My Musical Evolution – Page 24 – Mapping Influences Over Time

My Musical Evolution – Part 183 The Metal Years Into The Void

Brian was the one to introduce me to Black Sabbath. We were cruising around in his big old car one afternoon listening to our favorite metal music when all of a sudden the speaker on the floor at my feet began to ooze this black syrupy molasses type of music all over my shoes.

It was Sweet Leaf by Black Sabbath. For as much music as I had collected over the years, I’m still surprised at hwo some legendary acts like Sabbath had eluded me. At this time, even Pink Floyd was just Dark Side Of The Moon. Now this wasn’t Heavy Metal like I was accustomed to, you know Accept, Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard and such.

This seemed more medieval or mythological. I’m not sure if that was due to the sound of their music, the “Sabbath” in their name or the fact that they had been around for a relativlely long time already. The surely didn’t sound like the other metal bands with there buzz saw guitars and pounding bass and percussion. This was quite different. Heavy but maybe not so much metal. It was still an awesome sound to behold and I was quickly the owner of a couple of Black Sabbath albums. There are some classic here.

Sweet Leaf

Children Of The Grave

Orchid

Into The Void

My Musical Evolution – Part 182 The Rise & Fall Of ’84 First Serious Prolonged MTV Exposure

Lisa was an uptown girl living on the reasonably affluent northeast side of town. It was a fairly modern sub-division where all the streets either end in cul-de-sacs or have gently sweeping curves. Her parents were very nice and she had a little brother that was just waiting for somebody to teach him about Heavy Metal. Her house was on one such cul-de-sac. It might have even been the first time cul-de-sac entered my practical vocabulary.

I hung out with her at her home quite a bit during The Rise & Fall Of ’84.Something we did just about everyday was watch MTV. The young music channel was in it’s third year and you could tell that the artists and record company’s had learned a lot about making music videos in that time. The time of simply capturing a live performance had given way to big production pieces like Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

The art of the music video was fairly broad. Some were mature and cinematic others were corny and tried too hard to use the video technology that was emerging at the time. Media graphics have come a very long way since then. I really miss those old MTV days and I feel so fortunate that I was there to see it before it got too real world.

The Cars – You Might Think

Wang Chung – Dance Hall Days

Steve Perry – Oh Sherrie

Billy Joel -Tell Her About It

My Musical Evolution – Part 181 The Metal Years A Pledge Pin? On Your Uniform?

What do you think the odds are that these guys were KISS fans before they started their own band? The music scene in the 80’s used to be a spectacle. It was larger than life. It was music and performance art. Nirvana ruined this be being the poster child for the grunge movement. Up to then, acts like Twisted Sister, Mötley Crüe, and the like were just as interesting visually. With the rise of Nirvana, all that showmanship and spectacle was now ridiculed and all you got from a live show was a couple dozen Par Cans and 5 guys in their dirty laundry. We’ll get into this again when the 90’s come around.

With all that being said, I did feel that maybe Twisted Sister went in perhaps a smidge too deep. Stay Hungry became an early staple in The Metal Years but they were also one of the first to drop by the wayside. They were perfect for MTV and if I had been 8 or 10 years younger I might have been a bigger fan of Twisted Sister.

The songs on this album had the fast beat and distorted guitars with whammy bars. Dee Snider’s voice was perfect for the screaming delivery. Songs like We’re Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock were probably where a lot of 14 year olds made their way into their own Metal Years.

I don’t wish to demean Twisted Sister in any way. Listening to this album right now, I still like it. It takes me back in a pleasant way. I just can’t shake the feeling that they belong on Nickelodeon. I know they weren’t going for that, it just seems that way.

A few years later, I saw Dee Snider addressing the government in that whole Tipper Gore PMRC thing. I remember wishing that he had gotten some coaching from Frank Zappa before he went on. Snider was wearing denim, flipping the hair and letting it show that they were getting to him. By contrast, Zappa was in a suit, well manicured, stoic and elequent. In the public eye, I felt that Dee Snider was giving ammunition to the PMRC by reinforcing the stereotypes that were being presented.

Stay Hungry

We’re Not Gonna Take It

Burn In Hell – I remember seeing them do this song in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.

I Wanna Rock

The Price

My Musical Evolution – Part 180 College Intermission Stranger Here..Than Over Here

So now My Musical Evolution is rumbling along in the three simultaneous threads. The Metal Years deals with all that Heavy Metal music that I was so fond of. The Rise & Fall Of ’84 was all the music surrounding my relationship with Lisa and College Intermission is the music of the day as delivered by radio or MTV. It also includes music that I bought that did belong to the other two categories of this time.

Robert Plant’s The Principle Of Moments is a fine example. Although I had become much more aware of Led Zeppelin, this album was the first to be counted in my collection. It wouldn’t last long, Led Zeppelin II was in the mail from Columbia House.

Songs like In The Mood and Other Arms were making the rounds on the radio. Messin’ With The Mekon made me wonder if Plant had read Eric Van Lustbader’s Sunset Warrior Trilogy. The album has a nice steady delivery and is easy to listen to. Doesn’t really remind of Led Zeppelin in any way at all.

For me, though, the crown jewel on this album is Big Log. I can’t tell you what it is about as I may have mentioned before, I’m typically a lyrics last guy. For all I know, Big Log could be a ballad about Lumberjacks or worse lumberjacks on the toilet. If I could come up with a Top 100 songs list, I’m certain that Big Log would be in the top third at least.

I think Big Log is the best midnight road trip highway song there is. As soon as the first few notes reach my ears, I’m visualizing the dashed white lines slipping beside me in the glow of highbeams on a deserted interstate as I glide into the night.

Big Log

Other Arms

In The Mood

Thru With The Two Step

My Musical Evolution – Part 179 The Rise & Fall Of ’84 A Pair Of Chance Encounters

It is here that My Musical Evolution forks again into a third thread. On February 3rd, 1984 I ran into a guy that went to school with at Franke Park Elementary. Bob was going to IPFW as well. I hadn’t seem him since second or third grade. We chatted a bit and discovered that we both had old Galaxie 500’s his was a black 1962, mine a blue 1963. We both liked The Beach Boys. We decided to hang out that evening. Chance encounter number one.

The Beach Boys – Surfin’ USA

At 6:00, Bob came over and we took my car out to the usual places, video arcades and such. We played The Beach Boys and generally were having fun. Bob remembered that a friend of his girlfriend’s was having a party at her apartment on Hobson. We were close by so we went. At first it seemed kind of boring. I didn’t know anybody and I really wasn’t into it. Chance encounter number two. I meet a girl named Lisa. She was pretty and as it turned out a couple years younger than me. She was a junior in High School. I’m not sure what we could have talked about but whatever it was, it was working. It was getting late and she was missing her curfew. She gave me her phone number and told me to call. I would and as we kissed beside her car, The Rise & Fall Of ’84 began.

Billy Joel – Uptown Girl

My Musical Evolution – Part 178 College Intermission Delerious

Looking at these old videos and other 80’s related stuff, I’m reminded just how colorful the middle of the 80’s were. Maybe it was just the change of moving back to the city but it seemed like it happened very fast. It seemed to start in the fall of 1983 and last until some time in late 1986 or early 1987. It was this mashup of studs, lace, second hand accessories, briliant colors and big hair. Big hair makes it sound worse than it was. It was styled in a big way not big as in Big Government or Big Tobacco. Sometimes it got to be a little over the top but for the most part I loved the look.

I wish I had a digital camera back then so i could have thousands of photographs to document it all. As it was I had some crappy little camera and I couldn’t afford to get the film processed anyway. A shame really.

In November of 1983 I met Brian at the University. Brian was a year older than me and like me had started to drift into the Heavy Metal scene. He had a little head start on me and over the course of the next couple of years, he’d share some of his metal finds with me.

On the day we met, it wasn’t about metal. We had met by chance in the bowels of Kettler Hall. I was waiting for my afternoon class to begin as was he. Brian is a really funny guy and it wasn’t long before we were laughing about who knows what. After the 2:00 class, he was meeting a girl. A few of them were going back to her house for a little afternoon party. He asked me to join. It sounded fun so after class we reassembled and convoyed to her place in a reasonably scary neghborhood on the southeast side of town.

There were about 5 of us and it was a good time like I hadn’t had in a while. During the afternoon, this song came across the radio and I thought it sounded cartoonish but cool . Of course, Prince’s battle with YouTube means we have to approximate

Prince – Delerious

Golden Earring -Twilight Zone

Stevie Nicks – Stand Back

Duran Duran – Is There Something I Should Know

Lionel Richie – Hello

My Musical Evolution – Part 177 The Metal Years Balls To The Wall

The Metal Years continue with Accept who were a little heavier than Mötley Crüe. Coming out of Germany, they brought with them a certain sense of mechanical industry. With guys with names like Udo Dirkschneider screeching those lyrics in a German accent, how could it not be metal.

The only thing they were missing was the little dots over the vowels. Accept was a natural next step in my metal progression. They weren’t so far off the path to be shunned by the radio but they were certainly the heaviest metal that I had encountered up to this point.

The Balls To The Wall album was full of fast heavy sounding songs that were designed to be played very loudly. Really. I’m listening to Fight It Back right now and i can’t imagine trying to enjoy this song at low volume on a quiet afternoon.

Again, I’m no expert but from the stuff I was listening to, it seemed that Accept were one of the pioneers of what would later be called speed metal. Sure they were as fast and furious as Metallica but they seemed to be headed in that direction.

I know I mentioned “mechanical industry” earlier. I don’t know what else to call it. It feels like cold war stuff with loads of copper pipes and pressure gauges. Steampunk metal.

Balls to The Wall

London Leather Boys

Fight It Back

Turn Me On

Losers And Winners

Winterdreams

My Musical Evolution – Part 176 College Intermission Van Halen

The Devil seemed to be getting some attention during this period. We were Shouting at him one minute then Running with him the next. Contrary to what people may have assumed based on my musical tastes, I have never been involved in anything remotely Devil-ly. No rituals, no sacrifices, no dark robes etc.

By the time I bought my first Van Halen album, they already had 5 and the next one was due any minute. I didn’t feel like I was late to the party but I guess I was. I had heard of Van Halen and the amazing guitar techniques of Eddie Van Halen.

Actually, I did hear a part of a Van Halen song as sung my a kid taunting my cousin. This must have been shortly after the release of their debut album. My cousin’s name is Jamie and this kid used to singather “Oh no! Jamie’s cryin’ Wah-Wah” Isn’t it weird how sometimes it takes 5 years to connect the unconnectable dots?

Van Halen must have really likedThe Kinkswhen you look at the covers. I may have been late to the Van Halen party but I felt vindicated when I would show people the original Kinks version of Van Halen songs.

There is this temptation to include Van Halen with The Metal Years. I’ve resisted because although they have some of the characteristics, they really aren’t. I would eventually end up with a large portion of their catalog but this album and 1984 were the ones that got the majority of my affection.

One last note on this album. I was on my second or third iteration of my car stereo. I had added an amp with a graphic equalizer and a few more speakers. One sunny day, I was driving downtown. I have no idea why. Driving downtown was not common. I had Atomic Punk absolutley blasting on the stereo when all of a sudden — silence. I blew all my speakers.

Runnin’ With The Devil

You Really Got Me

Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love

Jamie’s Cryin’

Atomic Punk

Ice Cream Man

Here again I find myself wondering why I haven’t been listening to great old stuff like this more often. Van Halen was a lot of fun and I’d see them live in July of 1984 so stay tuned for that.

My Musical Evolution – Part 175 The Metal Years Looks That Kill

Mötley Crüe, another metal band suffering from diaeresis. I really did escalate into what was known then as Heavy Metal. It didn’t have anything to do with the magazine, movie or soundtrack that I loved so much.

Mötley Crüe was a little faster and more edgy than Def Leppard. I was quietly building up a collection of metal records. Another thing thatMötley Crüe brought to the table was stuff made of leather with spikes on it. Looking back it was all so juvenile but at the time, there was nothing more serious. The guitars sounded like power tools systematically dismantling the barriers of destruction. Looking at some of these earlier videos, it certainly leaves the impression that these guys were KISS fans when they were younger.

I think by the time I got to Mötley Crüe, I knew that I was into heavy metal music and began to seek it out. While I still continued to enjoy other types of music, Heavy Metal was where I was beginning to spend most of my time.

I still find it amusing that the heavy metal of the 1980’s seems so tame compared to some of the stuff I would hear in the 90’s and beyond.

Shout At The Devil

Looks That Kill

Too Young To Fall In Love Ha, I remember when this video “debuted” on MTV. They made a big deal about it.

Knock ‘Em Dead, Kid I saw then twice on that tour.

Ten Seconds To Love

My Musical Evolution – Part 174 College Intermission Hall & Oates

I never bought any Hall & Oates records until just a few years ago I bought a Greatest Hits CD. I wasn’t too crazy about them but I felt that I had to get their Greatest Hits because there were so many on the radio during the College Intermission. It seemed like they had a dozen different songs on the charts then. I didn’t like them enough to commit dollars to their music but listening to the CD, they really did have a good handle on the pop song.

Hall & Oates is one of those bands that I kind of feel sorry for. They were wildly popular in 1983-84 but they seemed to drop into obscurity so quickly. What is that makes bands like Pink Floyd live forever while Hall & Oates seemed to disappear? How does a group like REO Speedwagon cope with the fact that they sold out the Coliseum in 1984 and now are playing Pierre’s.

My brother-in-law Dan actually met Hall & Oates when he was a manager for a Cracker Barrel in western Ohio. Hall & Oates ate dinner at his store. Apparently at that time Cracker Barrel had a Celebrities Eat Free policy that Hall & Oates would take advantage of. Now this was probably 1997 or 1998 so it had been 15 years since Adult Education. They eat dinner and expect it to be free. Dan goes out to the table. Hall says “Celebrities still eat free at Cracker Barrel?” Dan says “Yes, who are you?” To which Hall replies “Thanks a f*ckin’ lot!” That story has always made me chuckle. Dan tells it better. It does underscore what I was saying about obscurity. To be fair though, I believe Oates had shaved the mustache by then.

I probably could have saved that until it was in sync with the time line but we won’t be visiting Hall & Oates again. They had a bushel of great songs that were catchy and popular, just not timeless.

Say It Isn’t So

Kiss On My List

You Make My Dreams Come True

Private Eyes

Adult Education

I Can’t Go For That

Maneater

One On One

See, you recognized all of these songs and were even singin along and dancing in your head.