KISS – Destroyer (1976)

This past month, the annual list of inductees for the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame was released. Every year, there is a wave of hope by rock fans that their favorite band will be on that list. For me, there is definitely a list of bands that I feel should be in the Hall of Fame.  The top four on my list would be the bands Deep Purple, Rush, Cheap Trick and the rock phenomenon known as KISS. The album (by this band) that I’ll be highlighting is the band’s 1976 33 minute opus Destroyer.

I know KISS doesn’t ever really get the respect of more “serious” artists like Springsteen, Bob Dylan or Neil Young. It is hard considering they rose to fame as four guys in platform shoes and black and white face paint.  They also became one of the biggest Rock n’ Roll marketing franchises ever. But, when you go back to 1976 and look at the musical landscape of the day, it’s easy for me to feel a little nostalgic. The bottom-line about KISS is they looked like comic book characters come to life and they were just plain fun.
In 1976, I was 9 years old. I was still being influenced musically by what my older sisters had been listening to. Looking back at the charts in 1976, it’s was probably songs like KC & the Sunshine Band’s (Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty, Barry Manilow’s I Write the Songs, and the Bay City Rollers’ Saturday Night.  But, I still went to public school where there were other boys(with older male siblings) who listened to more masculine rock n’ roll acts.  I remember Jeff J. and Mark W. bringing the (I assume) was the inner booklet to the KISS Alive double album. It had pictures of the band as they performed. Paul Stanley was the “Starchild” who was shirtless and pranced around on stage as a definite presence. Ace Frehley was the “Space Ace” guitarist that had silver makeup and a “spacey” looking costume. In some of the pictures, his guitar looked like it was on fire. Peter Criss was the “Catman” and seemed to have a huge set of drums. There were tom-toms all around him.  Lastly, the one band member that everyone talked about, was Gene Simmons. He was the “Demon” and spit blood and breathed fire! I’m sure (looking back) Gene Simmons’ demon character that scared most parents.  But, this was hard rock and it was exciting and daring compared to the safeness of John Denver and his wholesome image.
I’ve watched a bunch of YouTube videos and “Behind the Music” type stories on the history of KISS. I don’t remember where I was when Destroyer came out. But, I do remember hearing bits and pieces of it and the furor that surrounded it.  The band had made a big splash on the music scene with the release of KISS Alive.  This was to be the studio follow-up to the live album. They enlisted the help of producer Bob Ezrin. In 1976, Ezrin was known for producing albums by Aerosmith, Alice Cooper and Lou Reed. Over the years, he’s gone on to produce for more artists including Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and two of my favorite albums Bonham’s A Disregard for Timekeeping and Trevor Rabin’s Can’t Look Away.
The album starts out with Detroit Rock City.  But, it’s a little different. Ezrin has used this on different projects he’s worked on.  He uses ambient sounds like car doors slamming and engines revving and the sounds of radios blaring to let the listener use their imaginations to construct a story behind the song. This song starts with the sound of a news story on the radio(or TV) about a car accident involving a head-on collision. Then, we hear someone driving their car with the Rock and Roll All Nite on the radio. At 1:33, The initial song seemingly transitions from the sound of the car revving into the actual song with Gene’s rumbling bass. The song is steamrolled with Peter Criss drumming away. Paul wails away on vocals and the simplistic riff carries through the song. Then the twin guitar lead of Ace and Paul harmonizing. I’ve always been a sucker for a twin guitar lead. From the Allman Brothers to Thin Lizzy, I’ve always loved that sound.

We hear the car skid into something and the eventual crash and the song segues right into the second track King of the Night Time World.  The continuity of these two songs fading into each other really packs a mighty punch. As I was researching this album, I found that the infamous Kim Fowley (who went on to manage the all-girl group the Runaways) was a co-writer on this song.
As I’m writing this album memory, I didn’t want to just wade through all the different songs as I’ve done before. My exposure to this album was one of a couple KISS albums my sister Kathy owned.  As I look back, it’s funny to think my sister owned this album on vinyl and a copy of KISS’s Rock and Roll Over on 8-Track. My sister was a teenager during this time and the main artists she would listen to would be Shaun Cassidy, the Bay City Rollers and Andy Gibb. But, because of the many “Record clubs” that were available in those days, she would often order a few of these albums too. So, I was rather excited for myself and for her when this album arrived at the house. 
This was a bit of  new turn for KISS. The band had been riding a wave after the success of the Alive album. The first single off this album was supposed to be Detroit Rock City. The B-Side of the single was a lush piano and strings laced ballad written by drummer Peter Criss and producer Ezrin called Beth. According to “KISStory”, a DJ in Georgia flipped the Detroit Rock City single over and started playing the single Beth.  All of a sudden, KISS was being played on the radio in Central Nebraska. My pop loving sister had that “dangerous” stuff in her record club. Even if my small-town parents that were frightened by the outlandish look of KISS, I could show them that KISS had a “nice” song that was performed by the drummer. He wasn’t weird and scary looking like the “Demon” guy and the “Star” guy were.  KISS was everywhere at that point.  They even made it on a primetime Halloween special with Hollywood Squares mainstay Paul Lynde.  The band performed (or lip synched)  King of the Night Time World, Detroit Rock City and (of course) Beth.

They had definitely cracked the mainstream. The song Beth even tied for the People Choice Award for Favorite song with Rick Dees’ Disco Duck that year. I remember following the various awards shows in those days. I was a sucker for a novelty song too. So, it was funny that both Beth and Disco Duck tied for the award.  For a boy like myself, they were the embodiment of HARD ROCK and that was the best kind of rock to be a fan of.  I’ve always said there is something about the sound of the electric guitar that definitely strikes a chord in teenage and prepubescent boys. I was 9 and almost 10 when this all started happening. I wasn’t athletically inclined. I was an avid comic book reader. This would later be the traits of a geek or nerd. Oh well, that’s where I was at the time. But, this hard rock music was something that most of the boys in my age group were into.  As we grew older, we would make comments that “Oh, KISS is stupid” and the stereotypical ignorant “They’re rock stars and they’re all on drugs.”  But, deep down, the band became somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me. Who am I kidding? They still are.

Much has been said by critics and musicians over the years of the talent that KISS did or didn’t possess.  Rolling Stone magazine referred to Destroyer as “bloated ballads, pedestrian drumming and lackluster performances” in their initial review.  The album was only to receive recognition in much later years. In 1989, Kerrang! magazine listed the album at No. 36 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". In 2003, it was ranked number 496 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2006, it was placed No. 60 on Guitar World magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time. In the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die,  Bruno McDonald writes,

“Fans have debated Destroyer’s merits since its release….But the band have spent their career trying to match it.”

Of course, they were not virtuosos on their instruments. They put on some of the most elaborate stage shows of the 70’s.  They wore makeup and high platform shoes. But, their act was visual and (after 1976) they were everywhere. There was also the secret of how they looked without the makeup. It was a bit of mystery to what they really looked like and they were never to be seen in public without their makeup on.
When I was 10 years old, I decided to take part in the school band program, I picked the snare drum(singular..at first). It was the summer between my 5th and 6th grade year. Many kids were given the choice to start in band in the 5th grade. I hesitated. But one night I realized I really wanted to pursue the drums and the ole intangible spell of the drums hit me. A few of my friends had parents that bought them the standard beginner snare drum kit from Ludwig. My parents found a friend of the family that had a used snare drum(with no stand).  I remember showing it to my friend Tom T.  He asked me what the brand was. We looked at the snare strainer and the word “Pearl” was etched on the snares. I told him I thought it was the Pearl brand.  He immediately replied,  “That’s the best! That’s the kind of drums Peter Criss plays”  Sure enough, I looked on the back of the Destroyer album cover and it read:

“KISS proudly endorses Gibson guitars and Pearl Drums. Because when KISS wants the best, they get the best!”

That summer, we would have some kind of summer band program at the High School band room.  I remember there was a bunch of guys there who had already decided to decorate their drumsticks like Peter Criss. It seems like there may have been a picture of Peter with some black tape displayed in stripes at the top of his sticks. So, there were a couple of those guys with sticks decorated that way.
Time went by and so did the tastes of my peers as we grew older. Peter Criss left the band in 1980. He was replaced with a new drummer named Eric Carr. The band appeared in 1983 on MTV to finally present themselves without the makeup. By this time, original guitarist Ace Frehley had left the band too. So, Paul and Gene were the only original members that many fans really cared about what they really looked like. They toured without makeup for the remainder of the 80’s and into the 90’s.
By the mid-80’s, I was in college and I was taking in all kinds of music. But, KISS was still a guilty pleasure for me. While living in the dorms, I was always curious to look at some of the record collections of the other guys on my floor. By the mid 80’s, many guys didn’t even use a turntable and listened to most of their music on a cassette. I befriended a guy across the hall from me and he had a copy of Destroyer on cassette. This was probably the first time I had actually listened to the album in its entirety. When I was younger, I would listen to the songs on my sister’s LP that I knew.  I loved the ambient sounds that producer Bob Ezrin employed to open the album.  To this day, when I hear the album start, I have flashes of walking to the parking lot behind Mantor Hall on the UNK campus. It makes me think of driving into the parking lot there in my freshman year of college.  I would talk to many of my classmates and fellow music students and it seemed we all had a guilt to “Rock and Roll All Nite”  On a road trip to a concert in Omaha, one of my friends put in a cassette copy of KISS Alive.  The car was filled with a bunch of us that were college music majors.  We laughed as we enjoyed it. We agreed that they were a “really good bad band”.  I’ve always said that the song structure and the playing was simple. But, there were some definite moments of greatness. I found that Ace’s guitar solos were very tasteful and not overbearing and flashy.  As my record collection grew, I had owned both the Alive albums from the makeup years.  That was about it. I was always tempted to own a copy of Destroyer again.  
In 1996, the original band of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley reunited in full costume and makeup and set out on a grand tour. 

By this time, I was unashamed of my guilty pleasure. So, my friends and I ordered our tickets and we were on our way to see the reunited KISS play at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.  I know people have said it before. But, it was like 1976 all over again.  I was too young to see them in 1976.  Now, I was twenty years older and I absolutely loved the concert. It was such a fun time.  Interestingly enough, the opening band that night was the Swing revival band Royal Crown Revue. It seemed rather mismatched at the time. But, It showed how diverse the guys in KISS were willing to be for their reunion tour. I’ve recently been in contact with RCR drummer Daniel Glass about this blog. He’s a great drummer, writer and historian of jazz and rock drumming of the 20th Century.
As I write this and continue to listen to the Destroyer album, I’m reminded of some great lesser known songs that became staples of the KISS catalog too.  Do You Love Me, Flaming Youth and Shout it Out Loud are all songs that really fill out the album. The coincidental song of the album is God of Thunder.  Paul Stanley actually wrote this song. But, he eventually gave the song to Gene Simmons because it fit his vocal style better. Now this song has become Gene’s signature piece that goes into his solo spectacle of spitting blood and being lifted to the rafters of the stage to sing the song. It was exciting to see this live in concert. We had heard stories of Gene’s fear of heights. So, when he was raised to the rafters, we could see a little bit of hesitance in his demeanor.
I’m sure many will continue to argue the influence of KISS on today’s music and the way concerts are presented. Garth Brooks said in the early 90’s that his stage show was inspired by KISS’s concerts in th 70’s. Garth became one of the first country artists to have a big “rockin” country show. It’s also amusing to me that orignial members Peter and Ace are the ones that were fired, booted, forced out(whatever) in the early 2000’s. Peter was replaced by Eric Singer who replaced Eric Carr when he got sick in the early 90’s and Ace was replaced by guitarist/road manager/KISS fanatic Tommy Thayer. Instead of giving these guys new “makeup” characters, they have taken over the costumes of the Catman and the Spaceman. This has become an issue of contempt for longtime fans. I find it ironic though that musicians who grew up on KISS in the 70’s have stated that both Ace and Peter were influential in picking up their respective instruments. I’ve read that Pantera’s “Dimebag” Darrell, Skid Row’s ‘Snake’ Sabo and Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil all praise the playing of Ace as one of the guys they looked to as influence on guitar. In VH1’s Behind the Music, Tommy Lee of Motley Crue that he was inspired by Peter Criss and his huge onstage drumset. So, the two guys that are no longer in the band are probably the two that are singled out as the most influential as musicians. I’m not saying they were virtuosos by any means. But, an argument could be made that KISS was as influential to kids in the 70’s as the Beatles were to kids in the 60’s. Not that Paul and Gene can hold a candle to the songwriting of Lennon/McCartney. I’m saying that both bands were made up of four distinct personalities from two very ubiquitous bands.
In 1978, While KISS’s popularity was rising, they made a TV movie called KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park.  I was so excited to see this movie at the time. The movie debuted on NBC-TV only a few nights before Halloween that year. So, I have distinct memories of my friends changing their minds regarding what they were going to dress up as for the costumed holiday. I was a huge Star Wars fan and I fashioned my own Luke Skywalker costume. But, I couldn’t take my toy lightsaber or blaster trick-or-treating. So, the costume fell kinda flat that year.  But, I had friends that went as Gene’s demon, Ace’s Spaceman and Peter’s Catman. As I grew into adulthood and dressing up for Halloween became cool for adults, I decided that I wanted to go as Peter Criss in the Catman outfit. My ex-wife was always willing to put the makeup on for me. So, in 2002, I dressed up as Peter Criss for my job at a TV station and the annual employee Halloween costume contest.  The problem was that no one was familiar with all the classic KISS members as I was. So, the only one anybody ever knew was Gene Simmons. I only got 2nd place in the competition. But, the boy who grew to like KISS in the mid 70’s was able to fulfill a childhood dream and dress up like a member of KISS.
Now KISS is everywhere. Gene has his own "reality" show that is obviously scripted. They are seen in Wal-Mart commercials, Pepsi and Dr Pepper commercials and even KISS themed lottery scratch tickets. But, I still find a great pleasure in listening to those classic KISS albums from the 70’s. There is just something fun, cool and very escapist for me to put these on and just revel in the music and memories of this undeniable band and this album.

Jethro Tull – Aqualung

When you’re thinking of the instruments associated with Rock n’ Roll and starting a band, You usually think of the electric guitar, bass, drums, maybe even some honky tonk piano or a Hammond organ, some saxophone….and the flute!?!

Wait a minute!………….THE FLUTE??????

When I think of the flute, I usually think of the front row of high school and college band. The flute section was usually filled with a few cute girls (and a few questionable) and maybe one guy. You don’t really think of something testerone filled and masculine like a distorted electric guitar and Rock n’ Roll and you definitely don’t think of groundbreaking progressive music from the 70’s…unless you’re talking about Ian Anderson and his band Jethro Tull. The record and song that most people associate with Jethro Tull and the album I’ll be writing about is none other than the 1971 classic Aqualung

Along with the various record stores I would frequent in my youth, I would also take time to visit bookstores (mostly Waldenbooks) to look at comics, Rock n’ Roll books and biographies, and books on nude photography. After all, I was a teenage boy. One book I eventually bought was a book titled The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock.

I would page through the books and read through the captions, check out the band lineups to see who was playing what instruments. Obviously, I would find out that the leader, vocalist and flautist of this band – Jethro Tull was Ian Anderson. I still look back and chuckle about that one.  I once encountered in my many trips to record stores a patron who didn’t understand the difference between band name and band leader. I was listening to a conversation between the store clerk and this simple customer probably just making small talk.  As he talked, I began to learn something about myself and that I actually know more about rock music and its history than most people(most people don’t care). I listened to this enthusiastic fellow tell the record store clerk that he “sure did like Jethro Tull. Ya got any albums by that ‘Jethro Tull fella’?”  I may be exaggerating a bit. But, the guy had obviously confused Ian Anderson as THE person Jethro Tull.  Oddly enough, Anderson had named the band after an 18th Century Author/Agriculturist named Jethro Tull.

On one of my many weekend visits to Dustys Records, My friend Shaun and I would make some absolutely important purchases.  I do remember one weekend Shaun bought a copy of Emerson Lake & Palmer’s  Brain Salad Surgery and Jethro Tull’s Aqualung.  We headed back to Shaun’s dorm room with LP’s in hand. I related to Shaun in the fact that we loved music and drums. He dropped the needle on Aqualung and the drums of Clive Bunker drove the through the opening title track. I had grown up with 3 sisters that listened to stuff like Shaun Cassidy, the Bay City Rollers, Bee Gees, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand. Even though I had seen the name Jethro Tull,  I had no idea what the band sounded like. But, I liked it. Shaun would sing along…and I was hooked.

 

“Sitting on a park bench….
Eying up little girls with bad intent
Snots running down his nose
Greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes, hey, Aqualung!”

 

The Flute peppers the beginning of the second track Cross-eyed Mary.  If I thought the title track was cool, this was another revelation. I’ve never been one to listen to the lyrics first. So, for me, it was the instrumentation and the rhythms that drew me in. The combination of flute, organ, guitar and drums simply made the transition from song to song absolutely seamless.  From there, the rest of the album just flowed together as one movement.

 

The use of acoustic guitars and impeccable musicianship continue throughout with tunes like Cheap Day Return and Mother Goose. It was folky as it would transport me(the listener) back to a medieval time of traveling minstrels. Yet, as I would settle into an imaginary Welsh countryside, the band would kick in with Bunker’s throttling drums and the piercing electric guitars of Martin Barre. There’s just something individualistic about the the sound of Tull.  In my listening history, Zeppelin had prepared me with acoustic tinged songs penned at Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in Wales. But, it was Jethro Tull that stayed in that world of Medieval England where Zeppelin would venture back into the Blues of Southern Black America.  I often put on Zeppelin’s Rain Song when the weather prompts the music with a cloudy misty morning. But, Jethro Tull feels like a peaceful rainy day. Relax, put your feet up, read a tale of King Arthur or even Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The album finishes up with an amusing song titled Locomotive Breath. This song seemed memorable to me also as a rather rocking song too.

 

 

Funny enough, in Will Ferrell’s movie Anchorman –the Legend of Ron Burgundy, His character professes to be an expert in the art of jazz flute. He stands on tables and does an improv with the lounge band….and between breaths screams “Heey Aqualung!”  The ironic note is that there is no flute in that song.

I remember seeing live footage of Aqualung on MTV’s Closet Classics where the band lineup had changed and left-handed Mark Craney was on drums and multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson was on keyboards and everyone was dressed in white jumpsuits(as opposed to the medieval garb) with the letter A emblazoned on them.

It was reviewed rather favorably when it was originally released. The Allmusic guide called it “A Bold Statement” and “Extremely Profound”  It has been widely regarded as a concept album with a central theme of the distinction “between God and Religion”.  The Allmusic guide also said:

The album's "dour musings on faith and religion" have marked it as "one of the most cerebral albums ever to reach millions of rock listeners".

I don’t know about being “cerebral” or “dour musings”.  I just knew it was a very distinct sound that no other band has come close to.  Heavy Metal giants Iron Maiden even recorded a cover of Cross-Eyed Mary as the B-side to their single The Trooper.  I never owned this on an LP. I had it on my list of albums to pick up and add to my collection. I eventually bought it on CD and it was a 25th Anniversary edition with an additional 3-6 unreleased tracks including an interview with Ian Anderson.  In 2005, the band recorded a live performance of the album in its entirety for the XM Satellite radio network. The royalties from the live album are being donated to various charities for the homeless. This year(2011) it has been announced that the band will release a 40th Anniversary edition of the album(November 1, 2011). It could be a really cool collector’s set. Even when I feel like I’ve listened to it for 3-4 days in a row and I’m getting tired of this album, I begin to enjoy it again and again. Something else jumps out of the recording and hits me again. Perhaps it’s the folkiness, maybe it’s the heaviness…or maybe it’s just the that magical sound of THE FLUTE!

Cheap Trick at the Nebraska State Fair 9-5-2011

Monday night, I was able to see(again) one of the bands that I grew up with and was a big part of my teen years. Over the past 9 months, I went from being a casual/medium fan to a rabid fan that would soak up as much as I could about this 4 piece (5piece with keyboards) band from Rockford, Illinois known as CHEAP TRICK!!

Back in January, I wrote my blog on their pivotal live album Cheap Trick at Budokan.  Funny enough, the woman sitting behind me at last night’s concert tried to tell her friend about the album but couldn’t find the word “Budokan” and kept saying “Live at Bakugon!”  I couldn’t help myself as she struggled with the right word. So, I turned around and corrected her.  When I originally wrote the blog, I dove headfirst into everything Cheap Trick and their catalog of music.  I had owned the Budokan album in about 3 different formats. I had listened to a little bit of my older sister’s Cheap Trick 8-tracks and I had two of their lesser known albums (Next Position Please and One on One).  In fact, Next Position Please was one of my favorite albums by the band. So, I had some catching up to do on the band’s catalog. I bought the Dream Police album back in January and has been a part of my morning commute music at least one or two days a month since then.  Then, I would listen to lesser known albums like 1980’s All Shook Up through my subscription to Napster.  I would go on YouTube to look up old videos to find out that the band had their own YouTube Channel with an extensive catalog of live shows and lost TV appearances from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.  I had seen the band in the summer of 1988 at the Buffalo County fair in Kearney, Nebraska. This was the year of the band’s comeback. Bassist Tom Petersson had rejoined the band and they had a big radio hit with the ballad The Flame.  I didn’t know a lot of the catalog of songs they played that night. They seemed to be going through the motions as if they were back on top and the last place they wanted to be was the middle of Nebraska. So, when I rekindled my interest in this band, I was ready to see them again. I began to look up their live dates for this summer. They were playing in Omaha the first of July. I wanted to see that one but the price of gas and where I would stay in Omaha dampened those plans. On the 2nd of July, they were to be in Greeley Colorado. My sister lives in Estes Park. So, I thought maybe I could make the trip for that one. Once again, gas prices and lack of funds halted that too.  About 3 weeks ago, a friend of mine sent me a message via Facebook that Cheap Trick was coming to play at the Nebraska State Fair which was about 20-25 miles away from me. I WAS GOING TO THIS ONE!  Between that time, I was able to find used CD copies of their albums In Color, Heaven Tonight and All Shook Up for less than $10.  I feel like quite the odd music geek in that I did my homework for this live show. Thanks to the internet, I was able to look up (on the band’s website) the setlists for the last few shows. I WAS READY.

I arrived at the Heartland Events Center early to get my wristband to get into the venue. I walked around the State Fair for awhile. I ran into an old acquaintance of mine – Chuck Salestrom. Chuck and his brother Jim had been in the band Timberline from Kearney Nebraska that had actually been signed to CBS records in the 70’s. Chuck told me the story of the first time he’d seen Cheap Trick. He said it was back in the 70’s at a bar in LA and the band was either just signed or was about to be signed to CBS records.  So, I had the thought of a young hungry band playing the bars of LA was still going and I was going to see them almost 35 years later.  I entered the venue and found myself a seat. On the stage was the band’s equipment sans guitars. Rick Nielsen had his signature checkered amps. Tom Petersson had some awesome looking Orange brand bass amps and next to that I can only imagine was Robin Zander’s classic looking Vox amps like those Fab Four boys from Liverpool used to play. In the middle of the stage is a fantastic looking 4 piece Ludwig drumkit with Sparkle Green finish.  As a drummer who’s played the same sparkle silver drumkit for almost 30 years, I love the look and sound of a Ludwig drumkit.

The lights go down and over the sound system you can hear a conglomeration of Cheap Trick pop culture references from That 70’s Show to the Simpsons along with song samples of their extensive catalog. Then you hear a prerecorded voice of a woman that says….

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, BOYS AND GIRLS
PLEASE WELCOME TO THE STAGE…
THE BEST F***ING ROCK BAND YOU’VE EVER SEEN….
CHEAP TRICK!!!

(This is a video I found online..pretty damn cool)

The band hits the stage. Rick Nielsen has toned down his outlandish outfits of the 70’s and 80’s with a nice suit jacket and baseball cap. He did include his bowtie with the CT logo emblazoned on it. For a band that had a definite image of two “un” rockstar guys and two long-haired rock star guys, that image is pretty much a thing of the past. In fact, bassist Tom Petersson sports a pair of glasses and looks very much like an eccentric college professor.  But, lead singer Robin Zander strides to the front of the stage decked in the iconic white police uniform from the Dream Police album cover.

They start with the obligatory Hello There that is pretty much expected from them in a live sense. 

…would you like to do a number with me
would you like to do a number with me?
WOULD YOU LIKE TA…WOULD LIKE TA?

Nielsen is notorious for switching to different guitars between songs. But, the continuity is good and they don’t miss a beat. Zander steps to the mic and starts off with

Just got back…. been gone too long
wasn’t my idea..didn’t pull the trigger
I feel so bad…feel so glad to be back home.

It’s Just Got Back from All Shook Up and the band is chugging and driving the crowd. I am on top of the world excited. Rick Nielsen’s son Daxx has replaced original drummer Bun E. Carlos as their touring drummer and he is a perfect fit. He keeps this band moving like a well-equipped steam engine!
At this point, Rick Nielsen steps up to the mic and proclaims

“We are Cheap Trick and accept no substitutes”

Then it’s the classic California Man…..from Heaven Tonight and the Budokan album. Then it’s Big Eyes and then back to a song from Dream Police…The House is Rockin!

Rick then switches guitars again and announces this next song that “even Willie Nelson would like”. The crowd waits in anticipation as they go into their cover of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour.  It’s a Beatles song and they are one band that does absolutely great Beatles covers. They play the song as expected and then break into an extended psychedelic instrumentation.

The spotlight then shifts from Zander and Nielsen to bassist Tom Petersson. Petersson is very much an individual in the world of bassists.  He was one of the first bassists to use a TWELVE-STRING BASS! It’s a thunderous sound that is unmatched. He steps up to the mic and begins to sing his song from Dream Police …I Know What I Want.  This takes me a little bit to recognize this song. But, I am pulled in by that thick full thundering bass.

Of course, if you “know what you want”, then (obviously) ……

I WANT YOU…..TO WANT…….ME!!!

I’m actually a little surprised that they played this hit so early in the evening. But, as the song plays I think of my junior high crush and how I would secretly play this song on the Pizza Hut jukebox for her to hear…and my big smile grows a little bigger with a taste of fond memories.  Next up is Top of the World which was from Heaven Tonight but I know I had heard it from one of the Budokan CD’s I had owned.

Robin Zander makes a comment about this next song being something we could all relate to. I’m not sure what he’s up to at this point. But, the band breaks into Borderline from the 1983 album Next Position Please.  As I said before, I had owned this on cassette back in my high school days and I knew every note and every word of this album. I was so excited to hear this song. I sang along every note with the excitement of the 16 year old who originally heard this album in 1983. By this time, I am singing along and when Zander’s mic is pointed at the crowd, I am screaming, yelling, growling whatever.  They follow up this song with yet another forgotten song…She’s Tight from 1982’s One on One!  I honestly feel sorry for the casual fans at this point. But, at the same time, I feel like a bit of a musical snob as I know these songs and these poor schlubs are waiting through songs they have no idea about.

Next is another song from All Shook Up…It’s Baby Loves to Rock.  This song has a great interplay between Nielsen on guitar, Petersson on bass and Daxx on drums. This song has a lot of start and stops but when the instrumentalist take small solo on their instruments it’s absolutely magical. I especially love to hear the sound of the 12 string bass as it rattles the fillings in my teeth.

in the morning…In the evening…. in the summer….in the winter….
in my car….in the night….in an airplane…not in Russia
SHE LOVES TO ROOOOOCCCCCCKKK!

Daxx takes the drums down low with the slow drum intro of Need Your Love  followed by the droning sound of Tom’s bass and the chugging of Rick’s guitar. Robin Zander leans into and sings in that high tenor…..

Need you love, Need your love , Need your love….
Fell apart, broke your heart
If I flew around the world, I couldn’t find another girl

At this point it hits me that Robin Zander is one of a handful of rock singers/vocalists that can still hit those notes that shot them to fame in the 70’s. He originally recorded these vocals over 30 years ago and he’s still hitting them without a hint of struggle. My own voice was just beginning to change 30 years ago.

From there, Daxx takes his cue and starts putting together those classic drum fills that the great Bun E. Carlos made famous and leads the band into their rendition of Fats Domino’s Ain’t That a Shame!

Next was Sick Man of Europe. I wasn’t familiar with this song. It was featured on the band’s latest release (2009) called The Latest.  I think I had read that this was actually the name of the band. According to Wikipedia, Sick Man of Europe was one of the band names that Nielsen and Petersson used in the early 70’s.

Speaking of 70’s. It’s time for the song that was used for That 70’s Show. (at least part of the theme song)…..

MOMMY’S ALRIGHT, DADDY’S ALRIGHT…THEY JUST SEEM A LITTLE WEIRD!
WE’RE ALL ALRIGHT! WE’RE ALL ALRIGHT!

They finish the song and say the usual “Good nights” and “thanks for coming” . The guys sitting next to me get up and leave. So do the people in front of me. I’m thinking these people do not know proper concert going etiquette. The band says good night like it’s the end of the show. But, they’re coming back for an encore. So, my mind starts racing thinking “what haven’t they played yet?” All I can think of is Dream Police.  Zander is wearing the white Dream Police outfit. Then he picks up an acoustic guitar and starts strumming the opening chords the 80’s power ballad that those of us had put out of our minds. Yes, it was 1988’s The Flame.  AAAGH! I don’t want to hear this song. I had completely forgot about this song.  I start booing. But, after a bit, I feel alone in my disapproval. As the band starts into it, it feels good and the crowd is singing along. Okay, I’ll accept it. Just get to Dream Police next.

The spotlight shines down on Daxx and he takes the drums into the next song along with the rattling bass of Tom Petersson. It’s a slow burning building song! Oh yeah! It’s from the Dream Police album…it’s Gonna Raise Hell.  Zander comes and just nails every vocal. He takes the song from small depths to just screaming. There’s no “Gonna Raise” going on. They are raising Hell now. The band steps back and gives Daxx some room to shine.  For many fans, Bun E. Carlos is the man behind the kit.  Due to some health and back issues, Bun E. is no longer a touring member of the band. But, I would say that if he’s the teacher, Daxx Nielsen is at the top of his class. This guy nailed everything. He inflected his own style in while doing a great tribute to Mr Carlos. The drums were mic’d so well. They were just booming throughout the whole show.

To go with Robin Zander’s white costume, it was finally time for Dream Police.  The band chugs right into the song. There may have been a bit of a delay as Rick Nielsen grabs another guitar. We are now into the third song of the encore! Unbelievable! By this time, I am hoarse from singing along and screaming and growling (my vocal range is low enough..I don’t really scream, It’s kind of a Johnny Winter kind of growl). This is definitely one of the songs I’ve been waiting for.  Earlier this year, the band had played the entire Dream Police album live in Milwaukee with the accompanying string section.

Of course, the break in the song comes and Petersson plunks that heavy 12-string bass and then Rick steps up to the mic to proclaim

I try to sleep. They’re wide awake they won’t leave me alone
They don’t get paid to take vacations or leave me alone.
They spy on me and Try to Hide, they won’t leave me alone!
They find me …..at GRAND ISLAND NEBRASKA!

Next up is Auf Wiedersehen which is (obviously German) for ‘Goodbye’. The band plays like their lives depend on it. Rick Nielsen stalks the stage like no other at this point. He continually heads back to the curtain where his guitars are kept and grabs handfuls of guitar picks and just throws them to the crowd on both stage left and right and center.

(not my video)

Then, he steps backstage and grabs his infamous 5 NECK GUITAR!  As you can tell by these pictures, he wouldn’t stand still. So, it was hard to get a great picture of this man-made marvel of guitars.

 

Finally, it’s time for the bows and I am spent. I am hoarse from singing, screaming and breathing in the air from the air of the State Fair. But, I definitely was happy with the performance I saw tonight.

As I leave the Heartland Events Center, I overhear a couple of negative comments from a couple of concertgoers. I hear one woman say “Well, I guess I didn’t miss anything by NOT listening to them over the years.”  Another guy says, “that bass was sooo distorted and muddy sounding."  I’m thinking to myself, “That’s the way Tom Petersson’s 12-string bass is supposed to sound.”  Maybe I’m such a music fan and geek. I did my research on this concert so it would be an immense enjoyable experience.  I wanted to go! This was a concert I wanted to see. For those people who just went because it was a free concert with your State Fair gate fee, Don’t go because you think you have to. Go because you want to.

After seeing this concert and thinking about the longevity of this band, I began to think that this is an amazing band that definitely deserves more respect than they get. Along with bands like Deep Purple and Rush, Cheap Trick definitely belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!….AND SOON!

This has definitely been one of the best f***ing rock bands I’ve ever seen and I will continue to tell the world of this awesome band!

Living Colour – Vivid

One of the cool things about working in a record store is discovering new music. When I worked at Dustys, this was definitely encouraged. In the summer of 1988, I distinctly remember walking in one afternoon and Dusty was excited about an artist named Tracy Chapman and her self-titled debut album. It’s funny looking back at this time. We all listened to the album and we were all in agreement that this was a very good album.  This got me fired up to find an album that I could be excited about and that could be my own personal discovery. We would take turns with the other employees to open an album for in-store play. We would get all kinds of literature on new acts and new releases.  So, when it came my turn to open one for the store. I had started doing some research. There was a one page info sheet from Epic Records/Columbia records on a band called Living Colour. I don’t remember what the exact wording was on the bio sheet. But, there was something about that both Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger had seen the band Living Colour in a NY club and were “blown away”.  At the time, I was a huge Jeff Beck fan and I figured that kind of celebrity endorsement was worth checking out. The other thing that intrigued me was that (in 1988) this was a hard rock band consisting of African Americans.  Guitarist Vernon Reid had started a movement of musicians called the Black Rock Coalition. This movement was made up of Black musicians that wanted to play rock…not dance music…but heavy rock. This was a big part of their bio and press statements. In 2011, this idea sounds dated and almost absurd. But, in the mid to late 80’s, it was just an odd sight to see black musicians playing rock…especially heavy rock. You would see black musicians playing some kind of watered-down dance R&B (a la Michael Jackson or Prince) and of course the rise of Hip-Hop and Rap was happening too.  One article I had read singled out bands like Fishbone and King’s X as the exception. King’s X was a favorite of mine with their lead singer (African American) Doug Pinnick in a trio with Texans guitarist Ty Tabor and drummer Jerry Gaskill.  Rock & Roll was founded by black artists like Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino and by the 80’s it was a foreign concept of seeing black musicians rocking out! So, I decided to crack the seal on this LP and drop the needle on some Living Colour Vivid.

From the opening riff of Cult of Personality, I was hooked. This band was inventive and heavy and the rhythm section had a groove that was positively beyond words. This is how I discovered what a groove was. I could sense the heaviness. But, I could also hear and feel the funkiness in the playing. As with many of the albums I was listening to in those days, I dubbed a copy to cassette. With that cassette copy, I was usually walking across campus with my walkman and the rhythm on the second track I Want to Know was perfect for a good pace from off campus parking on the rush to class. Middle Man was the next track. By this time, the band was starting to get some airplay on MTV. I remember that their sound was diverse enough to be featured on the channel’s Sunday night alternative showcase 120 Minutes along with the Saturday night Hard Rock/Metalfest Headbangers’ Ball.  I just remember the interplay between drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Muzz Skillings to be something really detailed and intricate or maybe it was the bottom to top drum fill before the second verse!…or both!

I seem to remember that Middle Man got the initial airplay and then the Cult of Personality was then added into heavy rotation! I myself got a little tired of that track. But, there was an awesome performance of Cult of Personality when the band appeared on Saturday Night Live. By this time, singer Corey Glover had grown his braids very long and had added some color to the tips. So, when he bounded around the late night stage banging his head, it looked like an elegant Indian headdress. It was just an awesome sight to behold! I remember watching this clip on videotape at my friend – Forrest’s house. Forrest was living in his mom’s basement at the time. Forrest had the volume on this cranked. His mom yelled out, “Forrest, turn that down!”.  My record store misfit brother replied “But Mom, it’s Living Colour!! THEY ROCK(or rule)!”  She didn’t care whether they rocked or not(or even ruled for that matter). I still look back and laugh about that one!

For me, this music was incredible to take in. It was heavy and aggressive, yet it was improvisational and inventive. There was a groove to it and it was slamming in the assault. There was also social commentary about the state of race relations in America. Open Letter to a Landlord was a song about how the neighborhoods where these guys came from. Some may have been referred to as slums. But, these guys knew these places as their homes. All of a sudden, I was a white college kid from the middle of Nebraska becoming educated by this band. There has been a lot written about rap and hip-hop in the 80’s and 90’s as the voice and commentary of the black community. Well, I didn’t relate to the hip-hop culture. But, I would listen to the music of Living Colour. Another song that caught my attention was the song Funny Vibe.  Just for the color of someone’s skin, they were still getting judged. I myself was guilty of this a few years later when I had moved to Omaha. I had gone into the bathroom at the Westroads Mall at the same time as a black man and I purposely put my wallet in my front pocket because I thought I would be pick pocketed.  I felt so bad. Here I had been opposed to profiling and stereotyping blacks as criminals in central Nebraska where you may see a few blacks on the UNK college campus. Then, I got to Omaha and was working at a music store where many Rap and Hip-Hop CD’s were being shoplifted daily. So, it was only natural to think that the target audience for that genre would be the ones stealing it.
After I had a listen to this album, I praised it and recommended it to customers. We obviously played the album in the store. But, I noticed that the hard rock customers were the ones that I was selling this to. When I would ask for their opinion of the album, the common answer I would hear is: “This is a really good album for a BLACK rock band!”  At the time, I was in a Sociology class just called “Social Problems”. We were required to write a paper on a social issue. So, I wrote about my experience working at a record store and how customers had referred to this album as “pretty good for a BLACK rock band”.  There’s the racist comment right there. It shouldn’t have mattered whether or not what the color of the band members was. This was an awesome debut album. I wish I could find that paper I wrote for my Social Problems class.  I really felt proud of myself that I could relate something that I loved (like music) and apply it socially and academically to college courses.
As the album continued, so did the whole continuity of the music. The band covers the Talking Heads tune Memories Can’t Wait. This made me dive into the catalog of Talking Heads albums. That’s a great thing about music and bands who cover other artist’s songs. If you like a song, go back and check out the original artist.  I’ve always loved doing that. Of course, there’s always someone who always proclaims to like the newer version over the original. But, that’s another topic altogether.
The next song Broken Hearts was a song I wasn’t going to write about on this. But, when I dialed it up on my player, I was lured in by the funky slink and heavy drum intro. It just all moves together to make a great album.  From there, the album goes into Glamour Boys.  I always felt myself to be a misfit and never fit into any kind of social clique and I wasn’t about to be one in college. I supposed I could have been placed in the category of “Band geek”.  But, I had my circle of friends and I wasn’t about to pay a membership to be somebody’s friend. I was never a pretty boy. I was a long hair, mullet wearing, rocking misfit. I was never a slave to fashion. I bought all my rock t-shirts at Dustys. So, I could relate to the subject of Glamour Boys.  I hated the idea of joining a fraternity. Looking back, I had quite a few college friends that had joined fraternities. I didn’t. It just wasn’t my thing. In my mind, The stereotypical frat boy was a pretty boy and as the song states “I AIN’T NO GLAMOUR BOY!”  A couple years later, my musician friends in the band –The Untold would play this song and (as always) they nailed it.
The last two songs start with a howl from lead singer as he screams the question…”YEOOOOOW…..What’s your favorite colour, baby?!”  Of course, it’s LIVING COLOUR!  This is so rocking and slamming and funky. It just takes a hold of the listener and doesn’t let go. I remember being drawn into this aural experience and then the next track transitions into Which Way to America? The original LP version of this is actually shorter than the CD version. This was just an intense album.

I loved my rock in the 80’s. But, I was getting tired of all the “bad boy” GNR wannabes and 2nd generation Aerosmith hair band clones that the seemed to be coming out of the LA music scene. I loved my thrash bands like Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth. But, a lot of the stuff from that sub-genre got old too. This was just a funky rocking slamming breath of fresh air. I always felt so energized after hearing this album.
With their celebrity approval and endorsement from Mick Jagger, they opened up for the Rolling Stones (along with Guns N’ Roses) on the Steel Wheels tour. The band would follow up in the 90’s with Time’s Up in 1990 and Stain in 1993. Time’s Up won the band a Grammy for best Hard Rock album. They toured on the inaugural tour of the Lollapalooza festival in 1991.
By the time, they released Stain in 1993, The music landscape was a lot different. The grunge movement of Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam had become the popular groups of the day and everyone seemed a lot angrier. I no longer felt as though I was a “young tough living in a world of hate”. I was into a lot of contemporary blues artists and bands like Blues Traveler.  I bought Stain but found it hard to get into. Shortly thereafter, the band recorded a cover of Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love for the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie True Lies.  The band broke up shortly after that. Guitarist Vernon Reid recorded a solo album as did vocalist Corey Glover.  I had a little interest in them but never bought them. Corey Glover also did get some time on the road with the touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar in the role of Judas.
The band eventually regrouped in the early 2000’s.  I’ve been interested in hearing the new music. But, I never have given it a good listen like I did with the debut album in 1988. 
According to 1001 Albums....

Lead guitarist Vernon Reid...add in vocalist Corey Glover, drummer Will Calhoun, and the extraordinarily gifted bassist Muzz Skillings, and Vivid can still rest its case as a truly original recording, one that takes in thrash, hard rock, reggae, funk and rap.

The album is a definite moment of discovery in my music store career and will always stand up as a lifetime favorite.  In 2011, they may be referred to as just another band from the 80’s….and maybe they are. I hope people remember them as a great band …period and not remember them for the color of their skin!  Take a listen with your ears and not your eyes!

Clash – London Calling

When musical “revolutions” in Rock n’ Roll are highlighted, there is usually around 3 or 4 acts listed for each “movement”.  Early Rock n’ Roll can be narrowed down to Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Little Richard. The British Invasion is always highlighted as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who. My British 70’s Hard Rock triumvirate would be Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. The Seattle Grunge movement usually highlights Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. When it comes to the Punk movement of the 70’s, The top bands that are listed are the Ramones, The Sex Pistols and the Clash.

 

For myself, I was pretty much an ignorant naive kid when it came to the punk movement. One of the first times I heard of the Sex Pistols was as part of a punchline on the CBS sitcom “Alice”.  Believe me,  it wasn’t funny enough to repeat. Most of what I knew about punk was the funny fashions of safety pins(on clothes or pierced into cheeks), leather, and mohawk haircuts.  I met a kid at church camp in 1981 who was a fan of punk rock and continued to repeat only one line from a Sex Pistols tune. I honestly don’t remember what that song was.  I once was asked from the high school debate coach/teacher to be a timekeeper for informative speeches in our local competition. One of my fellow classmates did a speech on the Punk rock movement. So, I was educated in that sense. A lot of the punk movement morphed into what became known as “New Wave” music in the early 80’s….or at least that’s what it seemed like with the fashions of the funny haircuts and neon colors.  So, I came to realize that Punk was more about a musical ATTITUDE against the “old” guard and the self indulgent “dinosaur” rock that was big in the early 70’s than it was about fashions. So, this blog will be about the band( and the album) that still stands on top of the heap of great rock bands no matter what the category or genre.

By the time I entered my high school years, The Clash had made a splash in the mainstream pop world with the song Rock the Casbah. I also vaguely remember seeing the Clash on ABC’s answer to NBC’s Saturday Night Live which was the show FRIDAYS!

When I saw them on FRIDAYS, I was into bands like Styx, Journey and ELO. I spent most of my high school years as a hard rockin’ kid. So, the Clash was not a band that was on my musical radar. It wasn’t until I went to college and met a bunch of new friends with different musical tastes. First, I met Shaun..who I had met at KSC music camp. In my blog on YES –Fragile, I reminisced about Shaun educating a bunch of North Platte kids about what Punk Rock and Hard Core really was. Suddenly, the pop-metal I had grown fond of became somewhat hollow. Shaun was definitely a friend that I could spend time listening to music and hanging out at a record store with. Another friend that was instrumental in my discovery of the Clash was my "Dustys’ Brother” – Forrest. I’ve written before how Forrest and I had very different tastes in music when I started at Dustys Records. I don’t think Forrest liked my tastes in Hard Rock/Heavy Metal when I first started and I wasn’t a big fan of bands like R.E.M. and the Smiths. But, that changed over time.

Everyday at Dustys, we would bring in music to play during store hours. We were all fans of different kinds of music. So, it was inevitable that you find something outside of your listening “comfort zone” that made your ears perk up. There would be days where Forrest would show up with a handful of Clash CD’s or LP’s.  He would proclaim something like “I am in a big Clash mood today!”  So, he would put on his Clash CD’s in the store player, stand at the counter while he lit up a cigarette and he would mouth all the words to the songs. As I would listen, I got wrapped up in the rawness and then the diverseness of the Clash.

At the end of the 80’s, it seemed that all the media outlets came up with “Best of the 80’s” lists. There was much talk about what was the best album, the best selling, etc. I was in my final year of college at the University of Nebraska-Kearney(then known as Kearney State College). I was surrounded by a slew of friends who were big music fans and we would talk about music to all hours of the night. In 1989, Rolling Stone magazine published a special issue spotlighting what the magazine considered the “100 Greatest Albums of the 80’s” 

Many of the albums were ones that we had grown up with and were absolutely gigantic albums of the 80’s like Michael Jackson’s Thriller, U2’s Joshua Tree, Springsteen’s Born in the USA,  and Prince’s Purple Rain.  But, at the top of the list was the Clash’s album London Calling.  This was a surprise to many of us. Even looking back now, I’m a little puzzled because the album was released in 1979. According to RS, the album was released stateside in January of 1980. Back then, Rock fans turned to Rolling Stone magazine for everything important in the world of popular music. So, I was intrigued to the reason why this was at #1 as the “Greatest album of the 80’s”  But, Rolling Stone magazine says it is. That gave me at least a reason to look into it. 

I didn’t have anything against the Clash. I actually enjoyed the raw feeling they had to their music. But, I stayed compelled to having a copy of this album. I bought a used CD copy of it while I was living in Omaha in the early 90’s. But, many of the CBS records releases on CD in the 80’s were subpar in sound quality. So, the 90’s was a time of many “Remasters”.  The original copy I owned was an 80’s/less-than-stellar recording. I kept telling myself I wanted to own a copy of London Calling.  I sold my old used copy in thinking I would replace it soon. I didn’t replace that copy till this past December. It wasn’t until years passed that I really longed for this album. It was a matter of memories from Dustys and it was obviously something different from my almost steady diet of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Van Halen.

When I listen to this album, it becomes more than a “Punk Rock” record. Yes, these guys had the angst of a rebellious rock band. But, these guys weren’t just bashing away at their instruments. I had read that bassist Paul Simonon didn’t even know how to play the bass when they started the band. But, this album was an intelligent album of different and varied styles. According to RS Magazine’s 100 Best Albums’ article,

“Kicking and screaming across a nineteen-song double album, skidding between ska, reggae, R&B, third-world music, power pop and full-tilt punk, the Clash stormed the gates of rock convention and single-handedly set the agenda — musically, politically and emotionally — for the decade to come.”

Ska, Reggae, R&B, Third World music and Punk?…all this in an album from a bunch of “punks” in the 70’s? As a teenager in the early 80’s, I wanted to hear Hard Rocking distorted guitars especially if they were shown in the same issue of Hit Parader magazine as Van Halen. These weren’t things I had opened my mind to. Then, that strange time in many young men’s life happened…..College!  I found I loved the rhythms of reggae and ska. In today’s music environment, all of those ingredients of this album are prevalent in current music. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, the floodgates opened for many Third World music artists and sounds. They had definitely “broke the barriers” the punk movement had inevitably put up for themselves with the album London Calling!

When the Clash was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it was a very big year for a bunch of artists.  The Clash, AC/DC, The Police, and Elvis Costello were all inducted that same year. I’m usually interested in a couple of artists and that’s it. That year, I was wrapped up in the whole thing.

Around the same time, vocalist/Clash leader Joe Strummer had passed away. So, the tributes meant a lot more. That year at the Grammys, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Little Steve Van Zandt and Dave Grohl all stepped up to pay tribute to Joe Strummer.  It was very powerful to me and it sparked my urge to own this album yet again.

So, I bought the album this past December on CD and it’s been on my MP3 player ever since. I love the sound of the “English-ness” of it. Joe Strummer’s vocals are so raw. I find myself just entranced by his raspiness. I expect him to lose his voice at any second. Mick Jones cockney accent flavors the album with his own identity. Paul Simonon’s vocals and pulsing bass keep everything in pounding of the punk attitude.  Topper Headon’s drumming was more than just “punk” drumming. It encompasses all the genres the band had jumped in feet first to embrace.

I’ve spent a long time on and off writing this particular “memory” for my blog. I have second guessed how my friends that read this will interpret it. I was not a punk fan. I don’t go out looking for a punk record to buy.  I don’t claim to be an expert on the punk movement.  This album may have started from one of the bands of the punk movement.  This is not a punk album. This is an awesome Rock and Roll Album and I absolutely love this album and don’t regret at all buying this at all.

National Record store day! April 16, 2011

As I’m writing this…Today(according to various sources) was National Record Store Day.  For myself (and many of my friends), the record store is a big part of our childhood, teenage years, college years and our over all personal history.  Most of the stuff I write in this blog involves memories from my days of working at Dustys Records in Kearney, Hastings and Grand Island Nebraska.  I cherish all the memories and experiences I gained from that time at Dustys. The earliest record store I remember from my childhood was in the North Platte Mall and it was called “the Brass Ear”. It was very early 70’s sounding.  I remember seeing many KISS, Frampton and Parliament albums at that store. Other stores I remember in North Platte were Rustic Records, Dailey Records, Sound Outlet, Murphy’s Modern Music(both instrument music store and record store) and then Monte’s Sound Systems. In 1980, I went to Camp Comeca church camp in Cozad Nebraska and met a kid from Kearney Nebraska and he had a t-shirt from Dustys’ Records. I honestly can’t remember his name. But, I remember he used sing a couple of lyrics from the Sex Pistols over and over. I kept that idea of Dustys Records in my head for years after that. Somehow, it represented some kind of great oasis of endless records. 
Much of my fondness for record stores began after the assassination of John Lennon in December of 1980. The local NBC affiliate- KNOP in North Platte did a story on the death of Lennon and the release of his album Double Fantasy and they talked to the owner of Dailey (or was it Daily) Records.  Suddenly, I would spend my weekends thumbing through record bins looking for Beatles albums and the Solo albums of Ringo, George, Paul and John….. Mostly Ringo since he and I share a common birthday.
As I entered my Freshman year of High School, I became more interested in the drums. My parents bought me a used snare drum and I had participated in Elementary and Junior High band. That was all fine and good. But, a 14 year old teenage boy wants to pound out rhythms on a full 5 piece drum set. So, I convinced my parents to let me buy a used kit with the money I had in my savings account and they would pay the remainder and I would pay them back by mowing lawns for extra money the following summer.  When I got my drum set, I began taking drum lessons from a friend of the family named Jerry L.  One of the first drum set instructional books Jerry had me start on was Carmine Appice’s Realistic Rock. The book had little plastic sound sheets that had the sounds of Carmine playing drums along with the exercises in the book. I’m not sure what it was. But, those drums sounded really cool to me. They were big and boomy and I wanted more. At the back of the book was a discography of the albums Carmine had played on including his solo album called Rockers.  Both the book and the album had been released in 1981 and I had discovered this in 1982.
 

After reading through his discography in the back of the book, I found myself on a quest to own everything Carmine had played drums on.  That would be a major undertaking. But, it was a challenge I felt up to and it was fun to discover all these bands. He had played with Rod Stewart in the 70’s and those were easy to attain. He played with Ted Nugent on Ted’s Atlantic records debut Nugent.  But, the band that intrigued me was a band that was at the top of Carmine’s discography list. The name of the band was Vanilla Fudge. I had never heard of them. But, here they were on my Carmine discography list. So, if I ever found a Vanilla Fudge album, I would buy it.
Fast forward to the spring of 1984.  I was an active member of many music ensembles in high school. I was in the swing choir, madrigal, band, orchestra, jazz band and a few others I’m probably forgetting.  That spring, district music contest was held at Kearney State College Fine Arts building.  I remember one of my music classmates had a break between competitions and decided to walk from campus down to Dustys Records.  He came back and said he’d been there and I thought “I’ve got to go down there too.”   So, I convinced a couple of friends to walk down to the store with me and I was in awe. I don’t know what I was expecting. But, I liked what I saw. I walked the whole store. I came to the “V” section and found a copy of The Best of Vanilla Fudge on LP.  But, here I was about to get back on a bus back to North Platte in an hour or so. I want to hear this now.  So, I asked someone behind the counter, “Do you have this on cassette?” Looking back, I think it was Eric Blume who flat out said “No.”  Then, this tall man with a deep voice said “…but we can order you a copy!”
 
That tall man was obviously Dusty. I told them I was from North Platte and I didn’t know when I’d be back.  If I’d only known then that I would be back many many many times after that. I bought the Vanilla Fudge album that day. I really liked the music department at KSC(not yet UNK) and I absolutely loved Dustys Records.  So, I had a good idea where I wanted to attend college in the fall of 1985.
My parents moved to Hastings in the fall of 1984. This was my senior year of High School and I wasn’t about to move to another town and school for my senior year. I found a way to stay in NP that year. I lived with my older sister Kathy and her family for the majority of the year.  About once a month, I would drive to Hastings to see my parents and my brother Mike.  But, I would always find a way to make a detour through Kearney to stop at Dustys. Even when I went to KSC Senior day to visit the college in the Fall of 84, I made sure I stopped at Dustys. I even remember buying the Michael Schenker Group album MSG on cassette because it featured drummer Cozy Powell.


I started my freshman year at Kearney State College(now the University of Nebraska at Kearney) in the fall of 1985. It didn’t take me long before I found a way to head down to Dustys everyday and weekends. Everyday, I had Marching Band rehearsals till about 5 o’clock. I had auditioned for the KSC Jazz-Rock Ensemble as a drummer. I didn’t make it for my freshman year. But, a bunch of my friends did. We would usually go together to the campus cafeteria for supper. So, they would have rehearsals after Marching Band and I would have an hour to kill. So, in that hour, I would eventually dedicate that it to hanging out at Dustys. I have no idea how much time I had spent there. For me, time stood still. I would start in the Rock section in the A’s and just make my way around the room (and the alphabet). I would just go crazy taking in all the different music. In the fall of 1986, Dusty had a contest drawing for a CD Player and various increments of gift certificates.  You entered by entering your Social Security number. After about a month or so, I won a $60 gift certificate. The week I won, I walked into the store and saw that my social security number was posted. I jumped up and down and I was so excited about winning $60 of free music. I was always there. I remember hearing music I had never heard before. I heard Steve Schwarting play Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. I heard the Replacements Please to Meet Me and John Hiatt’s Meet the Family. In 1987, Dusty moved the store from 23rd street to around the corner on Central Avenue.  It was a bigger store and still a great place to hang out.  It didn’t take long that Dusty began to know who I was.  It’s odd for me to look back at that time because Dusty went from being some sort of gatekeeper of volumes of music to a father figure and a lifelong friend.  In the fall of 1987, I was asked to contribute to the lists of current faves.  This was a list that usually consisted of the employee’s current listening habits along with a couple of loyal customers too.  I was excited to put my list up and share it with customers that came into the store. 
Then, on November 11, 1987, Eric Blume told me that Dusty had asked me to come in and talk to him about something.  That day was Veteran’s Day and the KSC Marching Band had been asked to march in the Veteran’s day parade down Central Ave in Kearney. I marched in the parade and then stopped in to talk to Dusty.  He was planning on opening a store in Hastings. Since my family lived in Hastings, He had asked me to take a semester off from college and help Steve Schwarting open the store there.  I was happy to do it. But, I had just signed up for second semester classes that very morning. Not a big deal for Dusty. He asked me if I would work there over the Christmas break and then on weekends and I would work at the Kearney store during the week.  Once again, I was elated, excited and enthused about this new job.  This was something I had always wanted….a job at a record store. 
 
Dusty would tell me things like “AC/DC may not be your favorite band…but it keeps the lights on in this place!”  When the subject of shoplifting came up, Dusty even told me that (at one time) he thought I had been stealing from him when I was a customer because I used to spend so much time in there and I looked at everything.  I used to look in amazement at the store displays that Steve Schwarting would make with the promotional materials. So, when I started working for Dusty, I wanted to make the promo displays. I loved doing that.  I took a Lionel Richie life-sized display covered with poster board and drew a life sized version of Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie. It was so much fun. I made friends with Bob and Forrest. Forrest had been working for Dusty a few months longer than I did. Forrest was the R.E,M., U2, Smiths, Replacements fan. I was the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal fan. When Bob started in the summer of 1988, Bob brought that an all around music fan who really loved a good sing along song. These two guys became lifelong friends and brothers to me.  We really had a mutual admiration and respect for each other’s musical tastes.  I’m sure I played a few albums one too many times and drove the others nuts. But, we learned to love some stuff we never would have even touched in the past. I have many fond memories of listening to the Cramps and the Clash with Forrest. Forrest also had the Clapton Crossroads box set and we would listen to that on a Sunday afternoon from noon to 5. I have memories of Bob and I listening to Cinderella’s Long Cold Winter and lots of John Cougar Mellencamp with Bob playing his Mellencamp style air-guitar in the aisles. I always tell the story of Bob coming to me once..very seriously and he says, “Dave, I have this song that’s been going through my head and I’m thinking about buying it on CD.” I asked Bob “What song is it?” He says “It’s Amarillo by Morning by George Strait.” We had been such strong rock fans that Bob may have felt embarrassed about being a country fan. Our mutual respect had grown to the point that it didn’t even matter. I think we had secretly grown to love music beyond our “comfort” zones.  Forrest was a big fan of Dwight Yoakam and I soon began to embrace country  and absolutely loved the Kentucky Headhunters(among others).
During my spring break in 1990, I traveled down to Austin Texas with my college friend Kevin. Kevin grew up around the Austin area. He raved and raved about how cool 6th street was in Austin. I was a big Stevie Ray Vaughan fan and so It only seemed right to go to Austin for Spring Break. So, the first night we got there, we went out and checked out 6th street.  I still tell the stories of the diverse music that was on the street. Every “store” front was a nightclub and there was all kinds of different music there. There’d be a pop band in one bar, a jazz fusion band in another, a hair metal band in another, a blues band in another. It was amazing to watch. I can still smell the steak fajitas grilling in the Texas spring air.  But, part of the rest of the week was to take in as many music and record stores as we could. The one store that I remember was called “The Inner Sanctum”.  It was so overrun with LP’s and promotional materials. But, it was really really cool! I bought an LP copy of Queen’s A Night at The Opera and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton. I used to have a really psychedelic poster for the place. Still, when I think of classic record stores, I think of this place in Austin. We saw a bunch of live music that week too. From King’s X at the Back Room to Whitesnake at the Frank Erwin Center to Stefan Grossman at the University of Texas Student Union.
I graduated from college in the summer of 1990. I started the search for an after college job.  Once again, Dusty offered me another job at the store in Grand Island. There, I worked with Doug and Jayson.  They were fun to work with too. Jayson and I shared a love for guitar based hard rock and metal and also for blues based guitar stuff too. Jayson was the biggest Gary Moore fan I have ever known. Doug and I would work together and have talks about all kinds of different of music….most memorably was the J.Geils Band. That year from 1990-1991 was a great year. This was the year that Van Halen released For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Metallica released “The Black Album”.  We listened to a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughan that year because Stevie had died in the summer of 1990. One thing we all enjoyed was listening to SRV in the store. I remember many mornings opening the store and listening to the Vaughan Brothers album Family Style. 

Dusty closed the doors to the Grand Island store in September of 1991.  So, I was off to find another job. I talked to a college friend that actually worked at the Record Town store as the store manager. I asked her if the company she worked for was looking for any management positions in any of their stores. She did some checking and found out that the TransWorld Music Corporation was looking for an assistant manager in their lease operated store called Music Avenue in the Montgomery Wards store at the Westroads Mall in Omaha. I drove down to Omaha and stayed with my sister Connie and interviewed for the job. The district manager liked me and offered me a job. I started on September 30th, 1991 …just in time to get things ready for 4th quarter and the Holiday season. I soon made friends with my manager Don O.  I still remember the first day we worked together that we had to stock a bin of CD’s and cassettes and one of the artists was Harry Connick Jr.  At the time, I had jokingly started to call him Harry CONEHEAD Jr.  Don didn’t like that I made fun of his name. But, we soon got over that.
Working at Music Avenue was a different environment than Dustys. I had to wear a shirt and tie to work. Dusty used to say, “I don’t pay you enough to wear really nice clothes”.  I felt weird listening to my favorite heavy rock stuff in the Mall environment.  So, I basically fell back on a lot of my blues favorites like SRV, Gary Moore, and of course Eric Clapton.  The fall and winter of 1991 was also when the Seattle grunge movement began happening. All of a sudden, it felt like all the heavy guitar stuff I liked in 88 and 89 was now being accepted as mainstream. Metallica was popular and it just felt odd playing these albums in a Mall environment. I had heard Nirvana’s album Bleach the year before in the Grand Island Dustys store and I wasn’t impressed much. Then, Pearl Jam was huge. I found out later the band was an offshoot of the Seattle band Mother Love Bone. I had loved that band. But, no one knew Mother Love Bone was.  All of a sudden, the MTV VJ’s were telling me about Nirvana and Pearl Jam and they were telling me “YOU GOTTA GET IT!”….My immediate reaction when someone tells me that is NO I DON’T!  I was toning down my listening preferences. I preferred bluesy groove oriented stuff like Blues Traveler instead of tuned down doom and gloom from Seattle.  In fact, one of the bands (and album) that blew me away when I was working in Omaha was the Blues Traveler Travelers and Thieves album.

I eventually was promoted to store manager of the TransWorld store Tape World at the Crossroads Mall in April of 1992. In fact, I started the day after Easter and had just seen Van Halen at the Civic Auditorium the night before. I made friends with my Assistant Manager Kevin. We shared a lot of the same musical likes. We both had grown sick of the “angry young man” stuff from Seattle. We would actually spend hours in the store listening to Fleetwood Mac Rumours and the Doobie Brothers greatest hits. We were scolded by our district manager because He wanted us to play something a little more current.  At this point, I became very disillusioned by the way TransWorld sold music. LP’s (or Records) were long gone by this time. It was all CD’s and Cassette tapes. But, my district manager always referred to it as “product”.  It was always “blah blah blah PRODUCT…blah blah PRODUCT!” As a music lover and collector, it was more than just a “product”
While I lived in Omaha, I had a whole handful of different record stores to go to on my days off. I would go to a handful of the Homer’s stores in Omaha. I would check out the cut-out bins at the stores in the malls. I would go to Dirt Cheap Recycled Sounds in the old market. Eventually, I was ….uh….fired from my job as manager at Tape World. They had a nicer term for “being fired” and I have since forgot what that term was. I went to work for Blockbuster video shortly after that. While I was there in Omaha, I got a phone call (or letter) that Dusty was putting together a newsletter for Dustys Records with pictures, new releases and back to the “Current Faves” list and would I like to be a guest contributor with my current list. I was more than happy to send back my list. I think about this time that Dusty started to use the phrase “Because the Music Matters” on the store T-shirts and advertising.  At least I seem to remember seeing that phrase written on the finished newsletter when it came in the mail.  This was definitely different than referring to it as just a “product”. But, that wouldn’t be just a one time call and correspondence from Dusty. A little later, Dusty called me in May of 1994 and said he had a job for me back in Kearney if I wanted it.  It didn’t take me long to think about it. I really liked Omaha. But, I realized that all the record stores and live shows that would come to Omaha were just a big financial temptation to me. I needed to go back to Kearney for some reason. It was calling me back. I missed my friends in Kearney and I missed Dustys Records too.
Dustys stayed open for another year after that and closed the doors in August of 1995.  The town of Kearney had become bigger with the chain stores of Target and Wal-Mart selling a lot of the mainstream albums of the day at a price lower than what we had at cost. The big mega media store of Hastings Music, Books and Videos had come to town in January of 1995. All those made a huge impact on Dustys. We employees were told that Dusty was closing the store and we would sell off all the in stock merchandise. No more ordering CD’s…nothing. It truly was a sad day. In those days, I would come into work around noon and work till close at 8 or 9. On that August day, I came to work and found the front door was locked at mid-day. I walked around the store, went in the back door and was told that Dusty had sold the remainder of the stock to another retailer. So, we needed to start boxing stuff up. We did and we did it fast. Dusty had some shelves in the back of the store that he kept some of his vinyl collection. He asked if I wanted the shelves. I took them home to my 3rd floor apartment and added my collection of 600-700 LPs to my new shelves.  Jayson (who I had worked with in GI) had been working at the Kearney store too. He had a handful of LP’s that he didn’t want anymore. So, I took those off his hands too. Of course, Dusty had stopped stocking LPs in about 88 or 89. I kept collecting. I ended up with about 700 titles in vinyl form. I had a decent turntable and would listen to many of them.
As I said before, when I had a day off from my jobs, I would find a way to seek out record stores and music.  I did that so much in Omaha and even Kearney and Grand Island.  What is really sad now is that there really isn’t a record store (or CD store) that stocks much of what I’m interested any more (especially in Central Nebraska).  With the advent of the internet, if we (as consumers) are interested in a new release, we can go online and research it. We can sample 30 seconds of songs from an album.  You can subscribe to Napster or Rhapsody for $10 a month and hear any number of albums either online or on a smartphone.  But, there is just something special about spending hours in a record store with big 12”X12” album covers. Nowadays, the only place that I can find the kind of music I want to hear on CD is at the Hastings Public Library.  They have an extensive CD library because someone donated their CD collection to the library in 2001.  From what I can see, the person who owned this CD collection, was a regular patron to Dustys because many of the titles we used to rave about are in the racks there. 

The idea of a “National Record Store Day” is a very noble idea. But, I think it’s just a little late.  Dusty sold out all of his Vinyl LPs back in 1988-1989 to convert it all to CD’s and Cassettes. Back then, I held on to a “Vinyl is awesome” mentality.  Then, I caved and bought a CD player and a decent stereo to listen to it.  Eventually, I replaced most of my favorite LPs with a CD copy.  Then, I realized my BIG RECORD COLLECTION was some kind of ploy to impress somebody. Was I trying to impress Bob and Forrest. They live in Seattle now! Was I trying to impress some music fanatic I had yet to meet….or was I just trying to impress myself.  I did enjoy a lot of the stuff I owned. But, a lot of it I didn’t.  So, I sold most of it to the Antiquarium in Omaha.  I knew what I liked and most of the stuff I liked, I had a CD copy of it. I had gone many years of not listening to some of this stuff.  I have an ironic story about the day I got rid of my remaining records.  I had packed up my car with the remaining LPs and drove to Omaha.  I had to find a parking spot close and yet lug all my remaining LPs to the store.  At the time, my wife and I had separated and heading towards a divorce. While I was lugging boxes, my cell phone rang and it was her.  She basically had to tell me something wonderful our small son had done.  It was at that moment I realized that my son had become more important than having a ton of music and trying to impress someone with how many records I had.  He didn’t care.  He was just happy to have me as his Daddy!

Do, I miss having access to some of those old records? Yes I do.  A few months after I had sold my albums, my old friend Mick told me there was a turntable with a USB cord to convert old LPs to Digital….DOH! 
I look at the experience of hanging out at record stores like those childhood times of wonderment.  Among those experiences are going for Ice Cream with my older sisters and parents in the family station wagon, stocking up on sacks of candy from the candy counter and take them to Saturday movie matinees.  I feel like an old man reminiscing about record stores and the glory days of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.  But, these are events from my childhood that still seem special because they really aren’t there anymore.  I can’t think I’m alone with these memories.