I thoroughly enjoyed this walk down memory lane. Our household was exactly the same. Didn't get to as many concerts but there were some great ones. Jeannie from Cocoa
Loved the trip down memory lane. Can't disagree with you on your tastes. Thanks for your Friday's music theme, and We are getting old....