Music Studies: Part 1

Cinderella, The Disney Soundtrack: LP[1]

Bobby Vinton’s All-Time Greatest Hits: 8-track[2]

Shaun Cassidy: Da Do Ron Ron & Hey Deanie: 45[3]

Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and Grease soundtrack: LP[4]

Donna Summer: Bad Girls[5]

Cyndi Lauper: She’s So Unusual; Men at Work: Business as Usual; John Cougar: American Fool[6]

My Wham! and Duran Duran stage[7]

My early metal stage: Early to mid eighties[8]

My middle metal stage: Mid eighties[9]

My late metal stage: Late eighties to early nineties[10]

The grunge stage: Early nineties[11]

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[1] My very first memory of an LP spinning on a turn-table. The only sound I remember is the mice singing.

[2] Also the first concert I ever attended. I think I may have been wearing a blue velvet dress, which was apropos. I was taken up on stage to meet him.  I must have been around six years old. I wore out this 8-track in my grandfather’s powder blue Cadillac, circa 1975(ish).

[3] My first crush. Why him?

[4] Also the first movies I remember seeing as a child.

[5] Disco Fever? I guess I had it. Anyway, what did I know about prostitution and lust? It had a good beat and you could dance to it.

[6] Purchased with a penny, plus shipping and handling, from Columbia House Records along with seven other selections, which I don’t remember.

[7] I categorize this as my dawning of sexuality wherein my musical tastes were greatly influenced by the comeliness of the musicians. I remember hearing Wild Boys on the stereo in my mom’s bedroom and thinking the song was edgy. I watched MTV for hours just waiting for the Careless Whisper video because George Michael made me feel funny inside.

[8] It was really just a more rebellious form of discovered sexuality. In particular, I recall Mötley Crüe’s Shout at the Devil as figuring prominently in my regular playlist. My first concert attended without grown-ups was a Ratt/Poison show. Some creepy guy grabbed my butt; I tried to bend back his fingers. My musical tastes at this time also seemed to be influenced by the attractiveness of the musicians. Apparently, I liked men who wore make-up.

[9] Ozzy Osborne’s Bark at the Moon, Diary of a Madman; Judas Priest: Defenders of the Faith; Anthrax: Among the Living; Dio: Holy Diver; any and all Led Zeppelin, especially 1, 2 and 4; Metallica: Ride the Lightning; Master of Puppets; Helloween: Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I; Some Exodus and Testament; Some Rush; Guns n’ Roses: Appetite for Destruction; Van Halen; Skid Row: Scorpions…etc. etc…I can’t take much of this seriously anymore; however, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and Van Halen still rock. On the other hand, nostalgia makes some of this music bittersweet. Oh, and Metallica is still great to work out to.

[10] Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime; Mr. Big: Lean Into It: Badlands: Badlands: My phasing out of metal was gentle since I still loved rock and roll. On the other hand, Edie Brickell emerged on the scene and I discovered something with a little more hippie soul. Then grunge took over. And Nine Inch Nails. New, different anger.

[11] Driving to Community College listening to Alice in Chains; Driving on the Taconic listening to Nine Inch Nails; Going to concerts at club I can’t remember where they played Evenflow by Pearl Jam so rocker girls could dance, Nirvana sounding like the future of music: that video for Smells Like Teen Spirit forever burned into my brain.