Any old way you choose it
It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it
Any old time you use it
It's gotta be rock - roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me
I have no kick against modern jazz
Unless they try to play it too darn fast
And change the beauty of the melody
Until it sounds just like a symphony
That's why I go for that rock'n'roll music
Any old way you choose it
It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it
I love music.
Jazz, rock, punk, classical, country, dance, reggae, alternative, folk, dub, trance - get the idea? Chuck hit the nail right on the head, any old way you choose it, it's got a backbeat, you can't lose it. I think the only qualification or criteria I have is medley. I can't abide the barking noise that is so commonly found in thrash and death metal, but I've never been able to get it. It doesn't strike me as a great loss, maybe someone can find a piece with redeeming value that will introduce me to the nuances of that particular genre. I am open to it, but I'm not going to go looking and researching myself.
My musical birth began like so many others with children's music. I come from a time before the mania of the Wiggles and High 5, and whatever other money generating phenomenon that came before them. In fact, I would be so bold as to say I come from the first generation of children's music. I can clearly remember the LP's of Raffi, Sharon, Lois and Bram, Marlo Thomas and her Honey on Toast recordings. I'm sure I've forgotten some, but the melodies and songs still resonate deep in my memory.
Someone will say something, and like any properly brainwashed sleeper agent I will recite the lyrics to some long forgotten song: Nothing can go wrongo, I'm in the Congo - Sorry Raffi, I'm sure Jeremiah the Giraffe had no worries, but I think the people of Rwanda and The Democratic Republic of the Congo might beg to differ.
Another Raffi gem - It's mine and you can have some, with you I want to share it. If I share it with you, you'll have some too . I've caught myself on multiple occassions saying that to Arwyn.
That was the birth of music, the infancy.
When I learned to crawl, musically speaking. I found my mother's old 45's lots of Elvis, some Beatles, Patsy Cline, The Chiffons, Lesley Gore, the Shangri-Las and so on. That kept me occupied for a few years, but it wasn't enough. It didn't feel right, it just wasn't music that spoke to me on any sort of level. By this time, my parents had invested a large sum of money in a stereo system, turntable, reciever, tape deck, decent speakers. I don't remember the brand of any of them, but I do remember the lights, the hum everytime you turned it on, the oversized volume control, the two VU meters.
I was entranced.
Sadly, my parents record collection just didn't cut the mustard. I don't think any ten year old will appreciate Roger Whittaker, the Soundtracks to Porgy and Bess, the Rose, or Oliver. There would have been 40 or so more albums in there, but those are ones that I can clearly remember.
I needed something good to listen to.
This is where my uncles come in.
Thank you to Bill and Chuck.
I'm grouping the two of you together because I don't know who owned which album.
I can clearly remember trips to my Grandparents house and being allowed to sit in the front room with the black and white headphones on flipping through the stack of records.
Listening to music, alone and uninterrupted with quality headphones is still one of my greatest pleasures. Everytime I slip them on and slide back into the chair I feel like the guy in the Maxell tape cassette ad's from the early 80's everyone who is old enough will know which one. But for those who aren't:
Back to the music.
I went from crawling to running.
It was the same as in the movie Almost Famous when Anita gives her collection to William, it was mind expanding.
It was in this collection that I found:
The Cars - Panorama
The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta, Ghost in the Machine, Regatta de Blanc
Kansas - Point of Know Return
Styx - The Grand Illusion
Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street and Some Girls
The Who - Tommy
and most importantly I found Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon, Wish you were here and the Wall (which I always listened to sercretly, pretending I had something else on, knowing that it would have been subversive and disapproved of)
There was more there, but those are the ones that stand out.
And what stand out they are.
Soon, I was buying my own stereo, a simple little system which didn't match my parents, but it was mine and it was bought with a job that my uncle Bill helped me get delivering papers for the London Free Press.
I want to give Bill a quiet golf clap at this point - you the man!
Music has influenced my persona so deeply over the years I wouldn't be who I am without the artists I listened to and I never would have found these bands at such a young and impressionable age without Bill.
Once more - you the man!
I was soon buying my own music. Trips to the record stores of Sam the Record Man, Music World and Record Runner. I must admit, I fell from the lofty heights that Bill set, but that was inevitable given what was available.
My first musical purchases, in order.
The Boomtown Rats - The Fine Art of Surfacing. I still own it, I still love it. Bob Geldof's second greatest achievement after Live Aid.
Kiss - Rock and Roll Over.
J. Geils Band - Freeze Frame. This one almost got confiscated for the content of Piss on the Wall.
Abba - The Album - I was eleven OK? Shut up! What were you listening to at the same age?
I redeemed myself with the next purchase.
Genesis - Genesis - I still like this one.
Yes - 90125 I know its terribly dated, but I still like Owner of a lonely heart.
The Police - Syncronicity
After that the records become a bit of a blur. The trips to the mall became weekly, something new all the time. Some were influenced by the video hits programs - see Gowan and Platinum Blonde. Others by friends re: Judas Priest - that one still makes me laugh, teenagers with black leather with studs trying to be tough and macho like Rob Halford - hahhahahhaha I wonder what they think now?
So yes, I did listen to some musical crimes. However, the greatest musical crime ever commited came to me by way of my Aunt Mary, although it wasn't her fault. I was thirteen at the time, and was nosing through her collection - which included 8-tracks! And I found the coolest album cover ever! A red picture with a cemetery, demonic looking headstones and a barbarian blasting out of the grave on the coolest looking motorcycle ever! This albums artwork was the Rosetta stone for all heavy metal albums. I put it on, thinking Mary is fucking cool! I was greeted with: Bat outta Hell. Hmmm somethings not right here. Why aren't my eardrums bleeding? Why don't I want to bang my head? Let's skip to the next track.
You Took the Words....
On a hot summer night.
Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Will he offer me his mouth?
Yes
Will he offer me his teeth?
Yes
Wlll he offer me his jaws?
Yes
Will he offer me his hunger?
Yes
Again. Will he offer me his hunger?
Yes
And will he starve without me?
Yes
And does he love me?
Yes
Yes
On a hot summer night.
Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Yes
I bet you say that to all the boys.
It was a hot summer night and the beach was burning
There was a fog crawling over the sand....
Oh God! Please make it stop! What? What? What is this? Seriously, this was false advertising! I wanted the devil to be singing to me, I wanted my head to be spinning like Linda Blair in the Exorcist, I wanted my eyeballs to bleed based on the artwork. It took me years to get over it. It wasn't until my late twenties when I was able to sit down and listen to it from beginning to end that I was able to appreciate Meatloafs vocals and Jim Steinman's composition. So I do owe you a thankyou Mary, if not for introducing me to Meatloaf, then for showing me that you can't judge a book by its cover.
Cousin Richard introduced me to Paul Hyde and the Payolas, Kim Mitchell, the Spoons and a host of other Canadian music I would have overlooked. To this day I still think Sandy Horne is hot in the video for Romantic Traffic.
Paul and Barb - Had an impressive and expansive collection. I could sit for hours and never be able to decide on what to listen to. I hope they forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I think I discovered Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart through them. How do you say thank you for that?
Lionel - He was a bit older and it showed in his music, but he added to who I am as well. It was at the house in Stoufville, Harry Chapin Greatest Stories Live and Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman.
Fuck me!
This is what song writing and story telling is all about. Chapin is a true troubador and I challenge anyone, to listen to Tillerman in its entirety and not say wow to its flow and all round brilliance.
I wasn't even fourteen and I already had all of this burning in my brain.
The bar had been set incredibly high, for what my friends could introduce me to.
I hope I remembered everything correctly, I didn't leave anyone out intentionally. These are just the ones that have become legend and ingrained into my persona. So much more awaits, high school, my baptism into punk and ska, university radio, Tom Waits and Johnny Cash!
To be continued in History of Rock'n'Roll part two....
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