Mapping Influences Over Time
An interesting side effect to mom buying KISS ralbums for me is that she felt compelled by fairness to also purchase records for my sisters. I’m not certain what factors guided my sisters tastes in records. We all started on the same batch of Scratchy 45’s. I’ll have to ask them how it happened. All …
Continue reading “My Musical Evolution – Part 63 Barb Goes Manilow”
Like the Disney albums that we discussed at the beginning of the year, mom had a bunch of classic Christmas albums that she got by filling up her gas tank at Gulf stations or Texaco or something. She had Bing Crosby’s Merry Christmas and maybe 7 or 8 other Christmas compilations featuring the greats like …
Continue reading “My Musical Evolution – Part 62 Did I Mention Mom’s Christmas Albums?”
All through 6th grade, KISS was a large part of the conversation. We would even figure out ways to insert KISS into our assignments in class. KISS make up was being drawn on everything from blackboards to notebooks. At that time, I never knew when a new album was going to be in stores. I’d …
Continue reading “My Musical Evolution – Part 61 The KISS Age”
And now for something completely different. I’m at a point where I’ve moved on past the Scratchy 45 days and into the KISS Age and I remember a few things that I should have discussed. Of course this will put the chronology even further out of whack but in the interest of being thorough, I …
Continue reading “My Musical Evolution – Part 60 Did I Mention Monty Python?”
It was a late summer evening in a quiet village in southeastern Vermont. My aunt would often listen to WHOM broadcasting from High on Mount Washington. It was an early NPR type station that would run Star date with Joel Block and various classical and unsual musical choices. This next one was so unusual in …
Continue reading “My Musical Evolution – Part 59 Agony by İlhan Mimaroğlu”
My school mates and I all seemed to share this fascination with KISS. It would manifest itself in a bunch of unpredictable ways. A guy named Ricky would collect a handful of ketchup packets [maybe it was catsup in the public school system] from the school lunch. As we walked home from school, he would empty …
Continue reading “My Musical Evolution – Part 58 The KISS Age Meets Elementary School & The Devil”
It is hard to describe the KISS explosion of 1976. KISS had been a band for a little over three years at that point so it while I’m sure it didn’t feel like an overnight sensation to the band, it sure seemed like that from my perspective. I’ve given this some considerable thought and I …
Continue reading “My Musical Evolution – Part 57 The KISS Age Meets Paul Lynde”
It was about this time that my dad got remarried and I suddenly had an older Step Brother. Dan was a year or two older. He had KISS Originals but wasn’t quite as enamored with KISS as I was. Still there are a few songs that he was into that I can recall. His presence …
Continue reading “My Musical Evoution – Part 56 A Short Term Step Brother”
So much happened in that tiny window of time from our nations bicentennial in 1976 to my first day of middle school in Bellows Falls, Vermont in the fall of 1977. Jaws, Star Wars, Rocky, my dad got remarried, skate boarding took off, Disco was on the rise and the Scratchy 45 Days were over. …
Continue reading “My Musical Evolution – Part 55 Scratchy 45 Days”
I’ve send it before and here I am saying it again. Some songs are linked to people. Some songs are linked to events. Some somgs are linked to moments in time. I mentioned earlier that after I finished 4th grade, I went to Vermont and spent the entire summer with my cousins at my Aunt …
Continue reading “My Musical Evolution – Part 54 Summers In Vermont”