Monday, January 17, 2011
1982: Kiss - Creatures of the Night
It's only appropriate that I start listing albums of the time starting with one of my favorite bands of all-time... Kiss.
Little did I know that this would be the last Kiss album with makeup for the next 16 years. When I was two years old, I wasn't too familiar with Kiss yet, but they would grow to become one of my favorite bands. Creatures of the Night featured I Love It Loud, Creatures Of The Night, and ballad I Still Love You.
How does a two year old get into Kiss? My brother Tommy was pretty big into Kiss. It seemed as if he idolized Gene Simmons, as Tommy played bass in his and Mike's band: Defiance. My brothers were my biggest musical influences as a kid. I really looked up to both of them, and I wanted to like the music they liked.
Visually in Kiss, I tended to gravitate towards Kiss lead guitarist Ace Frehley. He wielded a sunburst Gibson Les Paul that smoked and shot rockets. Like a super hero. What kid wouldn't dig that!? It made me want to play guitar... and eventually it made me crave a Gibson Les Paul! Ace was probably one of the first musicians I could name. Ace or Eddie Van Halen, lol. I'd come to find out as a teenager that Creatures of the Night was the last album Ace Frehley would be recorded on. From '82 until '96, Ace would go on to partake in a mediocre solo career... without makeup. Today, guitarists like Buckethead and John5 keep their little costumes and facial appearance long after they leave their original band. I'm sort of glad Ace didn't take his with him.
Ironically, Ace was pretty much out of the band when this was released. Vinny Vincent replaced him, and had a different makeup getup. If you bought this CD in the 90's it would have a photo of the band without the makeup, and the guitar player as Bruce Kulick! Talk about confusing if you don't know your "Kisstory!"
I used to think "when I grow up, I want to be a deer hunter... or Space Ace (Frehley)." I didn't want to be a doctor, a racecar driver or a garbage man. I don't think my brothers even owned this album... but they owned previous records cut before I was born that you would recognize: Kiss Alive!, Destroyer, etc. Kiss really had the total package: music, imagery, and entertainment that defined rock and roll for me as a kid.
Friday, January 14, 2011
The Living Room, The Piano & The Entertainer
My older brother Mike was in highschool around this time. He played piano quite a bit, and was very creative in both music and drawing. Once the braces came off, Mike came into his own. He was also really passionate about birds. (Aside from music, I could probably write an autobiography based on all the different pets we've had over the years.) Mike and my dad constructed a "bird room" downstairs with countless birds. He had a job briefly at this pet store that specialized in exotic birds. Who wouldn't dig that!?
Mike was a pianist, lead singer of their highschool band, drove a motorcycle (runs in the family), and had who I thought was the prettiest girl in the highschool. Mike wanted to be doctor, and whenever I had a stomach ache or something, he'd tell me he's going to be a doctor - and say what was wrong with me and I'd be better soon. Yet other times, he would say he's on the phone with the President (Reagan at the time) and that I needed to be quiet. Once I actually got to talk to the President! I'm pretty sure now it was really his buddy Brian. Brian is Mike's best friend, also a great drummer. He was the first person I ever saw (in person) dunk a basketball. The whole talking to the President bit was positive reinforcement and a great method for child control... much better than other kids who probably heard "if you don't shut up I'm going to drop you off at the orphanage!"
Our piano was pretty standard, but what I'd call nice. It was located in the corner of our formal living room that we pretty much only used for Christmas. The furniture in our living room (from the '70's) was hard and somewhat uncomfortable. Maybe because it was bought new and rarely used. There was framed artwork that looked like images of old Greek ruins, and gold wall-mounted candles with glass jewels hanging from them. Pretty much imagine your Great Grandma's living room or decor you could now find at a Good Will or Salvation army. In the 70's, this was fancy stuff. I remember there was a large gold duck on an end table, it looked like some sort of idol. The top of the duck came off to serve as some kind of ashtray. The shag carpet on the floor was an orange-ish red. The living room wasn't all that "happening" of a place in the house unless Mike was playing the piano.
When I was able to to walk and or run.... I would go into our living room and listen to Mike practice his piano. The bench seat on the piano opened, and all the sheet music was stored there... TONS of music sheets and music books. I remember looking at them in awe. It was like Mike knew some foreign language that nobody else could read, and instead of speaking it out loud, he played it on the piano! As a child, you see books... and if it's not all pictures, you get confused. Sitting on my Dad's lap at night while he read the newspaper was understandable because there were funnies, and other images. But sheet music? It was unrecognizable to a child as something one could read.
The fact that nobody else in the house touched the piano added to the mystique. At this time, I was under the assumption that Mike had single-handedly figured out how to decipher a secret code that isn't defined by images or words... or even colors for that matter. I could hand him a different sheet and he'd play a different song. When I touched the piano, it didn't make the same sound as it did when Mike did. Kids banging on a piano is utter chaos! To this day, I cannot officially read sheet music. I can make sense of A, D, etc. on the staff, but what key to hit on a piano? No clue!
The one song I remember him playing most was The Entertainer. I have vivid memories of that song among all others. There was a long coffee table in front of the couch. And I'm not sure if this was "every time" or just once... but I remember running as fast as I could around the coffee table while he played The Entertainer. Just running laps. I'm not sure if that's what I did instead of dancing, but I remember it was what I felt was most appropriate.
As the youngest in the family, I never realized if I bothered him, or invaded his personal/creative space. I know as a guitar player, privacy is at a premium when you're trying to compose something new or build playing skills. As an older sibling, there's also the dimension of your little brother's well being. If I cracked my head open while he was playing, would it have been his fault for not watching me? I'm unsure if these things were going through his head, and they are things I never had to deal with because I was the youngest. I'm not sure how I would deal with those situations, but Mike never seemed unwelcoming, annoyed, or frustrated with my presence... and that I'm truly thankful for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEmu9qxfgEk
Monday, January 10, 2011
Mr. Yuk is MEAN. Mr. Yuk is GREEN
Starting in the 1970's a very popular sticker campaign called Mr. Yuk came out. American households would put these stickers in their medicine cabinets, in closets, and under kitchen counters... anywhere cleaning supplies, chemicals, or medication was stored. Kids are taught when they see the sticker to not touch, smell or taste anything near it. It really worked wonders with me. The sticker makes you copy the yukky face and know to stay away. Although I don't remember the theme song from the commercials, Tommy said the song used to freak me out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLsONa3gKIQ&feature=player_embedded#!
I did have an episode with poisonous things around the house, but it wasn't in the medicine cabinet or with nasty chemicals. It was in our formal living room. There was a Jerusalem Cherry tree in that room. While not life threatening to people, it's still piousness enough to make a child pretty sick. After looking up info on this, it is pretty poisonous to dogs, cats, and birds. So one day one of my sibling or my mom found me in the living room with red cherries smeared all over my face, clothes, etc. It probably looked like a gorged myself upon them like a rat in a circus dumpster. I was rushed to the doctor's office. My brother Tommy carried me in. I vaguely remember the doctor giving me a dixie cup of something to drink. Per my brother's recollection, I was going to ask for some more - but before I could finish, I started vomiting all over the place. They found there were no cherries in my system. I didn't eat any, but I made a big enough mess of them. Our family has plenty of vomiting stories... I think of this one whenever I see the Mr. Yuk theme song, or see one of the stickers. YUK!
Friday, January 7, 2011
1979-1981 the basement, the car, and up north
Much of the music I heard in the early days of my life obviously was not played by me, rather, my family. I have to older brothers, Tommy and Mike; and my older sister Amy. Tommy and Mike shared half of the basement of our house growing up and used it for thier bedroom. As a kid, you're afraid to go downstairs unless there's a light on. When my brothers were down there, I knew it was safe. No Gremlins. I used to run down there whenever I heard loud music. Although their record collection wasn't huge, what they had was really really good. My earliest remembrances of music were in that basement.
The Car
One distinct early memory of music was in my mom's 1977 Grand Prix: white vinyl hardtop and T-tops... cherry red. Very hot car. She had the radio up, and and 101.1 WIXX Green Bay/Fox Cities was on. It was a catchy call sign and these people would always sing the name of the station on the radio. It was probably the first radio station I could name. I was riding in the Grand Prix and listening to WIXX when my mom got pulled over by a cop. She turned off the radio. I must have had no idea what was going on, but I think she told me to be quiet. I have no idea how young I was when this happened.
This was the first time I saw a woman talk her way out of a speeding ticket! It surely wouldn't be the last. I remember the cop looking at me to. Probably the first cop I ever saw that wasn't on TV. I was in a baby seat in the back. Remember this story when 1989 entries come along and she does it again. I still don't understand how women, especially my mom have this talent of talking their way out of traffic violations.
101.1 WIXX
Up North
The jukebox in bars around the Wisconsin Northwoods provided much of my early music listening. My parents enjoy countless weekends in the Wisconsin Northwoods. In the late 70's, my dad bought a cottage on a point of a lake. He wanted to buy this cottage ever since he was very little. Some of my aunts and uncles had cottages and trailers on the lake as well. The attached garage was transformed into a summer home for my grandparents. After I was born in '79, I would soon be spending much of my summers and weekends 'up north.' Our value of family was unmeasured up north. Among the activites we did as a family: horseshoe tournaments, fishing, campfires and "UN-GA's" (newspaper parachutes that fly when lit on fire), and hunting... the activity that really stood out was the pontoon boat.
We as an extended family (aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins) would gather on my dad's pontoon boat. Since there wasn't many seats on it, many family members brought lawn chairs. The big thing to do in my early years was to go "bar hopping" in the pontoon boat. There were many bars on the lakes's shore. We would park the pontoon, drink, play some pool or this contraption called a "Humstrum" (or party fiddle) and move on to the next bar. The jukeboxes in the bars up north were probably some of the earlier music I've ever been exposed to. Bands like Alabama, CCR, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers, etc. were mainstays on the jukeboxes up north. Of course I was too young to really take any of it in, I have vague memories of being VERY little and riding on an almost cap-sizing pontoon boat singing songs on a dark lake. As child, I would be "quizzed" on where Maa's tavern was across the lake and my dad would ask me to point to it. It was one of the few bars barely in plain sight from our cottage's shore, and it had a big red boat house that made it easy to distinguish even when you're little. How many other children could have told you where the nearest BAR is!?
Humstrum Party Fiddle
Saturday, January 1, 2011
1979 - Infancy and Family History
My grandpa was in a band, and played the drums. He also played the mandolin while my grandma played the harmonica. When my dad was training for the Vietnam War in San Diego during the late 1960's, he was playing acoustic guitar and mandolin. My mom would listen to songs over and over so she could write down the lyrics for my dad. While my mother always wanted to play guitar growing up, she learned the accordion. A local guy in northeast Wisconsin became notorious playing accordion, so many people started playing it. My aunt played electric guitar in an all girl band the late 50's.
Since I can remember, my extended family breaks into song almost every time we get together. They sing during campfires, boating, holidays, or sing after playing dice around a kitchen table. They even have songs that latch on to the end of "Happy Birthday." I would grow up to think this is normal, but even in hindsight there's not a whole lot of families that bust into song at the drop of a hat! This is something I would grow to value and look forward to.
Someone's in the Kitchen With Dinah
Disclaimer: while YouTube is a great tool for looking up songs, many of the above links are the closest I could get to accurate, but are not identical to the way I remember them.