{"id":1048,"date":"2012-07-17T08:51:05","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T12:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westwoodvalley.com\/?p=1048"},"modified":"2012-07-17T08:51:05","modified_gmt":"2012-07-17T12:51:05","slug":"my-musical-evolution-part-128-academy-days-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wrharrison.com\/musicalevolution\/2012\/07\/17\/my-musical-evolution-part-128-academy-days-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"My Musical Evolution – Part 128 Academy Days Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Asia\"<\/a>I bought Asia’s first album completely cold. I never heard of them. I never heard any of the music on the album before I owned it. I bought Asia because a girl told me to. Well it was more of a suggestion. If you have been following along, you’ll remember that Vermont Academy is located in southeastern Vermont in a tiny little village. The closest records stores being many miles away. It made buying music difficult. There wasn’t an\u00a0Amazon.com then and I relied on Columbia House to buy music through the mail. It seems to antiquated as I look back but you had to work with what you had.<\/p>\n

One of the side effects of going to college prep school is that you are expected to take the SAT’s at least a couple of times.\u00a0 Authorized SAT testing centers like music stores, require some travel. One Saturday morning, Kelley Cota and I were scheduled to take the test at a high school in Springfield, Vermont.\u00a0 Kelley had a car and she drove us over there.\u00a0 After the test, we decided to take advantage of being in a town that actually sold music. We went to this little plaza to a place called Ames<\/em> or something it was like of like\u00a0a miniature\u00a0version\u00a0of a department store that was heavy on hardware and building supplies. Maybe I’m dreaming it has been 30 years.<\/p>\n

I remember sifting through the cassettes. I wasn’t looking for anything specific and I wasn’t finding it. I was determined to get something though. The opportunity was here and I was compelled to act on it.\u00a0Kelley suggested Asia<\/em>. “They’re supposed to be pretty good.” is the sentence that hangs in my mind. I had known Kelley since middle school but I’m not certain that I knew anything about her musical tastes. Still, I trusted her judgement even though as I rconsider that sentence hanging in my mind, it certainly sounds like she hadn’t actually listened to them either.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Asia<\/em> ended up being a good choice and years later, I would figure out that all those guys were veterans from other good bands.\u00a0 Even though I like Asia<\/em> well enough, I don’t think I ever attempted to acquire any of the subsequent material. I think my soon to be room mate Aric had their second album but it didn’t seem to have that connection.<\/p>\n

Now, I still like Asia<\/em> but I don’t know if it it only because of the music or if it is another one of those albums that represents a solid connection to my life in Vermont all those years ago. It does foreshadow a trend that would be more commonplace in the CD era. This is most likely the beginning of Columbia House Roulette <\/em>style of music selecting where I get something\u00a0with\u00a0no knowledge of what lies there in. \u00a0 So I have Kelley to thank for Asia<\/em> and whenever I listen to this album, I cannot help but think of her, SAT’s, Ames and Springfield on a cold Saturday morning. Cheers Kelley!<\/p>\n

Heat Of The Moment<\/em>
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