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My Life in Music, Vol. XII
By briantologist | May 31, 2004
I’d like to thank Barrett for co-opting this idea from other bloggers, so that I might co-opt it from him. ‘Cause as far as new ideas go, I’m in kind of a dry season lately.
The 1970s.
Most memories are dim, as I was only 5 by the end of the decade, but here are a few that stick out: “Abbey Road” (mainly the first side, the one with “Octopus’s Garden” on it) and “The Everly Brothers’ Greatest Hits.” I have my mom and older sister Jenny to thank for these. One more: “The First Hurrah!” by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, thanks to dad.
The 1980s.
One summer Jenny and I elaborately choreograph a play based on “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” off the aforementioned side 1 of the aforementioned “Abbey Road.” I play Maxwell. Our mom is a little disturbed, mainly because of the silver hammering. Later my kindergarten girlfriend Emily Harrington and I elaborately choreograph some kind of play based on “Spring” from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” This may mark the cultural apex of my entire life. For this I have my dad to thank, as at some point he seemed to give up on popular music altogether in favor of classical and opera. For this reason, and this reason only, sometimes hearing Pavoratti sing kind of makes me a little teary.
The Everlys and the Beatles are pretty much the only players in my early music development. A six-year-old could do a lot worse. “Wake Up Little Suzie” still makes me want to jump up and do something.
Blame it on our lack of cable (and thus MTV), our family’s general lack of interest in popular culture, or the fact that I was essentially raised by old women, but I pretty much missed out on all of popular music during the early ’80s. Jenny had a few pivotal LPs — “Like a Virgin” and a couple of Olivia Newton-John discs come to mind — but from what I heard blasting through her bedroom door, there wasn’t much there for me.
Then, friends, then came my one friend, Jason Thomas, and the tape of “1984″ he brought over one summer day. In 1984. I don’t often give Jason the credit he deserves, but I tend to think he may have saved my life that day, and that summer, which we spent the rest of jumping around my bedroom to “Jump” and “Panama.” I didn’t know a lot at that point in my life, but I sure as fuck knew I loved me some Eddie Van Halen. I haven’t seen Jason since he dropped by my parents’ house about six years ago when I was living with them after college. He needed to borrow a chain saw. We didn’t have one, but it was good to see him. I swear to god I’m not making this up.
The time after this was a deeply weird one for me, musically. I got a copy of “Magical Mystery Tour” for Christmas that year because they’d stopped making new Star Wars stuff, and because I think Van Halen upset my parents on some level (rock). I was in this weird sort of limbo between having sort of a seminal interest in music and having any disposable income to buy actual albums. This resulted in a lot of me taping stuff off the radio, which yielded perhaps the strangest results yet. Two words: Huey Lewis. Three more words: And the News.
I had another lone friend by this point, as Jason had moved to a trailer park way on the other side of town and started going to another school, and I never saw him anymore. Justin, my new friend, got a life-changing gift one birthday: Weird Al Yankovic’s first album. By this time it’d been out for several years, and Al was alredy famous for his subsequent really big hits. This just gave me the chance to collect his entire catalog on cassette, marking the first time I’d actually liked an artist enough (and had some sort of income) to save up for the tapes.
Shortly thereafter I also started collecting Cheech & Chong tapes.
Tomorrow: Enter the CD Player.
Topics: Reflections From the Bottom Rung | 3 Comments »
June 1st, 2004 at 10:00 am
I thought I was the only person under the age of 40 to admit to enjoying Huey Lewis and the News during my formative years.
My mother, sister and my mother’s crazy friend Marsha went to see Huey Lewis and the News at Mohawk Park in 1984 during their tour for “Sports.” I got the worst sun-burn ever. I had blisters and got dehydrated. That was right before the State took custody of my sister and I ……
DC, San Antone and the Liberty Town, Boston and Baton Rouge
Tulsa, Austin, Oklahoma City, Seattle, San Francisco, too
Everywhere there’s music, real live music, bands with a million styles
But It’s still that some old rock and roll music
that really drives ‘em wild
-Huey Lewis
June 1st, 2004 at 10:12 am
My seminal HL:ATN memory is when the Top 40 radio station would redub the song and when it came to ‘Tulsa’ make it go; ‘Tulsa-Tulsa-T-T-T-T-Tuuuullllssa’ and people listening around me would scream it very loudly while shaking their fist in rhythm at the ‘T-T-T-T’ part. I would then want to put sharp pointy things far far into my ears.
Oh, and the fact that I thought ‘I Wanna Be A Lifeguard’ was done by Huey Lewis, and not Blotto (which apparently it is)
June 1st, 2004 at 11:51 am
Apparently Mr. Lewis And The News did just that when he and his newsy pals came through our fair city. He got to the Tulsa part and just kept shouting “Tulsa! T-T-T-Tulsa!”
I guess Justin can probably verify that.