My Musical Evolution – Page 25 – Mapping Influences Over Time

My Musical Evolution – Part 173 The Metal Years Pyromania

What kind name is Def Leppard anyway. Is this another one of the Cum On Feel The Noize Moments. Did they mean Deaf Leopard or something more sinister?

My Def Leppard connection begins in Franke Park on the radio in mom’s Granada. It was a warm Autumn afternoon and I had gone to the park to have a Clove Cigarette. Before you get too concerned, it wasn’t about inhaling it was just a neat fragrance and an interesting taste that I was enjoying. I stood outside the car listening to the radio and Too Late For Love was playing. I had already made the jump from Night Ranger To Quiet Riot. Def Leppard sounded heavy as well.

There was something aboutToo Late For Lovethat really captured my attention. It is still one of my favorite Def Leppard songs. Maybe that is the Djarum’s talking.

I bought Pyromania as soon as I could and started to look for Def Leppard. It wasn’t too long before the videos started to show up. The question now was “is it really better to burn out than fade away?”

Photograph

Too Late For Love

Foolin’

Rock Of Ages

My Musical Evolution – Part 172 College Intermission Rebel Yell

Since I enjoyed Billy Idol’s previous record, I had to pick up Rebel Yell. It was full of stuff that was getting time on the radio and the music video shows.

Like Culture Club, this record gave me the impression that the record company was giving Billy Idol more attention. The difference being that where Culture Club seemed to lose somethng, Billy Idol was able to take it to the bank. The songs sound a little more polished and produced but they are still high energy pieces with pounding bass lines and percussion.

So it may not compare to the Styx, Kansas, and Boston that I was used to but it seemed to give me what i was looking for at the moment. As I scan the track listing, it seems like every track on this album made to the radio.

Listening to this again revives the feeling of living in my little basement room. I’m surprised about how much I miss the 80’s. I’m sure that music critics everywhere recall the early mid 80’s with disdain. If music could be measured objectively, perhaps the songs of the time would have low scores but fortunately, nobody knows why we like what we like.

Interesting that I tell you that I really enjoy all this music we’ve been talking about yet, I don’t go out of my way to listen to it on a daily basis. Why is that? I suppose that it is primarily because I listen to music most often in my office where I need to remain somewhat focused. I’ve accumulated a bunch of music that seems to help me do that but we’ll get to it later. I think this stuff is great for housework, yardwork or something physical. I’m afradi that it would be too much of a distraction to listen at work.

One thing I’m going to try to do from now on though is attempt to dedicate some time each week to play albums. No skipping, no shuffle, just complete albums. It is a lost activity that I’m going to try to revive.

Rebel Yell

Daytime Drama

Eyes Without A Face

Blue Highway

Flesh for Fantasy

Catch My Fall

The Dead Next Door

It was rellay difficult to leave any of them out but I did skip a couple.

My Musical Evolution – Part 171 College Intermission Cars & Stereos

My first car was a blue 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 very similar to the one pictured here. It was originally my Grandpa’s and he bought it new. It had some miles on it and it didn’t have power steering or seat belts but the body was in excellent shape. No seat belts. That seems like such an impossibility. To think that my passengers and I were completely unrestrained for entire time I had that car. The stero was a concern, it had one speaker and an AM radio. It was 1963 and who ever heard of FM?

I felt that I had to get at least FM in there and hopefully a cassette deck and thus began a phase of car stereo tinkering that would last until I sold it in spring of 1987. The first stero I put in it was ridiculous. It was an off the shelf K-Mart special that came with two rear deck speakers. At least it had AM/FM and cassette.

It was a chilly evening in the late autumn. I pulled the Galaxie into Grandpa’s garage and began to methodically follw the installation instructions that came with the stereo. I had never worked on a car before but it was too bad. The Galaxie is a huge car and there was plenty of space to get in behind the dashboard. I got the old AM radio out and fortunately, everything seemed be fairly standard so it all fit. That is until I got to the rear deck and the 6×9 speakers. I could see from inside the trunk that the frame was ready to accept speakers but not these “massive” 6×9’s. It looked like some 4×6’s would fit but I had 6×9’s so I MacGyvered a surface mount solution.

Everythng was ready. I started up the car and turned on the stereo. It worked and This is what was waiting for me.

Lionel Richie – All Night Long I had never been a fan of Lionel Richie or a follower of The Commodores but this song will always be treasured memory because of this experience. You know for a $50 K-Mart special, it was music to my ears.

It was miles ahead of where I was on the stock radio but it was still lacking in so many areas. It would be quite a bit more elaborate before I was done.

Human League – Don’t You Want Me

Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney – Say, Say, Say

Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

The Police – Every Breath You Take

My Musical Evolution – Part 170 The Metal Years Metal Health

OK so this is where My Musical Evolution splits into two parallel lines. It isn’t really the first time this has happened but the previous time during The KISS Age it was more of an overlap. This time, The Metal Years would plow along beside College Intermission, The Rise And Fall Of ’84, and into Roach Days Revisited.

For some reason, I feel the need to keep The Metal Years separated. I suppose, it could be divided up among those other eras. It just seems that all the stuff from The Metal Years belongs on its own. I think it best reflects the situation. I still liked the non-metal stuff we’ve been talking about, but the metal me was somehow different from the regular me.

As I imagined getting to this point, phrases like “descent to the depths” or “slide into oblivion” would pop into my head to describe me involvement with Heavy Metal. I think those are stereotypical leftovers. I didn’t feel like I was sliding into oblivion or descending to the depths of metal. It was quite the contrary, I felt empowered and energized. Listening to Heavy Metal was an aerobic activity. It compelled me to jump around, drum on things and play air guitar. I’m sure i wasn’t the only one. The 80’s incarnation of the metal scene was just about to explode.

I had heard Cum On Feel The Noize on the radio. It provided the next stepping stone from Night Ranger. It was a little louder, a little rougher and a little more raw. There were no keyboards, just guitars and drums and Kevin DuBrow’s screaming delivery. In some ways, it was returning to KISS type music. I think I pondered earlier if my attraction to this hard driving guitar oriented music was a by product of living in the concrete confines of the city.

Metal Health

Cum On Feel The Noize – I always found the unusual spelling annoying. Is that really necessary? They weren’t the only ones to try to demonstrate there individuality with spelling. Yeah Prince, I’m talking 2 U!

Breathless

Run For Cover

Thunderbird

My Musical Evolution – Part 169 College Intermission Colour By Numbers

At least in the song Karma Chameleon Boy George declares himself “a man” putting that debate to rest. I liked Culture Club well enough to buy Colour By Numbers. It has some good songs but I can see that while they gained support at the studio, they lost some of the magic.

I just just had a wicked feeling of déjà vu. Did I write those same words about another band? I’ll do a quick search. Nope, nothing cazme up. I swear just as I was typing “support at the studio”, I had this eerie feeling that I had dreamt this exact moment.

Of course what you just missed was a short circuit in my posting interface that wiped out what I had just done so now it is more than déjà vu. I actually did just do this before. Should I take this as some kind of sign?

I still maintain that Culture Club was one of those “made For MTV” groups, that had an brightly colored look that was accentuated by Boy George who had a signature look all his own.

I’d be lying if I said that I don’t miss the bright colors we wore back in the 80’s. It seemed to make everything seem more lively and fun.

Karma Chameleon

Church of The Poison Mind

Miss Me Blind

My Musical Evolution – Part 168 College Intermission Music Journal

Have I suggested that you keep a Music Journal? I’ve been tracing My Musical Evolution for 7 full months now. It has been more fun than it probably sounds. This isn’t the first time that I wished for documentation. I really wish that when I was just beginning to get into music that I would have kept some kind of diary.

In it I’d have written what my favorite songs were on that day. Maybe I’d explain why I liked it or some details about how I heard it. If I purchased music I’d have recorded where I bought it, how much it was, what format [Cassette, Record Compact Disc] anything that was attached to it. As you can see, I think I can remember a good deal of it but there is nothing like good documentation! How different would this posts be if I had the written record as a reference?

The Police – Synchronicity II

Duran Duran – Hungy Like The Wolf

Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen Do you think that it is possible that Paddy On The Railway might have been a forerunner here?

Air Supply –Making Love Out Of Nothing At All

Michael Jackson – Beat It I realize after watching this that I completely forgot about that red zipper overloaded jacket! How can something like that be forgotten. You may not believe this put people actually had those and wore them around back then. Another thought that crosses my mind here is that the amazing success of his Thriller album could have been the first step to his self destruction.

The Fixx – One Thing Leads To Another

My Musical Evolution – Part 167 College Intermission Night Ranger

I have to laugh because at the time, I thought (You Can Still) Rock In America was a really heavy hard driving guitar song. Don’t misunderstand, I think it is a great song and Midnight Madness was a good album. It was certainly much more crunchy guitar oriented than the stuff I was listening to. You can definately tell that people had heard of Eddie Van Halen by this point. The guitar solos got faster and more frenetic with fret play tricks.

I have long felt that this album, Midnight Madness was the first baby step towards the metal years. Granted I would not consider Night Ranger heavy metal but they pointed me in that direction with pounding drums and guitar heavy anthems that promote fist pumping and turned average tennis racquets into blazing air guitars.

Sure they had some girl oriented songs like Sister Christian and When You Close Your Eyes, but it was still one of the more rocking albums that I owned by then. That was all about to change.

(You Can Still) Rock In America

Rumours In The Air

Sister Christian

When You Close Your Eyes

My Musical Evolution – Part 166 College Intermission Cargo

As you already know. I had Cargo back on Space Mountain. It was still fairly new when I got back to Indiana. Listening to Blue For You or Settle Down My Boy would make me sad and miss my friends in Vermont.

Other tracks were starting to get airplay on the local radio stations. It is for that reason that songs like Dr. Hekyll & Mr. Jive, Overkill and Upstairs In My House seem to belong here in College Intermiassion.

I don’t want you to think that I was moping about in the fog of some heavy depression. While it was true that I was missing my old life. I was still enjoying myself. It was a pretty major adjustment though. Video games had replaced Dungeons & Dragons and going to the mall replaced the trails through the forests. I tried to hike around the local park but it was not too satisfying, still I liked being in the park because it was the closest I was going to get to my green mountains.

As I tried to adapt, I would wonder what life would have been like if I had gone on to UVM like Adam and some of my other friends. Would I have ever come back to Indiana? Would a career take me someplace else? It wouldn’t be long before I’d shift away from music like Men At Work embrace the madness of Heavy Metal.

Dr. Hekyll & Mr. Jive

Overkill

Upstairs In My House

No Sign Of Yesterday

My Musical Evolution – Part 165 College Intermission Cruising & Arcades

When I play back these MTV/Radio hits of the College Intermission, I keep getting flashes of cruising around in mom’s Granada. Perhaps that says more than I first realized. Mom’s car had AM/FM but no cassette option. That would mean that riding around in mom’s car was a radio only affair. Makes sense. i can’t imagine going anywhere without the radio on.

Back then, the mall had a skaiting rink and at least to video game arcades. I seem to recall feeiling kind of lost in the city. Playing my old video game favorites was a good diversion. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to walk into an retro-arcade that is stocked with all my old favorites. I’m not talking about those emulators but the actual units that I played back then.

Human League – (Keep Feeling) Fascination

Pat Benatar – We Belong

Naked Eyes – Promises, Promises

Howard Jones – Things Can Only Get Better

The Pretenders – Back On The Chain Gang

My Musical Evolution – Part 164 College Intermission John Mellen Cougarcamp

I have the North Side High School girls volleyball team from the fall of 1983 to blame for my owning American Fool by the artist formerly known as John Cougar. I’ve tagged him as John Cougar Mellencamp so that it covers all the bases.

As you know i have two younger sisters. Barb is almost 3 years younger, Bethany is 6 years younger. One of the duties I had when I moved back home was to provide transportation for my little sisters. It wasn’t too bad and in fact it was kind of fun. Ask Bethany about doing donuts in the parking lot at Gateway Plaza.

On the night before I bought American Fool, I was asked to go to pick Barb up. She was attending a volleyball party. It was a sleepover but for some reason Barb had couldn’t stay there all night. It must have been around 11:00 pm or so when I went to pick her up. The house was in that fancy neighborhood just off State street between Crescent and Anthony. The homes reflect the upscale sensibilities of the 1930’s with striking architecture and manicured lawns. I parked in the driveway and went to the door. The mother of the house opened it. I told her that was there to collect my sister Barb. She tells me they are downstairs. I take the stairs down to an amazingly finished basement where there are at least two dozen high school girls is various degrees of skimpy night attire. The stereo is blasting Hurt So Good and they are all singing along and dancing about. It could have been one of those teen movies. Needless to say, I was impacted.

The next day I went to Wooden Nickel and bought American Fool and or a couple of weeks Hurt So Good was my favorite song. I had never heard of John Cougar but Hurt So Good is actually a pretty good song even without the visual.

Hurt So Good

Jack And Diane It is an interesting but sad notion that “life goes on long after the trill of living is gone.”

Hand To Hold On To